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The New, Improved, (and extended) $8,000 Tax Credit
November 22, 2009 /By now you've probably heard: The $8,000 Tax Credit has been extended! And you're thinking, "I've been wanting to buy a home... maybe there's something to this procrastination thing, after all." In this case, you'd be right; The last go-round provided up to $8,000 to homebuyers who had not owned a home in the past 3 years, and whose income was $75,000 for single taxpayers and $150,000 for married taxpayers filing joint returns. In recognition of your patience and wisdom, you are now eligible for the Sweetened Deal: For home purchases occurring after November 6, 2009, the new income limits are $125,000 for single taxpayers and $225,000 for married couples filing jointly. Be prepared to prove it! Due to the very real potential for fraud, you will be required to prove that you have not owned a home in the last 3 years, however, the credit can be allocated to the person who has not owned previously, in cases where parents are assisting with a purchase, or where one member of an unmarried couple has previously owned. Saving for a downpayment? Another element of the new version is that it allows prospective home buyers who believe they qualify for the…Read more
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Green Homes- Fad, Trend, or Future?
November 5, 2009 /Among the many contentious issues of our day, the concept of being 'environmentally conscious', certainly strikes a few hot buttons for some. This post isn't going to explore the politics of Al Gore, or Rush Limbaugh, because, controversial as that subject may be, there's just not enough space to do the topic justice, and frankly, I don't find it that interesting. My personal angle on the Green Movement tends to slant more toward the practicalities of implementation, and looking at the cost/benefit balance for long term value. Given the condition of our current economy, and the impact of rising energy prices, and prices overall, I don't think it's an overstatement to say everybody's looking for ways to save money. From that perspective, the question becomes one of whether it's more practical to save money now (which frequently means either making do with less, or doing nothing), or to take the preventive and holistic steps that provide for long term cost and resource savings through conservation, thoughtful design, and practical implementation of new home-building technologies. The Green Movement is really just a convenient handle for the overarching conversation that revolves around the management and distribution of resources within a given community, and attempts to…Read more
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HVCC, HERA & other Bureaucratic Sausages
August 19, 2009 /The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty." Eugene McCarthy In the spirit of an inefficient bureaucracy, and under the guise of "economic recovery", we've seen several new edicts handed down from the mountain lately. The 2 most onerous directives go by the handy handles of 'HVCC' & 'HERA'. Both attempt to right the wrongs perpetrated in this last housing runup, but from my perspective, they are relatively undisguised attempts by big banks to utilize the fear in the marketplace to have their way, creating legislation that does little to remedy the actual problems, while pushing the BIG BANKING agenda well down the road. The Home Value Code of Conduct (HVCC), enacted in April, puts severe restrictions on the lines of communication between lenders and appraisers, requiring the use of an automated online system to place appraisal orders, while keeping lenders and brokers from speaking directly, and purportedly preventing the collusion that took place in the dark ages between '04-'07. The fly in this ointment is the reality that quality work requires quality people. The new system requires lenders to draw anonymously from a predetermined pool of appraisers,…Read more
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Housing: swimming in info, searching for the bottom
July 14, 2009 /The US Housing market officially hit bottom on Tuesday, June 16, 2009, according to Mad Money's Jim Cramer. Based on his analysis of better than expected housing starts, increasing sales, and decreasing inventory, Cramer argues that we've seen the worst of this housing debacle, and can begin the slow climb back to sanity. And yet, a month later, we're still seeing headlines that read like footnotes to the 4 horsemen's sightseeing tour. So, how can we have this extreme swing in opinion? We're all getting the same numbers, and existing on the same planet, correct? Yet I'd swear I've never seen more schizo info. There's nothing consistent, no standards of reporting, no BIG HOUSING CHART that we're all referring to- like the digital counter ticking up the national debt ( I think they ran out of slots on that one). Shouldn't there be some agency (job security!), or body of standards keepers (bureaucrats) who sift through all the info and disseminate it into neat little bite-sized, easily digestible (And Accurate) chunks so those of us with lives to lead can get our (Useful) news and still have a life? I'm sure this was the original thinking behind the current crop of infotainment/news…Read more
