• The $8,000 tax credit is for first-time home buyers only. For the tax credit program, the IRS defines a first-time home buyer as someone who has not owned a principal residence during the three-year period prior to the purchase.
• The tax credit does not have to be repaid unless the home is sold or ceases to be used as the buyer’s principal residence within three years after the initial purchase.
• The tax credit is equal to 10 percent of the home’s purchase price up to a maximum of $8,000.
• The tax credit applies only to homes priced at $800,000 or less.
• The tax credit now applies to sales occurring on or after January 1, 2009 and on or before April 30, 2010. However, in cases where a binding sales contract is signed by April 30, 2010, a home purchase completed by June 30, 2010 will qualify.
• For homes purchased on or after January 1, 2009 and on or before November 6, 2009, the income limits are $75,000 for single taxpayers and $150,000 for married couples filing jointly.
• For homes purchased after November 6, 2009 and on or before April 30, 2010, single taxpayers with incomes up to $125,000 and married couples with incomes up to $225,000 qualify for the full tax credit.

The $6,500 Move-Up / Repeat Home Buyer Tax Credit at a Glance

• To be eligible to claim the tax credit, buyers must have owned and lived in their previous home for five consecutive years out of the last eight years.
• The tax credit does not have to be repaid unless the home is sold or ceases to be used as the buyer’s principal residence within three years after the initial purchase.
• The tax credit is equal to 10 percent of the home’s purchase price up to a maximum of $6,500.
• The tax credit applies only to homes priced at $800,000 or less.
• The credit is available for homes purchased after November 6, 2009 and on or before April 30, 2010. However, in cases where a binding sales contract is signed by April 30, 2010, the home purchase qualifies provided it is completed by June 30, 2010.
• Single taxpayers with incomes up to $125,000 and married couples with incomes up to $225,000 qualify for the full tax credit.

Courtesy of www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com

— The tax credit would be $8,000 for first-time home buyers and $6,500 for move-up buyers (from December 1, 2009 to April 30, 2010).

— Move-up buyers will be eligible, so long as the home they are leaving has been used as their principal residence for 5 years or more.

— The tax credit would sunset on April 30, 2010. However, there would a binding contract rule that will permit those with contracts as of April 30th to qualify for the credit so long as they complete the transaction within 60 days.

— The income limits for both first-time home buyers and move-up buyers would be $125,000 for single return and $225,000 joint return.

— Cost of the home may not exceed $800,000 to be eligible.

— For purchases made in 2010, taxpayers would be able to claim the credit on their 2009 income tax return.

— Home buyers would not have to repay the credit, provided the home remains their principal residence for 36 months after the purchase date.

— The amendment includes a military waiver provision, meaning the recapture provision would not apply in the case of a member of the Armed Forces, military intelligence or Foreign Service who is on qualified official extended duty. In addition, members of the military who have been deployed overseas for 90 days or more in 2008 or 2009 would have until April 30, 2011, to claim the home buyer tax credit.

— The amendment also includes anti-fraud language that provides math authority to the IRS to do greater oversight during the processing of the return rather than waiting for an audit situation. The amendment requires the taxpayer claiming the credit to be 18 or older as well as requiring a HUD-1 settlement statement to be attached when claiming the credit.

AND supposedly, sometime after 11a, the Treasury and HUD Secretaries will officially call on Congress to extend the credit and the higher conforming loan limits.

Home Buyer Tax Credit:  Final Deal? – Realty Check with Diana Olick – CNBC.com.

November 30th, 2009 is the last time that the current first time home buyers tax credit will be beneficial to new home purchasers. Up until that date, home buyers can get the $8,000 without having to pay it back to the Government in the same fashion that some prior first time home buyer tax credits had worked. Prior to the current policies, the first time home buyers tax credit worked like a loan, where tax payers could deduct it from their taxes, but would have to pay it back in the long-term. The new idea has helped out a lot of home buyers, and it has been really easy for people to qualify as well.

