The Senate passed HR 5623, which extends the mandatory closing date to qualify for the homebuyer tax credit. The contract deadline does not change – homebuyers must have a contract signed by April 30, 2010 (an exception for active duty military) – but the previous closing deadline of June 30, 2010, has been extended to [...]
Legislators propose raiding state trust funds to balance budget TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – March 31, 2010 – Facing a budget shortfall, Florida’s legislators are proposing raiding a controversial source of cash: trust funds, the accounts used to pay for everything from road building to health care to patching leaky gas pipelines. The funds typically earmark money [...]
We want to thank our customers. We’ve been very fortunate to have great customers. With each real estate transaction comes the opportunity for a rewarding friendship. Driving around town, seeing this home or that property with which we helped the sellers or buyers is like seeing old friends and family. It always yields a warm feeling of [...]
This Month in Real Estate November 2009 Commentary Budding signs of recovery continued last month. The encouraging news arrived in a number of closely followed economic indicators. On Thursday, October 29, the U.S. Commerce Department stated the country’s recession has officially ended, at least as leading data indicates. U.S. GDP expanded 3.5 percent in the third [...]
One in 20 Americans say they plan to buy a home within the next year, and they’re most likely to be 34 years old or younger and living in the South or West, according to a survey released Wednesday. Roughly a quarter of potential buyers said the No. 1 reason they would buy now is [...]
Here are some of the most frequently asked questions on the changes to the Homebuyer Tax Credit Question: Existing homeowner credit: Must the new house cost more than the old house? Answer: No. Thus, for example, individuals who move from a high cost area to a lower cost area who meet all eligibility requirements will [...]
More than 100 arrested for mortgage fraud TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Nov. 4, 2009 – A federal prosecutor says a crackdown on organized mortgage fraud this year has yielded 105 arrests from Jacksonville to Fort Myers. A. Brian Albritton, the U.S. attorney for Florida’s middle district, announced the results of the nine-month investigation at news [...]
Homebuyer tax credit best tool for sustaining housing recovery WASHINGTON – Oct. 8, 2009 – The best tool for sustaining the still-fragile housing market is the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit, and it’s essential that Congress extend the credit into 2010, the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) testified at a hearing of the U.S. House Small [...]
The IRS has released IR-2009-083 reporting that about 1.4 million taxpayers have filed (or amended) their 2008 income tax returns claiming the $8000 first-time homebuyer tax credit. This is roughly consistent with NAR’s projections that about 1.8 million taxpayers will claim the credit. NAR also estimates that at least 355,000 of eligible sales would not [...]