links for 2009-10-29
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The article states the plan might still change .
The details:
# Income eligibility for home buyers increases to $125,000 for individuals and $225,000 for couples.
# The tax credit for first-time home buyers (anyone who has not owned in the last 3 years) will be the lesser of $8,000 or 10% of the purchase price.
# For move-up buyers – "who have lived in their current home for at least five years" – the credit would be limited to $6,500.
# The credit runs from Dec. 1, 2009 to April 30, 2010, with an additional 60 day period to close escrow. (So end of April to sign contract, end of June to close escrow)
links for 2009-10-28
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Rick Sharga tackles the Shadow REO Inventory topic.
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Given the serious possibility that housing prices are currently being propped up by the tax credit — Goldman estimates by 5 percent — we can understand the argument for, at most, a gradual phase-out to smooth out the inevitable downward adjustment. But anything more would be throwing good money after bad.
links for 2009-10-27
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Some people online are trying to flout Dunbar's number, to become connected and actual friends with tens of thousands of people at once. And guess what? It doesn't scale. You might be able to stretch to 200 or 400, but no, you can't effectively engage at a tribal level with a thousand people.
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'Social Business' denotes businesses organized around social ties and the use of social technologies to support them. This is intended to represent a break between companies (in general) organized prior to the rise of the social web.
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The forecast assumes that Congress wont extend a tax credit for first-time home buyers that is due to end Nov. 30. That isnt a foregone conclusion as Congress is still debating that issue.
An end to the tax credit and an expected increase in foreclosed homes available for sale will place additional downward pressure on house prices this winter, First American said.
Glen’s Latest East Bay Housing Numbers
Here’s a snapshot of the San Francisco East Bay Real Estate Market. I run these numbers monthly and have been tracking 38 cities since 2005. The spreadsheet indicates that inventories are still decreasing and are now at their lowest levels since I began this process (May 2005).
DOM (Days on Market) is decreasing, months supply in most areas have reached lows, and the relationship between what, on average, homes are selling for to list price support this. We’re seeing properties in many areas getting multiple offers and actually now, on average, selling at or above the average list price.
Areas that were hit hardest last year due to high inventories and downward pressure on prices due to the high number of distressed properties on the market, are now starting to see some recovery, especially in the lower priced areas. Examples would be in East Contra Costa along highway 4, (Pittsburg, Antioch, Brentwood, even Concord). More recently, in West Contra Costa in the San Pablo, Richmond, Pinole, Hercules areas).
Pendings have increased dramatically. However, this is due in part to longer escrow periods and a larger number of short sale transactions.
Call me if you’d like to chat more in depth about the San Francisco East Bay market.
-Glen 510-333-4460
Equal Housing Opportunity. Equal Opportunity Employer.