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Pickett Street on the radio
June 24, 2009 /On Tuesday Dennis and I were asked to participate on a round table discussion of the real estate market on "The Money Thing," a local talk radio show that airs on Tuesdays from 12-2pm on 1150AM (KKNW). Neither of us had ever been on the radio before, but that would never keep us from offering our opinion! :) The show is hosted by Howard Bono, a mortgage originator and owner of Old West Mortgage in Everett. We had only met Howard once before, but that meeting prompted enough thought that he asked us to come on the radio program to share our ideas with his audience. The discussion was lively, and was largely in reference to the short sale processs, what we anticipated for our local market over the next 12-18 months, and how we counsel buyers in times like these. The entire program segment is available on Howard's website, TheMoneyThing.com, but I've posted just our segment below. Thanks to Howard for having us - and thanks to Jerry Jaz for taking the time to take in-studio pics.Read more
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A loan we don’t need: HUD’s curious permissions for the $8,000 tax credit as down payment
June 4, 2009 /I've tried writing an opening sentence that explains the heart of this post, and the shortest I could make it was more than 50 words, which is hella long. So let me try another tact. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 allows residents (first-time homebuyers) the purchase a home before December 1st a tax-credit of $8,000. The Washington State Legislature recently approved a measure that allowed eligible residents to use the promise of this credit to secure a loan from the state government so that those funds could be used on the down-payment of home, thus enabling people that have not saved the minimum 3.5% down the opportunity to (1) become a homeowner and (2) take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit while it's available. Said measure sat in political purgatory as it seemed that the legislature (and other state legislatures that had approved the measure) may have overstepped their bounds - so the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been meeting to decide if they were going to allow homebuyers that hadn't saved the minimum down payment requirement to use state funds as a short-term loan for the down payment. So the HUD has ruled:…Read more
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Maybe the sky isn’t falling.
May 11, 2009 /Maybe the “sky” isn’t falling?! A chicken and a pig walk into a grocery store…………..Nah, I’ll save that story for another time. : ) I get asked at least once every day, often multiple times: “Andy, how are things going in real estate, REALLY?! Is it as bad as it sounds?" Truthfully, in my opinion: No! I’m seeing offers being written on homes - almost every day. I’m meeting with sellers who realize 2007 prices are gone - but that they can still sell their home, and do. I’m helping investors find incredible values - on all types of properties. I’m marketing new construction homes for Builders - and receiving offers every weekend. I’m working with Banks to offer 3.75% interest rates to First Time Home Buyers – who are loving it! Yeah, I’d say things are “looking up”. Did you read the article in last week’s Seattle Times entitled: “Pending sales of single-family homes in King County surged in April”? The article mentions some of the good news: King County Pending sales were up 25% in April over March. Snohomish County Pending sales were up 28% in April over March. One factor to keep in mind, though, is that…Read more
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The $64,000 Question
April 1, 2009 /I had a client the other day ask me about the real estate market and waiting for the bottom. In this case he was hoping for real estate prices to come down so he could buy at a lower price. I told him that was a great idea, but it is really tough to time the market and that many professionals get that type of thing wrong, so I would be wary of trying. In his case he was looking for a $200,000 house, and a 5% price reduction which represented a $10,000 difference in the cost of the house. We agreed that was a lot of money. However, I told him that if the bottom of the market was already here, and we just didn’t recognize it yet, waiting longer could cost him a bunch more. I explained that once the housing market bottoms and we see the market for homes stabilize, demand will increase and we will probably see a significant amount of buyers since plenty of people have had the same thoughts about waiting for the market to bottom. Because of that we could see prices rise quickly. This would actually not be the most costly part of…Read more
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Searching for Bank Owned Properties?
