I have to admit I like seeing more & more good news about the housing market.

1. First I heard Mark Zandi of Moody’s economy say that Seattle will be one of the first cities to have the housing market recover.
2. Then yesterday I read that the national average of home sold went up in Feb as compared to Jan. Economist were not expecting that.
3. Then today I read that Gus Faucher of Moody’s Economy.com says home sales will turn around by midyear and home prices will begin to recovering by the end of this year.

Then on top of news I am seeing some good signs personally.

1. 3 weeks ago my office had 3 new transaction start. One was a listing by an agent named Peggy Miller who got 2 offers on a listing in the same day after dropping the price. The other two were buyers working with agents in our office.
2. This week we’ve had one more transaction start
3. And an agent in our office tried to make an offer on two different homes in the past 2 weeks and each time they homes she was going to make an offer on either sold before they got the offer in, or had multiple offers on the home they wanted.

So even though prices are not up, I am definitely seeing more activity. And that’s positive!

I have recieved another email from Realtor’s outlining what has been signed by President Obama.

 

I will attach the entire email, but here are the bullet points

• $8,000.00 tax credit for people who buy a new home this year and who have not owned a home in the past 3 years
• The $8,000.00 tax credit does not have to be paid back
• FHA and conforming loan limits will be the same as 2008. (2008’s are listed below)
  • Single Family – $567,500
  • Two Family- $726,500
  • Three Family – $878,150
  • Four Family – $1,091,350

For more detail feel free to read the Realtor email below.

President Signs Economic Stimulus Measure!

February 17,2009 2pm

The $790 billion stimulus package signed by President Obama today increases the home buyer tax credit to $8,000, drops the repayment feature, reinstates last year’s 2008 loan limits for FHA, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae loans, and provides $2 billion in additional funding for states and localities to be used to purchase, manage, repair and resell foreclosed and abandoned properties. Many elements (listed below) included in HR 1 “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,” were supported by the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) as well as the many REALTORS® who sent call to action messages to Congress urging their support!

Homebuyer Tax Credit. The bill provides for a $8,000 tax credit that would be available to first-time home buyers (those who haven’t owned in at least three years) for the purchase of a principal residence on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009. The credit does not require repayment for buyers who hold onto their property for at least three years. Most of the mechanics of the credit will be the same as under the 2008 rules: the credit will be claimed on a tax return to reduce the purchaser’s income tax liability. If any credit amount remains unused, then the unused amount will be refunded as a check to the purchaser.

NAR has sought removal of the repayment requirement because it discourages buyers from taking advantage of the tax credit. The three-year minimum holding period is a safeguard against speculators’ use of the credit. The legislation also extends the effective date of the credit to December 1 from June 30, and extends eligibility to borrowers who buy their home with the help of state or local financial assistance that comes from the proceeds of tax-exempt mortgage revenue bonds.

The start date for the first time homebuyer credit is January 1, 2009 through and before December 1, 2009.

FHA and conforming loan limits. Specifics have not been released but reports indicate that the 2008 limits have been reinstated for 2009 except in those communities where the 2009 limits are higher. Additional increases in individual communities may also be available at the discretion of the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Foreclosure mitigation and neighborhood stabilization. Funding for states and localities to be used for neighborhood stabilization activities for the redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes are authorized. Some news reports put the funding level at $2 billion.

Rental assistance. Up to $1.5 billion to provide short-term rental assistance and other aid for families during the economic crisis.

Transportation infrastructure. Up to $29 billion for highway construction projects, $8 billion for rail projects.

Rural housing development. Increased funding for the Rural Housing Service direct and guaranteed loan programs.

Low-income housing grants. Allow states to trade in a portion of their 2009 low-income housing tax credits for Treasury grants to finance the construction or acquisition and rehabilitation of low-income housing, including those with or without tax credit allocations.

Tax-exempt housing bonds. Tax-exempt interest earned on specified state and local bonds issued during 2009 and 2010 will not be subject to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). In addition, financial institutions will have greater capacity to purchase tax-exempt state and local bonds.

Energy efficient housing. Grants for energy retrofits for federally assisted housing (Section 8), funding for energy efficiency and conservation block grants to states, increases in the residential tax credit through 2010 for certain energy efficient upgrades and $5 billion to weatherize low-income homes.

Greg Wright
2009 President
Washington REALTORS®

Last week ended as the week from hell. There was the typical stuff you get from running an office, some very late nights working, but what really pushed me over the edge was a phone call I got Thursday. A very kind agent called me Thursday to tell me she had gone to preview a listing of mine. The other agent informs me that she was startled because my listing said that it was vacant, but when she went to preview it the house definitely was not empty.

