Great News for First Time Home Buyers – Home Stimulus Package Now Expanded!

06. May 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: General Tax · Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Has it been three years since you last purchased a home as your primary residence?  Are you now thinking about buying a new home but are worried about the perilous state of the housing market and the financial burdens of making a down payment and making your monthly mortgage payments?  If so, there is great news for you.  The federal government will help you pay a portion of your down payment so you don’t have to come up with the full 10 percent on your own.  To further sweeten the deal, interest rates have been slashed by a couple of percentage points.  And to top it all off, you can get a tax credit of ten percent of the purchase price of your home – that’s up to ,000 in your pocket!  

If you’ve been keeping up with the latest developments, the news just keeps getting better.  The deadline for entering into a contract for buying a home was extended until April 30th of next year.  (You actually have until June 30th of next year to close).  If you are a member of the armed services, Foreign Service, or Intelligence community serving overseas you get an extra year.  This means you have until April 30th, 2011 to enter into an agreement and until June 30th, 2011 to close.  The income limits for qualifying for the tax credit have also been increased for purchases made after November 6th, 2009.  This means more people will now qualify.  Are you picturing your dream home yet?

President Obama and the federal government want the housing market to get back on its feet so if you are seriously thinking about buying a new home, now could very well be the best time.  The incentives will not last forever so make sure plan accordingly, do all your research, and take action.  There are some caveats and restrictions that could impact your eligibility for the tax credit so make sure you familiarize yourself with those provisions.  If you are confident in your financial future, however, you really have nothing to lose and everything to gain by taking advantage of the first time home buyer stimulus package.

Low Income Housing Grants for First-time Home Buyers in the Down River Area

13. April 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: General Tax · Tags: , , , , , , , ,

The new bill passed by Senate earlier in the year allows states to trade in a portion of their 2009 low-income housing tax credits for Treasury Grants.  These grants would be used to finance the construction, or purchase and rehab of low-income housing, including those with or without tax credit allocations.

The low housing grants will include funding for the following causes:

Pontiac Housing Capital Fund for rehabilitating and retrofitting public housing units, making critical safety repairs and increasing their energy efficiency Community Development Block Grant Program for funding the Neighborhood Stabilization Program Home Investment Partnerships Programs to provide funds to state housing credit agencies for capital investments in low-income housing tax credit projects Assisted Housing Stability and Energy and Green Retrofit investments to provide funds to property owners for rental assistance and grants or loans for energy and green retrofit investments Funds to local governments and non-profit organizations for removal of lead-based paint hazards in low-income housing.

Real estate professionals should be familiar with the many grants and programs that are in effect to help first-time home buyers.  Real estate agents and developers can benefit from many of these programs as well by helping their clients utilize these funds.

Other provisions of the Stimulus Plan include:

First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit

FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Loan Limits

Neighborhood Stabilization

Commercial Real Estate

Rural Housing Services

Tax Exempt Housing Bonds

Energy Efficient Housing Tax Credits and Grants

Transportation Investments

Broadband Deployment

Mark Goedert of Goedert Real Estate has been an active professional in the real estate industry for over 50 years, serving realtors and home buyers in South East Michigan and the Down River area.  Mark encourages you to check out his website at http://www.under100000realestate.com/ for local neighborhood and school details, mortgage information, interactive maps, investment property listings, home listings and many more resources.

New ?Stimulus? Tax Incentives For Buyers Of Electric Scooters

02. April 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: General Tax · Tags: , , , ,

Potential buyers of electric vehicles and electric powered scooters have an increased incentive to purchase these vehicles due to a tax credit buried in the recent Economic and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Incentives for plug- in hybrid vehicles take effect in 2010 but incentives for smaller electric vehicles take effect with the passage of the bill. The 7 Billion bill passed by the Congress, and signed by the President gives a tax credit incentive to purchasers of electric vehicles of different types.

All electric powered vehicles benefit from the new tax credit. Immediately benefiting are buyers purchasing a category of vehicles known as light electric vehicles or LEV’s. The LEV category includes four wheeled Neighborhood Electric Vehicles or NEV, and two and three wheel electric powered scooters.