March 4, 2009 /Opportunity takes many forms. In fact, once you've spent a little time on the planet, you realize that many of the laws governing science also apply in large part to the rest of life: there's rarely a negative without a positive, and for every action, there's usually an equal and opposite reaction. Our current financial trauma is offering up further proof, as heavily leveraged howmeowners who purchased at or near the top of the real estate boom cycle are contributing to the dramatic increase in foreclosures. Typically, a bank-owned home is one that has been through a foreclosure proceeding, and is now offered for sale by the mortgage holding lender who is keen to get the property off their books to reduce their holdings. Banks are in the business of lending, and are not well-suited to property ownership or management, so it's in the best interests of everyone - the bank, new homebuyers, the economy, and the community, for these homes to be occupied as soon as possible, before the effects of long-term neglect can begin to impact the value of the structure. It's important to note that the timeframe leading up to a foreclosure can take anywhere from several…Read more
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Top 3 Reasons why $ 8000 tax credit is better
February 15, 2009 /The National Association of REALTORS (NAR) have to be glad that this week is over. It had to be tortuous - thinking on Tuesday that Congress was on it’s way to approving a $15,000 tax credit for those that bought a home in 2009 - then watching the House of Representative strike it completely from the Economic Stimulus package on Wednesday. The NAR's response to the unexpected change was measured, saying only that nothing was yet decided, and that changes would be made before President Obama signed the bill into law. The week ended with a narrow passage of the Economic Stimulus Package on Friday, and (together now, with a sigh of relief) the NAR's efforts were rewarded with an honorary mention in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. I preface with all of that to say this: THANK GOD! Not because I think that the measure will be a salvation to the industry, but because their are several reasons why the act passed yesterday is better than the $7,500 tax credit passed last year and the $15,000 tax credit initially supported by the NAR. Here are the top three reasons why: (1) The same benefit for all that use…Read more
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Jesse Moore & Lisa Bender: 5-Star Real Estate Agents indeed!
December 10, 2008 /We think a lot of ourselves here at Pickett Street, but it's always nice when others validate it in the form of an award or designation! It's with great pleasure that I announce that two members of the Pickett Street team have been selected by Seattle Magazine as 5-Star Real Estate Agents, Best in Client Satisfaction for 2008. My business partner, Jesse D. Moore, and our fellow associate, Lisa Bender, have both been selected among this year's honorees. What exactly does this mean? Seattle Magazine says it best: Experts say that at least 90 percent of homebuyers rely on real estate agents for advice and guidance. But with more than 14,000 Seattle residents holding real estate licenses, how do you find someone who knows the market, represents your interests and operates with an emphasis on integrity and service? Seattle magazine can help. For the fifth year, the magazine has formed a partnership with Crescendo Business Services, an independent research firm, to find out which real estate agents have most consistently wowed their clients. This past May, Crescendo surveyed by mail and phone, 29,000 Seattle area residents who had recently purchased homes. An additional 250 surveys were sent to mortgage and…Read more
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Forbes ♥ Seattle real estate market: Quick to Rebound
November 6, 2008 /You have to love good news about our real estate market - and if it happens to come from one of the premier authorities on wealth, well that doesn't hurt. Forbes recently published an article declaring Seattle's real estate market as the most likely to rebound. I'm posting the beginning of the article here, with a link to the full story below: If you're a homeowner seeing property values plummet, look to the commercial real estate market for solace. It might tell you which areas will recover fastest--and which will likely remain weak. The Urban Land Institute recently asked 700 real estate professionals to name the best (and worst) places to invest in commercial real estate in the coming year. Those surveyed included private developers, Realtors and Real Estate Investment Trust executives. Their answers also apply to the residential market, since the single-family-home sector typically follows the economy. As wages go up and there are more jobs, more people can buy homes, pushing prices up. The best cities in which to invest are those that are considered gateways to international investment, have vital downtowns where people can forgo cars, and don't have a glut of condos or office space. These traits…Read more
