Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Tax credit fuels skyrocketing Dallas-area preowned home sales

Tax credit fuels skyrocketing Dallas-area preowned home sales

12:08 PM CST on Monday, December 7, 2009
By STEVE BROWN/ The Dallas Morning News


The North Texas housing market came roaring back in November. Preowned home sales rose by 31 percent last month from a year ago – one of the biggest such increases on record. Also Online

Interactive map: Dallas-area home sales and prices

And median home sales prices were up 5 percent.

The big jump in residential transactions came as large numbers of homebuyers rushed to take advantage of the federal home buying tax credit, which has been extended.

Real estate agents in October sold almost 5,500 preowned homes through their multiple listing service, according to statistics released Monday by the North Texas Residential Information Systems and the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

And condo and townhouse sales were up more than 60 percent from a year ago.

November’s robust sales activity is the latest in a string of recent indicators, which show that the North Texas home market has bottomed out and is turning the corner.

Through the first 11 months of 2009, North Texas home sales are down 12 percent from the same period of last year. And median home sales prices are unchanged year to day from 2008.

November was the second consecutive month that Dallas-Fort Worth area home sales rose from the previous year – ending more than a year of consecutive declines.

Some neighborhoods that weren’t impacted by the federal homebuying incentives saw dramatic spikes in home sales last month.

In the Park Cities, preowned home sales soared 81 percent in November from a year ago.

Sales in close in North Dallas neighborhoods rose 48 percent.

And at the end of November, the inventory of unsold homes on the market fell below 6 months which is considered a balanced market.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Expanded Version of Tax Credit Will Allow More Homebuyers to Qualify

Expanded Version of Tax Credit Will Allow More Homebuyers to Qualify

RISMEDIA, November 9, 2009—President Obama recently signed an expanded version of the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit that was set to expire on November 30. “The new version of the tax credit has the potential to stimulate the housing market even more than the old version due to the fact that more people will qualify under the new rules,” said Gibran Nicholas, Chairman of the CMPS Institute, an organization that certifies mortgage bankers and brokers. “Although the tax credit remains at $8,000 for homebuyers that have not owned a primary residence in the last three years, it has been expanded to include a $6,500 tax credit for homebuyers that have lived in their current primary residence for at least five consecutive years out of the past eight years. Under the old rules, move-up homebuyers did not qualify.” Consider these three examples:

Example 1:
Jane purchased a home in 2002, lived there for 5 years as her primary home, moved out in 2007, and turned that home into a rental property. If Jane decides to buy a new primary residence today, she would qualify for the $6,500 tax credit based on the fact that she lived in the same residence as her primary home for at least five consecutive years out of the past eight.

Example 2:
Harry purchased a home in 2004, and lived there for the past 5 years as his primary home. If Harry decides to buy a new primary residence today, he would qualify for the $6,500 tax credit based on the fact that he lived in the same residence as his primary home for at least five consecutive years out of the past eight.

Example 3:
Nicole purchased a home in 2006, and lived there for the past 3 years as her primary home. If Nicole decides to buy a new primary residence today, she would not qualify for the $6,500 tax credit based on the fact that she did not live in the same residence as her primary home for at least five consecutive years out of the past eight.

The tax credit applies to homes purchased for less than $800,000 before May 1, 2010. “If you sign a binding contract to purchase a home before May 1st, you would need to close on the transaction before July 1, 2010,” Nicholas said. “It works kind of like a gift certificate that can be redeemed for cash. You simply file a form with the IRS right after you buy your home, and the IRS will send you a check for the full amount of your credit.”

The income limitation for single tax payers went up from $75,000 under the old rules to $125,000 under the new rules. For married tax payers, the income limitation went up from $150,000 to $225,000. “This means that more people will qualify for the credit – especially in parts of the country with higher costs of living,” Nicholas said. “This should help stimulate parts of the housing market that may not have been impacted by the old version of the credit.”

There are many creative ways of structuring your home purchase transaction in ways that maximize the benefits of the credit. Here are a few examples:

-The credit applies to 1-4 unit homes as long as you live in one of the units as your primary residence – you could live in one unit and rent out the others

-If two unmarried individuals buy a home, and only one of the individuals qualifies for the credit based on their income or past home ownership status, the individual who qualifies for the credit can claim the full credit. (Note: In the case of married couples, both spouses must qualify for the credit).

-The credit applies even if you have co-signers on your mortgage loan

For more information, visit www.CMPSInstitute.org.

Read more: http://rismedia.com/2009-11-08/expanded-version-of-tax-credit-will-allow-more-homebuyers-to-qualify/#ixzz0WTkr6IKw

Friday, November 6, 2009

TAX CREDIT HAS BEEN EXTENDED

TAX CREDIT HAS BEEN EXTENDED

The $8000 tax credit for first time homebuyer's has been extended. The program was expanded to include a $6500 tax credit on the purchase of a new home to apply to people who have owned a home for at least five years.

Income restrictions will be relaxed, meaning more people could take advantage of the program.

The bill would extend it to apply to home purchases under contract before May 1, 2010

Great news! Watch for more details.

Give us a call for all of your Real Estate needs.You can reach us directly at 817-337-5169 or on the web at www.soldteam.net



Texas Sold Team Realty, LLC
CRS, e-Pro, ABR, Luxury Real Estate Expert

Information provided by Pam Taylor with WR Starkey Mortgage

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Why Live in Texas - Great Video Had to Share



Visit www.soldteam.net and find your dream home in Texas today!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

WE ARE LAUNCHING OUR NEW TECHY TALK VIDEO SERIES. THIS FIRST SERIES IS TWITTER ME THIS, TWITTER ME THAT

We have been working hard on getting you new information about all the new and cool stuff out there so we are doing it in a video series. The first video series is Twitter Me This, Twitter Me That.

Here are the first two vidoes of our Twitter series. Cool features about posting to Twitter.

Video #1 - Show me the Video! Twiddeo - easy application to load to twitter - Very Cool

Twitter Me This, Twitter Me That Series - Twiddeo.com - Easy way to load video and post it to your Twitter Account from rosannahudson on Vimeo.



Video #2 - Say what you Want! Twitsay - easy interface to call a number and have your voice message posted to Twitter!

Twitter Me This, Twitter Me That - Twitsay - Easy interface to leave a voice message and post it to Twitter from rosannahudson on Vimeo.

Monday, September 28, 2009

NAR/San Diego CA 2010

If you want the chance to win yourself a free pass to this year Annual Conference and Expo just follow these steps.

Make a blog post about this blog post and include the Expo widget OR
Tweet about this blog post and the CRT session agenda at least 5 days apart. Then
Join the CRT Facebook Page
Post links to the blog(s) and/or tweets in the comments here or in the Facebook note
Sit back and wait to see if you win the challenge.
One (maybe two) lucky people that complete those steps and are a CRT Facebook Page by the end of September will win the Full Conference Pass courtesy of NAR. If this spreads enough, maybe there will be some other goodies thrown in the mix as well.

So what do you think? Want to get in on the Super CRT Cross Promotion Giveaway Madness Challenge? Two tweets or a blog post — how simple can we make it?