Senate Plans to Extend and Expand Tax Credit

RISMEDIA, October 29, 2009—(MCT/The Wall Street Journal)-The Senate has reached a compromise on extending and expanding the $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers, a boost the housing industry believes will help it pull out of its two-year-old downturn.

While its passage remains uncertain, the agreement would extend the existing credit for first-time homebuyers, worth up to $8,000, while offering a new credit of up to $6,500 for some existing homeowners, Senate aides said. The reduced credit would be available to all homebuyers who have been in their current residence for a consecutive five-year period in the past eight years. Lawmakers in Washington also raised the qualifying income limits to $125,000 for single taxpayers and $250,000 for joint taxpayers, from the current $75,000 and $150,000, housing-industry sources said. Under the Senate compromise, buyers must have sales agreements in hand by April 30, but they will have until June 30 to go to settlement, said the sources. The measure still faces votes in the full Senate and the House.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan are in full support of the Senate’s proposal to both extend and expand the first-time homebuyer tax credit and called on Congress to approve key housing measures that include the tax credit. "We welcome efforts taken by Congress to extend the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit for a limited period. This credit has brought new families into the housing market and contributed to three consecutive months of rising home prices nationwide," said Secretaries Geithner and Donovan. "In extending the credit, we urge Congress to include strict measures to combat tax fraud and protect responsible homeowners.”

The current tax credit did little for the new-home market in September, the Commerce Department recently reported—news that took many industry analysts by surprise. Sales fell 3.6% from August and 7.8% from September 2008. Industry observers had expected a fifth consecutive monthly increase in new-home sales, believing that the tax incentive for qualified first-time buyers—credited with 357,000 sales of previously owned homes so far this year—would do the trick. Instead, sales of typically more expensive newly built houses slipped. "The decline in new-home sales seems to us to be more a function of the attractive pricing available on resales in the current environment than a reflection of weakening demand," said Michael Feder, president of Radar Logic in New York, which tracks the market.

"Since hitting rock bottom in March, demand is up 20 percent," said Joel L. Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisers in Holland, Pa. For Naroff, the robust rise in existing-home purchases—9.2% year over year in September—indicated that the housing market was not faltering. "Maybe the issue is supply, which fell to its lowest level in 27 years," he said. "Builders, at least those left standing, have been making sure they don't have any houses sitting around, and they have been very successful in controlling inventories."

IHS Global Insight economist Patrick Newport echoed that, noting new-home inventories "sank for the 29th straight month to their lowest level since November 1982." Naroff maintained housing has recovered enough to stand without the tax credit, but Newport said that if the credit were not extended and expanded, housing demand would take a hit, and home sales would drop.

The new provisions are aimed at broadening availability of the credit beyond first-time buyers and giving the weakened real estate market a bigger boost while preventing real estate investors from benefitting. While Senate lawmakers appear to have reached a deal on the substance of the tax credit, they are still at odds over how it would be brought to the Senate floor.

(c) 2009, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Number of Active & Sold Listings in the Phoenix-Metro Area (10/25/2009)

I will be posting the number of active listings in ARMLS (Arizona Regional Multiple Listing System) covering the Phoenix-Metro Area each week. Check back each week to see the updated numbers:

Total Active Listings - 32,235 (+309)

Single Family Detached - 24,884 (+287)
Patio homes - 698
Townhouses - 2,487
Apartment Style - 2,521
Gemini/Twin Homes - 280
Manufactured/Mobile Housing - 1,200
Modular/Pre-fab - 40
Loft Style - 125

Total Sold Listings (2009) - 74,586 (+1601)

Single Family Detached - 66,183 (+1395)
Patio homes - 816
Townhouses - 3692
Apartment Style - 2599
Gemini/Twin Homes - 409
Manufactured/Mobile Housing - 761
Modular/Pre-fab - 24
Loft Style - 102

Existing home sales rise more-than-expected

"Sales of existing homes rebounded sharply in September to their highest level in two years, getting a strong boost from first-time homebuyers, according to a report released Friday.

Sales of previously-owned homes jumped 9.4% in September after falling for the first time in four months in August, said the National Association of Realtors. Year over year, sales of existing homes were up 9.2% in September.

"Much of the momentum is from people responding to the first-time buyer tax credit, which is freeing many sellers to make a trade and buy another home," said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist."

