High Anxiety Over the $8,000 Home Buyer Tax Credit
High Anxiety Over the $8,000 Home Buyer Tax Credit
September 16, 2009, Wall Street Journal
Builders are so eager for an extension and expansion of the popular first-time home-buyer tax credit, they’re taking out ads. The National Association of Home Builders and other housing players this week launched a newspaper advertising campaign urging the extension of a program that the NAHB estimates has sparked more than 150,000 new and existing home sales this calendar year.
St. Joseph, Superagent in Real Estate
September 16, 2009, New York Times
Lord knows it’s rough out there in the housing market. Still, you had to feel bad for Patty Bonadies, digging with a spoon in the rocky soil in front of the new three-story colonial for sale at 7 Old Roaring Brook Road in search of the tiny statue of St. Joseph she had buried in hopes of helping the house sell. With the housing market still dismal, the Catholic tradition of planting a statue of him as a way to help a house sell is going like gangbusters online, in stores selling religious goods and elsewhere — even if home sales are not.
Bank Failures Remain a Serious Problem
September 21, 2009, CNBC
Not too long ago, a rash of bank failures would have been huge news. Now it seems they are part of the “new normal.” Ninety-two banks have been closed already this year (compared with fewer than 30 for all of last year), and more than 400 are being watched closely by the government for potential problems.
Buyers Pay 3% Premium for Foreclosures
September 21, 2009, Orange County Register
Steve Thomas at Altera Real Estate in Aliso Viejo reports that the number of O.C. distressed properties (homes listed by agents as foreclosures or short sales) was 2,384 last week, -132 vs. two weeks earlier or a -5.2% change. “The average sale to list price ratio for foreclosures over the past three months is 103%,” Thomas said. “That means that, on average, foreclosures are selling for 3% above the list price. The sale to list price ratio for short sales and equity sellers is 98%. And, if there weren’t so many appraisal issues, those numbers would be even higher. Buyers in the lower ranges should not expect to offer that much less than the asking price.”