Finally, after the long journey, home buyers that had a sales contract signed by April 30th now have until September 30th to close on their transaction. It came down to the wire as this was an amendment on HR 4213 “The Unemployment Bill”, then after a couple of political maneuvers had separate bills created for just unemployment benefits extension and tax credit extension. Last night looks like the Senate did a unanimous vote to send this bill to the presidents desk for signing into law before going on break until July 12th. The unemployment bill however got tabled and nothing will happen on that until the Senate comes back.
So, now everyone who still has a signed sales contract before April 30th, I would suggest getting your deals closed before September 30th! Hope this helps, and below is another article from the Wall Street Journal.
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100701-705302.html
Since the Homebuyer Tax Credit Extension is attached to bill HR 4213 which is the unemployment bill, there are several hurdles along the way. Currently one of the hurdles is coming from Sen. Tom Coburn (R, OK) and he is using a procedure known as a “Clay Pigeon” which would split the amendments of the bill into 20 separate pieces and would cause voting to take place 20 different times. This slows down the process for approval and could open the door for losing supporting votes. Here is a good website to see updated status of this bill. Hope this helps 
http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/1924-Coburn-Now-Using-Arcane-Procedure-to-Stall-Unemployment-Bill
Yes, the Senate has moved the tax credit extension on to the next steps allowing borrowers until September 30th to get financing on their sales contracts they got before the April 30th date. If anyone has already closed though, they can go to the direct links at Tax Forms to print them out and follow the instructions to get your tax credit. Below is a good article explaining what is taking place, hope this helps!
Just wanted to highlight this part of the article though:
“Reid, D-Nev., added the proposal to a bill extending jobless benefits through the end of November. Nevada has the nation’s highest foreclosure rate, and Reid is facing a tough re-election campaign.
The Realtors group has been pushing hard in Congress for the extension. Mortgage lenders, the trade group says, have been swamped with borrowers trying to get approved by the end of the month. Many potential borrowers are unlikely to make the deadline.
“If Congress fails to act promptly, then prospective homebuyers might not get the benefit of the homebuyer tax credit, even though they have completed contracts,” the Realtors said a a letter to lawmakers.
Here is the full article:
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That’s right, their was a bill introduced Thursday that could extend out the cut off date for the loan to close from June 30th to September 30th 2010. Also from this Wall Street Journal article you can see why the extension would be needed for making sure the closing date is met. The caution I put on this is still treat your closing as it MUST get closed by June 30th because this option proposed to extend the date is attached to a bill that is getting a lot of push back for getting the votes to move through congress. The article below is a good one from WSJ and here is another link to CNNMoney about the same subject. Hope you Enjoy Don’t forget to print out those IRS forms……just head over to TAX CREDIT FORMS with direct links to the forms on the IRS website.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/10/real_estate/housing_credit_extension/index.htm
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What a wonderful way to honor the 30th birthday of the most addictive arcade game there is…..PAC-MAN. For all you fans, Google has their logo changed and given the ability to play the game. Just wait on the screen for about 10 seconds and the game will start up. Just use the arrows on your key board to control the game. Hope you guys enjoy the game and remember……….don’t get drawn into the game and get back to work
Of coarse I think everyone knows the link but if you don’t, just go to: www.google.com
This will only last for today!
Yes this is true that this special benefit was extended……..for members of the military and certain other federal employees serving outside the U.S. have an extra year to buy a principal residence on or before April 30, 2011. Basically it will be the same set up as it currently is for all home-buyers, sales contract by April 30, 2011 and close by June 30, 2011. Just so you guys know about the current home-buyer tax credit just out these summary’s below and strongly encourage you go double check the main guidelines from the IRS and get the forms. I have all this summarized for you at the previous post about updated tax forms.
Summary on Current Home-buyer Tax Credit:
1. First-Time Homebuyer claim up to $8,000 credit or 10% of sales price which ever is the lower of the two. A first-time homebuyer is an individual (and that individual’s spouse if married) who has not owned another main home during the 3-year period ending on the purchase date and meets other requirements discussed in the Form 5405 instructions.
2. Long-time resident can claim up to $6500 credit or 10% of sales price which ever is the lower of the two. A long-time resident is an individual (and that individuals spouse if married) who has owned and used the same home as that individuals main home for any 5-consecutive-year period during the 8-year period ending on the purchase date of the new main home and meets other requirements discussed in the Form 5405 instructions.
Below is the direct wording from the IRS.gov site talking about the home-buyer tax credit extension for military and certain other federal employees. Hope this helps
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After the Fed’s two day meeting it is expected that they will continue with the language for keeping the rates low for “an extended period”. This is the over night rate that the banks get charged for using money and that are at near zero rates. What does this mean for mortgage rates? Well, there are many different factors that make up the movement of the mortgage rates just like the treasury note auction and any other items like employment and general markets. The Fed will give their announcement at 1:15pm CST. Below is an article that talks a little bit more about Fed’s meeting and the market. Hope this helps
Fed Set to Renew Promise of Continued Low Rates
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Here we go again, with the 10 year treasury note auction coming up May 5th is the announcement and May 12th is the auction date and it will be interesting to see where the mortgage rates go. So far the 10 year treasury notes have found demand but how long will this last for………who knows. You also have another factor which is the government now has a bunch of mortgage backed securities and will want to start selling them off soon. It will be interesting to see how the pricing goes for mortgage backed securities and what it will cause the mortgage rates to do. Now for the answer to the always asked question, “What are the rates going to be?” or “When are the rates going up?” ……….the answer………… don’t know. The reason for not know is because we just don’t know how everyone’s demand is going to be for the items that tie into the mortgage rates. Best way to look at it, rates are truly at an ALL TIME LOW and you will never be able to get the EXACT lowest mortgage rate, so instead of trying to shoot for the lowest, just lock in and pay an extra $50 to $100 a month towards principal and it will all work out. Since my previous post about the treasury note auctions had the dates for the auctions, thought I would give the link for the schedule again……….here is the treasury note auction schedule. Hope this helps Love to hear your comments and what you think as well.
Looks like rising mortgage interest rates might be delayed as I stated before. Treasury auction today shows demand is still there for 10 Year Notes which are one of the key plays tied into what mortgage rates look. Found this good article below and wanted to share with you guys. The key now is to watch the Treasury note schedule of when the auctions are for the 10 year notes and see how demand will be for the notes. If the auctions do not find demand then rates will rise, just not sure how high. Right now the mortgage interest rates are mainly speculation on the demand and this will cause a roller coaster ride. Hope you find this helpful
Treasury Auction Finds Strong Demand For 10-Year Notes
Published: Wednesday, 7 Apr 2010 | 1:10 PM ET
By: Jeff Cox
CNBC.com http://www.cnbc.com/id/36220519
Investors showed surprisingly strong appetite for long-dated Treasurys in a Wednesday auction that saw high demand and lower-than-expected yield.
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Since Feb. 1st Condo’s and FHA have changed as people are starting to find out. More changes are happening for FHA with the costs for an FHA mortgage are going up after April 5th to find out about those details just check out FHA higher costs. With the previous post about the FHA condo changes I touched on this breifly but wanted to summerize it for you.
The good things with this change are that once you gather up all the information like you would have had to for a “spot approval” in the past, submit the info through a Direct Endorsed Lender, then they can work on getting the condo approved. Once the condo is approved for that one buyer going into the project……..THE WHOLE PROJECT IS APPROVED and everyone within the project should be thanking that one buyer and everyone involved who went through the process.
Couple of key things you need to watch out for that would be red flags up front:
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