The criteria for qulaifying are based on the electric energy storage capacity of the battery. For two and three wheel vehicles the minimum size battery storage that qualifies must be rated at a minimum of 2.5kwh of stored energy capacity. For a NEV type vehicle the minimum battery storage capacity that qualifies is 4 kWh. To determine if the vehicle you are considering qualifies take the amp hour capacity rating of the battery times the battery voltage and divide by 1000. If the result is 2.5 or greater, the scooter, or three wheel vehicle, will qualify for the credit. For example if the specifications on the scooter you are considering has a battery rated: 5X12V/50 Ah the calculation is as follows: (5X12v) 60 X 50 Ah = 3000 Divided by 1000 = 3 KWh, which exceeds the 2.5 kWh minimum criteria.

For vehicles that qualify there is a 10% tax credit on electric vehicles up to a maximum purchase price of ,000 which would result in a maximum credit of ,500 on a vehicle costing ,000.
This tax credit may be in addition to local tax or purchase incentives that may be in place in some local municipalities, and is effective for purchases made after the date the bill was signed The tax credit incentive will be welcome news to anyone considering purchasing an electric scooter.

Realtors for First Time Home Buyers

01. April 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: General Tax · Tags: , , , ,

So you’re in the market to buy a new home! It is said that buying a home is an enormous investment and is ranked as one of the principal events in one’s life. However, don’t fret, there is help for you. There are people trained with the experience and resources to guide you along the way. That is why when buying your first home, using a realtor is the most practical suggestion for many reasons.

A real estate agent is knowledgeable of the market and can take you by the hand to in your transition from the beginning of your search, and if necessary, all the way to the closing. Questions you may have in this area could be about the current market prices and loan interest rates. If they are unable to answer specific questions in this area, they can refer you to their many resources that focus in these areas. This could include finance officers or lenders or even a home inspector.  

Realtors have a complete listing of available homes that they get from the Real Estate Information Network. This is a great benefit to you because this site lists all listed houses for sale. You could choose to go to an open house, search a newspaper or other internet based search engines, however, neither will have the amount of listings an agent could offer to you.

Now you may have found a few homes that match your search criteria, so what’s next? A realtor will work together with you to negotiate your price and assist in making a written offer of purchase. The first step in this process is calculating and deciding how much of a home you can actually afford. A realtor can help advise you on this topic and also work on possible tax rebate programs that you may qualify for. They may also have a recommendation on where to get your loan with certain credible mortgage companies on your behalf. Now that you have narrowed your search down to homes that fit your financial situation, interests, and the personal features you necessitate your realtor will assist in making reasonable offers to the sellers.

So now you have found your new home! However, there is still a lot of work to be done. Your realtor will work with you in the finalization of your purchase. These finalizations could include making sure everyone has agreed to the contracts, finalizing the loan, making sure all appraisals have been completed, such as tax appraisals, any inspections that need completion, a walk through, researching titles and even the closing.

So if you are like the many first time home buyers trying to deal with the overload of anxiety acquired in buying your new home, don’t take it all on alone. It is clear that the most practical suggestion in this situation is to hire a realtor.

Alison Moss Realtor.

Cincinnati Real Estate.

Home Buyer’s Credit Extension Doing Little To Inspire Home Sales

29. March 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: General Tax · Tags: , , , , , , ,

In hopes of supporting home sales across the nation, the federal government extended their home buyer’s tax credit program last fall to last until April 30th; and while the government would like to see their tax credit programs helping to support the incidence of home sales, in many areas it is evident that this trend is just not coming to fruition.

There are many factors that are keeping the rate of home sales down that can’t be completely offset just by the offering of the home buyers’ tax credit. Across the nation, unemployment rates are still sitting at very high levels, while many people who are working are sadly under employed and making less money than they were when the recession first hit. It is reasonable to assume that even if the government promises to give you a tax break for buying a home in this economic climate, you have to be reasonably unscathed by the current recession to actually be able to take them up on that offer.

Many current home owners who are actually in a position to take advantage of the program and would like to take advantage of the tax credit for home buyers are struggling to sell their own homes so that they can take advantage of low interest rates, depressed prices, and an excess of available inventory. As a result, many of the people who are buying homes currently are first time buyers; they don’t have homes that need to be sold to be able to finance a home purchase, after all. Unfortunately, the numbers of people who can afford to buy their first home aren’t high enough to support the market in a big way.

Experts say that one of the biggest factors in many areas across the nation is the lack of consumer confidence; unfortunately, confidence in the market isn’t something that can be bought with a tax credit or even with lower interest rates. For the return of consumer confidence, only time will tell what works; it does not seem that government spending is helping to return this confidence to the nation. Whether or not the weeks preceding the cut off date of April 30th will see an increase in home buying or not, as we saw in the weeks before the original November 30th cut off date for the tax credit.

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