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Existing home sales rise more-than-expected - Oct. 23, 2009

Number of Active & Sold Listings in the Phoenix-Metro Area (10/18/2009)

I will be posting the number of active listings in ARMLS (Arizona Regional Multiple Listing System) covering the Phoenix-Metro Area each week. Check back each week to see the updated numbers:

Total Active Listings - 31,926 (+213)

Single Family Detached - 24,597 (+114)
Patio homes - 693
Townhouses - 2,510
Apartment Style - 2,463
Gemini/Twin Homes - 270
Manufactured/Mobile Housing - 1,219
Modular/Pre-fab - 46
Loft Style - 128

Total Sold Listings (2009) - 72,985 (+1594)

Single Family Detached - 64,788 (+1380)
Patio homes - 808
Townhouses - 3599
Apartment Style - 2524
Gemini/Twin Homes - 403
Manufactured/Mobile Housing - 741
Modular/Pre-fab - 21
Loft Style - 101

Foreclosures hit record in third quarter 2009

"Despite concerted government-led and lender-supported efforts to prevent foreclosures, the number of filings hit a record high in the third quarter, according to a report issued Thursday.

"They were the worst three months of all time," said Rick Sharga, spokesman for RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed homes.

During that time, 937,840 homes received a foreclosure letter -- whether a default notice, auction notice or bank repossession, the RealtyTrac report said. That means one in every 136 U.S. homes were in foreclosure, which is a 5% increase from the second quarter and a 23% jump over the third quarter of 2008."

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Foreclosures hit record in third quarter 2009

Number of Active & Sold Listings in the Phoenix-Metro Area (10/11/2009)

I will be posting the number of active listings in ARMLS (Arizona Regional Multiple Listing System) covering the Phoenix-Metro Area each week. Check back each week to see the updated numbers:

Total Active Listings - 31,713 (+496)

Single Family Detached - 24,483 (+434)
Patio homes - 688
Townhouses - 2,453
Apartment Style - 2,444
Gemini/Twin Homes - 264
Manufactured/Mobile Housing - 1,205
Modular/Pre-fab - 45
Loft Style - 130

Total Sold Listings (2009) - 71,391 (+1303)

Single Family Detached - 63,408 (+1120)
Patio homes - 783
Townhouses - 3515
Apartment Style - 2455
Gemini/Twin Homes - 398
Manufactured/Mobile Housing - 712
Modular/Pre-fab - 21
Loft Style - 99

Big home sale spike in August, aided by tax credit

"Homebuyers signed more sales contracts in August than in any month this year, boosted by the looming expiration of a homebuyers' tax credit, according to an industry report released Thursday.

The August Pending Home Sales Index from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) surged 6.4%, the seventh straight month-over-month improvement in the indicator. The increase far exceeded economists' expectations -- a panel of analysts surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a 1% rise.

Pending home sales rose 3.2% in July."

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Big home sale spike in August, aided by tax credit - Oct. 1, 2009

Foreclosure blight: The cleanup crawls along

"A controversial $3.9 billion federal program aimed at saving neighborhoods blighted by foreclosure is hitting hurdles that could threaten its effectiveness.

The Neighborhood Stabilization Program, passed by Congress last year, gives states and localities money to acquire and rehabilitate abandoned properties. The big problem: officials are having trouble getting their hands on those houses, which are being scooped up instead by private investors and homebuyers at rock-bottom prices.

'Getting hold of the houses, especially the right houses, can be a lot harder than they thought,' said housing expert Alan Mallach, a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. 'They are finding there's a lot more competition for these properties, and they are losing out to investors.'"

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$4 billion has yet to save foreclosure-plagued communities

Number of Active & Sold Listings in the Phoenix-Metro Area (10/4/2009)

I will be posting the number of active listings in ARMLS (Arizona Regional Multiple Listing System) covering the Phoenix-Metro Area each week. Check back each week to see the updated numbers:

Total Active Listings - 31,217 (-139)

Single Family Detached - 24,049 (-49)
Patio homes - 678
Townhouses - 2,441
Apartment Style - 2,441
Gemini/Twin Homes - 251
Manufactured/Mobile Housing - 1,199
Modular/Pre-fab - 44
Loft Style - 113

Total Sold Listings (2009) - 70,088 (+2619)

Single Family Detached - 62,288 (+2278)
Patio homes - 762
Townhouses - 3430
Apartment Style - 2390
Gemini/Twin Homes - 396
Manufactured/Mobile Housing - 703
Modular/Pre-fab - 21
Loft Style - 98