For the first time home buyers tax credit to survive in its current form, there will need to be an extension or an adjustment passed by the Senate, and they seem to be working hard on it behind the scenes. The exact parameters of the new plan haven’t been revealed yet, but it should be similar to what has been in place for the past year or so. With so many people just starting to come out of deep financial trouble, it would make a lot of sense to extend the credit, because a lot of people could still be looking to purchase a new house in this market.

A few of the direct benefits of extending the first time home buyers tax credit include that it could help a sluggish home sale market, and that it could continue to stimulate the real estate sector. There are an awful lot of houses for sale out there still, and extending the tax credit can help the sellers as much as the buyers, because it will continue to create more people being active in the process. The Senate should definitely extend the first time home buyers tax credit, and if they can, make it easier for people to get that tax rebate back quicker when they file their taxes for the 2009 year.

First Time Home Buyers Tax Credit Extension Coming
The government is trying to formulate a plan where the current first time home buyers tax credit is extended so that more people can take advantage of the program.
Read More

The slumping downtown Boston condominium market is showing signs of improvement, but still has not stabilized at the top end.

See inside the Bryant Back Bay condo complex in downtown Boston.

• Discuss When will the Boston condo market hit bottom?

New data from the third quarter show sales of the city’s high-end, full-service buildings fell 32.3 percent, median sales prices dropped 12.6 percent, and price per square foot was off 20.3 percent, compared with the same period last year.

The downtown condo market in general is faring slightly better than the high-end segment, according to Listing Information Network, a private company that follows the downtown condo market. Sales were down 10.4 percent and median prices down 5.4 percent last quarter, according to the report.

Debra Taylor Blair, president of Listing Information Network, said she had expected far worse. “It was very positive that the median selling price was only down 5 percent,’’ Taylor Blair said.

The news followed the weekend auction of 14 condominiums – at deep discounts – in the deluxe Bryant Back Bay complex, which led some local real estate industry officials to say high-end buyers are returning, if the price is right.

In 40 minutes, buyers snapped up $20 million worth of condos at an average of $1.4 million a unit, or $671 a square foot, said Jon Gollinger, chief executive of Accelerated Marketing Partners, the Boston firm that ran the auction. Prices were as much as 40 percent below last asking prices for the deluxe condos in the 50-unit building, Gollinger said. On average, the prices were about 27 percent last asking prices, he said. It was the first auction in an upscale Back Bay residential complex in decades.

John Ranco, a senior broker at Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty in Boston, said he was enthusiastic that there were buyers for such high-end homes on the border of the Back Bay and South End.

“Any kind of movement is fantastic,’’ said Ranco. “It is a complete vote of confidence in our local market.’’

Real estate broker Kevin Ahearn said he believes the luxury downtown market is on the mend with nearly 200 sales of homes of more than $1 million this year. Still, he called the Bryant results “a little disappointing’’ because he hoped for higher values.

Ahearn, president of the Boston-based real estate brokerage and marketing firm Otis & Ahearn, has in the past criticized auctions for driving down real estate values.

He said he doubted other full-service luxury buildings – like the Clarendon, Battery Wharf, and 45 Province – would follow the lead of Boston Bryant Back Bay. Overall, he said the Boston real estate market is “showing strength and it is coming back.’’

Gollinger said the weekend auction results reflected new housing data showing still a gulf between what buyers will pay and what sellers are offering.

“We are disappointed in the broader sense that this development was developed toward a market that doesn’t exist today,’’ he said. “We had to take a deep breath and sell at a price the consumer wanted to pay.’’

Jenifer McKim can be reached at jmckim@globe.com.

© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

Downtown Boston market for condominiums slumps – The Boston Globe

Posted using ShareThis

Ahearn’s condo marketing/research shop just sent over a batch of stats on $1 million-plus condo sales in the Hub, culled from LinkBoston.com.

The numbers point to an increase in sales velocity in high-end condo sales since June, according to Will Kaufman, a market analyst on Ahearn’s team.

