The Wisconsin REALTORS Association (WRA) reports that statewide home sales increased 5.8 percent in this year’s third quarter compared to the same period a year earlier. It marked the first increase since the recession began in late 2007. Sales climbed 9.4 percent in Milwaukee County and 6.8 percent for the four-county Milwaukee metro area as a whole. WRA Chairman John Flor remarks, “We are finally seeing signs of recovery in the housing market.” Driving the trend, Flor noted, were low mortgage rates and the U.S. government’s $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers. Capitol Hill lawmakers recently voted in favor of extending the credit through April 2010 and expanding it to include all buyers — a measure WRA officials said would benefit not just home sellers and buyers, but the economy as a whole. While Wisconsin home sales climbed in this year’s July-through-September stretch, the median home price in the state decreased 6.3 percent to $148,000 from the third quarter of 2008. WRA President William Malkasian reasons, “Over the past year we’ve seen a shift from higher priced homes to lower priced homes, so the median price naturally falls.”
Archive for the ‘News’ Category
WI Home Sales up 5.8 Percent, First Increase Since Late 2007
November 13th, 2009Do Open Houses Work?
November 13th, 2009While some real estate professionals believe open houses are more trouble than they are worth, others consider them highly valuable in that they generate interest in a property and introduce agents to prospective clients. “It gets a lot of traffic, and we’re for anything to shake the bushes and generate some business,” says REALTOR Robby Young of Mobile, Ala.-based Coldwell Banker United Realtors. Most open houses are held on Sundays, but some agents are opening the doors on weekday nights to meet the needs of potential buyers who work on weekends. Approximately 48 percent of buyers visited open houses as part of their home search in 2008, according to the National Association of Realtors, with newer listings, reasonably priced dwellings and easily accessible properties generating the most traffic.
Commercial Land For Sale in Menomonee Falls
August 27th, 2009Property Owners Network not only works with homes for sale in Menomonee Falls, but commercial land for sale as well! We have approximately 1 acre of commercial land in Menomonee Falls Wisconsin available and it’s just 1 block North of Silver Spring Drive! You can walk the land but please call us for an appointment first. We’d be more than happy to meet you there and discuss the commercial property and the opportunities available. Please call us today at (262) 268-8200 to discuss this commercial property in Menomonee Falls.
Menominee Falls Comercial Land For Sale
Homes for sale in Saukville WI
August 27th, 2009As you may already know, Property Owners Network saves our clients thousands of dollars in commissions. Our service area reaches quite a few cities but we are based in Saukville, and specialize in homes for sale in Saukville and surrounding areas. If you live in or around Saukville and are looking to sell your home without worrying about paying a realtor a high percentage, contact us today! If you’d like to browse the houses for sale in Saukville please view our listings.
HUD to Release Guidance on Tax Credit Bridge Loans
July 9th, 2009FHA-approved lenders received the go-ahead to develop bridge-loan products that enable first-time buyers to use the benefits of the federal tax credit upfront, according to guidance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on so-called home buyer tax credit loans that was released today.
Although the HUD guidance allows the bridge loans to be used in conjunction with FHA first mortgage financing, few lenders are expected to create bridge-loan products. There are a number of reasons for this. First, the loans must be structured as personal loans rather than as second mortgages or mortgage-backed lines of credit because of statutory restrictions. Second, the limited time-frame of the tax credit program–it’s set to expire before Dec. 1 of this year–leaves little time for lenders to set up and operate programs profitably.
Given these limitations, despite the announcement by HUD, the best opportunity for buyers to leverage the tax credit for up-front assistance is through programs set up by some state housing finance agencies. About a dozen state housing finance agencies (public bodies that are instrumentalities of state government) have developed their own tax credit bridge loan programs, so buyers in states whose HFAs offer such programs can monetize the tax credit upfront to cover all or part of their downpayment.
Information on the state HFAs that offer tax credit bridge loans is available at the Web site of the National Council of State Housing Agencies.
FHA Guidance has Limited Scope
Under the guidance from HUD, FHA-approved lenders can develop bridge loans that home buyers can use to help cover their closing costs, buy down their interest rate, or put down more than the minimum 3.5 percent. The bridge loans must be structured as personal loans.
The loans can’t be used to cover the minimum 3.5 percent, senior HUD officials told reporters on a conference call Friday morning.
Thus, buyers applying for FHA-backed financing with an FHA-approved lender that offers a bridge-loan program can get a bridge loan to bring down the upfront costs of buying a home significantly but would still have to come up with the minimum 3.5 percent downpayment.
The first-time homebuyer tax credit was enacted last year–and improved upon earlier this year–to help encourage households to enter the housing market while interest rates are low and affordability is high. The credit is worth up to $8,000 and is available to households that haven’t owned a home in at least three years. The credit does not have to be repaid, and is fully reimbursable, so households can get their credit returned to them in the form of a payment.
Learn more about the credit, including how to apply for it this year even if you’ve already filed your taxes, at REALTOR.org.
Source: Robert Freedman, REALTOR® Magazine Online
Forecasters Say Recession Nearing End
July 9th, 2009More than 90 percent of economists think the recession is nearing its end, but they don’t expect the economy to soar anytime soon.
Nearly 75 percent of economists, surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics, say that the recession will end in the third quarter. Another 19 percent think the turnaround will come in the fourth quarter. The rest are betting on the first quarter of 2010.
Americans seem to believe that things are getting better too. The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index rose 14.1 points in May to 54.9, the second month in a row in which there have been an increase.
Forecasters say that home sales will bottom out in the second quarter, an important stabilizing factor.
Source: The Associated Press, Jeannine Aversa (05/27/2009)
