Real Estate Information

The Federal Government's tax credit for first-time and repeat home buyers is set to expire soon!  To take advantage of the tax credit home buyers must be under contract by April 30, 2010.  Details of the program are as follows:

• $8,000 tax credit until April 30 for first-time home buyers.
• $6,500 tax credit for buyers that have lived in primary residences for at least five consecutive years out of the last eight.  This credit will also expire April 30.
• Home buyers must enter into contracts to purchase their homes by April 30 and close by June 30 to be eligible for the credits.
• Income eligibility range is up to $125,000 for individuals and $225,000 for couples.  The same limits apply to the credit for existing home owners.
• Excludes homes with purchase prices exceeding $800,000.

Unlike the previous expiration of the first-time home buyer tax credit in November 2009, there is no indication that this program will be extended.  Home buyers are urged to take advantage of this program before the end of this month to get the monetary benefit of being a home buyer. 

Call me if you have any questions about the home buyer tax credit program and begin your home search today.

Good news keeps rolling in for Greenville's housing market -- last month Builder magazine named it one of the Top 20 healthiest markets in the nation for 2010!

Citing the area's growing population, affordable housing, and expected job growth this year, Builder ranked the Greenville-Mauldin-Easley metro area No. 19 on its list of markets expected to recover most quickly.

Check out the numbers for yourself:

• Median resale home sold for $139,000 at the end of 2009
• Population: 635,000
• Expected 1.1% gain in total employment for 2010
• 13% increase in total building permit activity in fourth quarter of 2009

What does this mean for you when it comes to buying or selling a home in Greenville? That now's a great time to buy or sell -- or do both! Call me today to find out how to make this growing market work for you!

Those of us who live in Greenville, S.C., already know how fantastic the award-winning downtown area is, with its unique restaurants and shops, thriving arts community, and beautiful waterfall park -- right in the heart of downtown!

If you're thinking about making a move, check out the recent Greenville city profile in US Airways Magazine to learn more about its unique combination of culture, business and lifestyle.

And if you've already decided to move and need to find a home, I'll be happy to help. I think you'll love living in Greenville -- I do!

If you are a teacher or an emergency first responder -- including police officers, firefighters, EMT workers, and correctional officers -- South Carolina wants to help you buy a home!

The 2010 Palmetto Heroes Program now has $40 million in aid to help the states's heroes buy a home, including

• up to $7,000 in down payment assistance
• a low interest rate of 5.125%

Borrowers must meet South Carolina's first-time home buyer requirements. Note that qualifications for state aid vary and income restrictions apply.

First-time home buyers who purchase before April 30 can also take advantage of the federal tax credit incentives -- when you combine both programs, that's as much as $15,000 in assistance to help you buy your home!

Loans are available on a first-come, first-served basis. You must have an accepted sales contract on a home before you can reserve funds, so call me today for help finding the home of your dreams -- it has never been more affordable!

January brought signs of recovery for the Greenville, S.C., housing market, according to a recent article in The Greenville News ("Housing 'recovery beginning' here," Angelia Davis, Feb. 13, 2010). In the article, local real estate experts noted that Greenville's sales volume was up 14.9 percent to $63 million in January from last year's numbers.Sources attributed much of the increase to tax credit incentives for first-time home buyers and repeat buyers, which expire on April 30 this year.

As market activity increases and home inventory levels decrease, we can expect home prices to increase. As noted in the article, the average home price in the Greenville market was up 4.2 percent, from $165,734 in January 2009 to $172,662 in January this year.

Now is a great time to buy a home in Greenville. You can take advantage of the government's tax credit incentives to buy now at an affordable price, and as the market continues to recover, your home will only increase in value.

If you'd like to talk about how to get started now on building an investment that can last a lifetime, feel free to give me a call. I'll be happy to answer your questions!

I’m often asked if this is a good time to buy a home.  Some clients are concerned that home prices may fall further than they have already.  They are assuming that the best course of action is to wait for the bottom in the market and then buy.  The problem with this approach is that you don’t know where the bottom is until you see it in the rear view mirror, meaning until you’ve missed it!

Home prices are one factor in determining your cost of ownership, but so are interest rates and financing availability.  Even though interest rates have gone up in the last six months, they are still near historic lows.  Since your monthly mortgage payment is a combination of paying down your principal and paying the interest owed, if home prices come down a little further but interest rates go up, it could cost you even more to service a mortgage on an identical home!

While a home is a major investment, it is also the center of your personal life.  It’s important to live in a home that reflects your taste and values, yet is within your financial “comfort zone.”  To that end, it may be more important to lock in today’s relatively low interest rates and low home prices, rather than to hope for a further break in prices in the future.

Please give me a call if I can be of any assistance in determining how much home you can afford in today’s market.

The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 was just signed by President Bush with some amazing benefits for first time homebuyers.  Call everyone you know who wants to buy their first home (or who hasn’t owned one in three years), this is too good to miss – it’s a $7,500 tax CREDIT (not deduction but a credit).

If you have not owned a home in three years, you qualify as a first time home buyer.  If you buy a home after April 9, 2008 and before July 1, 2009, you qualify for this credit.  Call your friends who just bought a home since April 9th and tell them they may take $7,500 off their tax bill if they qualify.  It has to be your principal residence, so rentals do not count.

The tax credit is 10% of the cost of the home, up to a maximum of $7,500. This is not an additional deduction that lowers the amount of income to be taxed, it is a tax credit.  In other words, you take $7,500 off your tax bill.  But there is a catch; the credit you receive now is actually an interest-free loan that must be repaid.

The loan has no interest, and will be paid back over 15 years.  You get the credit on your 2008 taxes, but you start paying it back on your 2010 taxes that are due in 2011, so you get at least two years without a payment.  You pay back 6.67% of the credit each year, so for a $7,500 credit the payment is $502.50 per year.  If you stay put for 15 years, you pay it off with no interest.

What happens if you sell the house?  You pay the balance back at the closing.  So, you get $7,500 now, and pay the rest of it back if you make money on the sale of your house.  What happens if you do not make enough money when you sell your house?  They forgive the rest of the debt. 

Other restrictions stipulate that you have to buy your first house in three years before July 1, 2009, not have super high income, not use bond financing and buy anywhere in the US.

If you’d like to learn more about this program, please call me!