The first thing I did was call the owners in the hopes they had given someone permission to stay in the house, but just forgotten to tell me. No such luck. So when my husband got home from work we went over together. When we opened the door it was very evident someone was living there. The house reeked of bacon and sausages. There was a window screen laying in one of the bedroom windows. And there was dirty plates, and junk everywhere. Needless to say I then called the police. They came out and made sure the home was clear. They confiscated a backpack and a tent that was the squatters, dusted for finger prints on the windows and dirty dishes and then gave me a case number. They told me that in the last 2 weeks there had been two other reports of squatters in the area. They said in each of them, they had disappeared as soon as they knew they were busted and the police told me they did not think that they would be back.

The squatters had closed all the blinds, so I opened them up and turned on the lights, locked up and left. Around 8pm that night minutes after I had gotten home from the office, I get a call from the owners. They inform me that a friend of theirs was out in front of the house. He had driven by the house on his way to a basketball game. And what he saw was the blinds were closed again. So he parked the car and walked by the house again and someone peeked out the blinds. The squatters were back. So I go back to the house to meet him and the police for a second time that day. I got there just as the police were cuffing and placing the first person in the car.

It was two people. A female and a male. Both dressed nicely and both very young. They couldn’t have been more than their early 20’s. So for a second time that day I got a case number, locked up and went home. Friday morning I headed over with another agent in my office who was kind enough to volunteer to help me clean up. I found all kinds of things, a cell phone, clothes, fingernail polish (which she had wiped all over the towels etc), pocket knife, lots of dirty greasy dishes from eating sausage and bacon and DVD’s rented from the public library.

Among all of that I also found a pile of for sale home flyers. All looked to be vacant homes and all were in the general area. I called all of the agents of each of those listings. Of the 14 I called, two had already had a problem. One agent told me that someone had broker into his listing, but had not stayed. I asked him what he had in the house and he said only two couches. Guess there wasn’t enough for them in that house. The 2nd agent told me that she had squatters at her house also. As we compared notes she told me that her squatters had eaten bacon and sausage and made a huge mess. We decided that they were definitely the same. She also had a staged home that included dishes, a bed etc.

Staging a home is proven to sell a home for more and faster, but I have now discovered a downside. It also makes a nice home for a squatter! So be careful everyone. This ended in probably the best way as they were caught, the agent who discovered it wasn’t hurt by the squatters and there was not a ton of damage, but I am hoping this is not a trend in these hard economic times.

Well, I have sad news. The 15,000 tax credit for home buyers did not make the cut for the latest version of the stimulus package. Very disappointing!

I received this email from Realtor’s today…I’m passing it along. This is all still in the works, but it is exciting news for buyers!

Washington Economic Stimulus Package Update

February 6, 2009

Good news you can share with your clients

Due to the efforts of the National Association of REALTORS® and specific members of Congress, we are making significant progress in regards to housing provisions in the National Economic Stimulus Bill.

Last week, the US House of Representatives passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (H.R.1). This bill has some key provisions that will stimulate the housing market:

• It will restore FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to 125 percent of median home prices – up to $729,750
• It would eliminate the repayment provision for the $7,500 first time home buyer tax credit
• It expands tax-exempt housing bonds

Two days ago, the Senate approved an amendment to their bill that offers up to a $15,000 tax credit to people that purchase a home in the next year. The credit would apply to anyone, not just first time homebuyers and you would not need to repay the credit. The credit is based on 10% of the purchase price of the home and the credit is spread over two years. So for example, if you buy a house with a purchase price of $300,000, you would qualify for the maximum credit of $15,000. The first year you claim the credit, you receive $7,500, and you would receive the remaining $7,500 the next year.

Senator Patty Murray Introduces Housing Amendment

In addition to supporting the $15,000 credit, Senator Patty Murray (D) Washington, has introduced her own amendment to the Senate Stimulus Bill relating to the FHA and conforming loan limits. Specifically, Murray’s amendment:

• Ensures that the 2008 FHA mortgage limits and conforming loan limits do not decline during calendar year 2009.
• Provides discretion to the Secretary of HUD and the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to raise loan limits in sub-areas, up to the conforming ceiling for high cost areas.
• Temporarily increases FHA’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) limit to $625,500 for 2009.

“On behalf of all American families and over 20,000 Washington REALTORS® I’d like to thank Senator Patty Murray for introducing this amendment to the Senate Stimulus Bill to increase the loan limits” said Greg Wright, President of the Washington REALTORS®.

This week

The Senate is considering its version of the bill. We anticipate much more debate and some changes in the days ahead, so please check Realtor.org often for updates.

Once the Senate passes a bill, we expect lawmakers to hold a conference to work out the differences, before sending it along to the President. The President wants a finished product by February 16, 2009.

The 2008 $567,500 loan limit for a single family home have expired, but instead of returning to the previous $417,000 loan limit they have set a new temporary conforming loan amounts for 2009.

Here are the 2009 conforming loan amounts for Seattle:

Single Family: $506,000

Two Family: $647,750

Three Family: $783,000

Four Family: $973,100