Move Up Home Buyers Tax Credit
Bob Schwartz San Diego Realtor
The New $6,500 federal tax credit for so-called “move up” home buyers is available now.
This means that if you fit the key criteria – you’ve owned and resided in your current home for a consecutive five out of the past eight years, and your adjusted household income doesn’t exceed $125,000 if you file taxes singly, $225,000 if you are married filing jointly – you can claim the credit as soon as you close on a qualifying house.
There is no “move up” requirement in the new credit. In fact, homeowners who plan to down size into a smaller dwelling may prove to be significant users of the credit. Read more 
San Diego Home Prices Rise – Home Sales Fall
San Diego home sales
According to La Jolla- based MDA DataQuick, San Diego County home prices fell by 2 percent in October, compared to the same month a year ago, but, home prices rose by 0.5 percent.
Home prices across the Southern California region — including Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties — dipped 6.7 percent to $280,000. The median price of a Southern California home was $280,000 in October, up 1.8 percent from $275,000 in September but down 6.7 percent from $300,000 in October 2008. Read more
Home Mortgage Delinquencies Slow – But Still Hit Record
San Diego California
According to credit reporting agency TransUnion, for the three months ended Sept. 30, 6.25 percent of U.S. mortgage loans were 60 or more days past due.
The rate was up 7.6 percent from the second quarter. That’s a much smaller jump than the 11.3 percent rise in the second quarter from the first, and the 14 percent leap seen in the quarter before that.
Being two months behind is considered a first step toward foreclosure, because it’s so hard to catch up with payments at that point.
Home Mortgage Interest Deductions To Be Reduced
Obama vs. real estate
With “hope and change,” Obama is whipping out new programs, rescue packages, bailouts, etc. Unquestionably, he thinks all these expenditures will produce a healthier economy or at least provide help where needed. Huge budget deficits are burgeoning and the Obama administration is forced to seek new revenue sources. Obama’s current budget will reduce home mortgage interest deductions and funnel money towards helping these building deficits.
The initial steps will affect the higher earners, but once the door is open, what will stop the earning caps from being reduced until the final elimination? Am I stretching the truth on this topic?
The idea that elimination of the home mortgage deduction will not affect home ownership is already being discussed. Those in favor of reducing/removing the home mortgage deduction mention the fact that Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia do not provide mortgage interest rate deductions but still have roughly similar homeownership rates as the United States. Another added perk is the advancement of Obama’s stated goal for wealth re-distribution. Read more
Federal Housing Administration (FHA) In Trouble
FHA home mortgage defaults
With recent reports that 20% of mortgages guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) in 2007 and 2008 are defaulting, it appears that the corner of the carpet that things are being swept under might have changed but that the sweeping is still going on. Proof that lessons were not learned is shown by similar default rates for the period of 2005-2006 (20%) when the bubble seemed to have gained its own inertia and was sucking mortgages in instead of having to have them pumped out.
In addition to the losses tied to the eventual defaults on the mortgages it guaranteed, the FHA is also suffering from mortgages it invested in. Write downs on $1.04BN in the value of private-label MBS, the kind not backed by any GSE, resulted in the booking of a $165MM loss on these types of securities by the FHA in 3Q09; a veritable one-two punch that will, once again, have the taxpayer being dragged from the ring.
Sorrento Valley real estate agent
Home Foreclosure Filings Down But Is It Artificial?
home foreclosures
According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings were down 3% in October, the third consecutive month-over-month dip. Foreclosure rates are still up 18% compared with October 2008, but the month-over-month decrease followed a 4% drop in filings during September and a 1% fall in August. “Three consecutive monthly declines is unprecedented for our report, and, on first blush, an indication that the foreclosure tide may be turning,” said James Saccacio, RealtyTrac’s CEO, in a prepared statement. “The fundamental forces driving foreclosure activity in this housing downturn — high-risk mortgages, negative equity, and unemployment — continue to loom over any nascent recovery,” he said. “And despite all the efforts and resources directed at helping homeowners avoid foreclosure, we continue to see foreclosure activity levels that are substantially higher than a year ago in most states.” Read more