Let’s take a look at his argument.

There were 101 sales of condos for more than $1 million through the first six months of the year.

That’s about 16 super luxury condo sales month.

But in the last 3 ½ months, there have been 88 sales, a pace, if it continues for the rest of the year, could yield 150 condo sales of $1 million and in the last six months of 2009, according to Kaufman.

That translates into more than 25 sales per month of $1 million-plus downtown condos, or a 51 percent increases in sales velocity over the first half the year.

Legitimately, there are signs the jumbo loan market is starting to come back. While still pretty tough, that is likely making it easier to sell some of these units.

The survey, of course, does not separate out units at new condo projects downtown, which have seen pretty sluggish sales.

And, of course, after the near collapse of the world’s financial system put the downtown market into a deep freeze last fall and into the spring, there’s has been nowhere to go but up for luxury condo sales.

That said, it’s a trend worth keeping an eye on.

Sales picking up of luxury downtown condos? – Boston Real Estate – Boston.com

Posted using ShareThis

The Greater Boston Housing Report Card 2009 shows renters in the region pay an average of $1,629 a month, 11 percent more than four years ago, even though housing values dropped about 18 percent during the same period.

Barry Bluestone, the report’s coauthor, attributed the increase to a growing demand for rentals, as people who lost their houses to foreclosure have moved into apartments, and to a high number of qualified buyers who remain content to rent until the economy stabilizes.

Regional housing specialists are scheduled to meet tomorrow to discuss the report, released by the Boston Foundation and the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association.

Although rents have fallen about 2 percent since they peaked in the third quarter of 2008, they still strain the finances of many Boston-area residents, the report found.

“Renters still make up 40 percent of the people who live here. They tend to be people who are lower or moderate income or young people,’’ said Bluestone, dean of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University. “We clobbered them during this recession.’’

Adding to their woes, the median household income of renters has fallen 7 percent since 2000, the report said, while homeowners’ incomes increased 4.7 percent.

The high rental costs, combined with an economic slowdown, has forced more people to become homeless and resulted in growing waiting lists for affordable rental housing, said Aaron Gornstein, executive director of the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association. At the same time, state and federal programs to assist renters have been cut back, Gornstein said.

“Home prices have come down but rents haven’t,’’ he said. “It’s a very difficult situation for renters.’’

Russell Smith, 38, knows firsthand about the high price of renting. After being laid off as a hotel manager in July, Smith decided to move out of his $1,850 a month South Boston loft to find something more affordable. He and his roommate are considering a two-bedroom South End apartment for $1,600 a month.

“It’s been very hard to find something that is reasonably priced and what we want,’’ said Smith. “There’s a lot of people who have deals out there, but not great deals.’’

The annual report card, which was first published in 2002 when home prices were on the rise, was created to examine how the region deals with housing affordability, said Paul Grogan, chief executive of the Boston Foundation.

Grogan said this year’s report is “sobering’’ because it shows the Boston area is still unaffordable for many people, despite a drop in housing prices since 2005. Compared with Boston, property values in areas such as Miami, Phoenix, and Las Vegas have plummeted an average of about 50 percent during that time.

And as Boston rents have gone up, the gap between prices in the region and those in the nation’s most expensive markets – including Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, and San Francisco – has narrowed, according to the report.

“We are having trouble holding onto our people and trouble creating jobs,’’ said Grogan. “Our relative affordability hasn’t improved.’’

Although rents have started to moderate and some landlords are offering incentives to reduce vacancies, some housing experts don’t expect a prolonged downward trend. Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, said rents probably will soon increase again because there has been a slowdown in housing construction, and more people unable to buy a home because they are unemployed or unable to get a mortgage are turning to rentals. That kind of market stagnation does not bode well for the rental market, Retsinas said.

“You want an economy that encourages mobility so people can move where the jobs are,’’ he said.
Renters get little relief as demand rises, incomes fall – The Boston Globe

Posted using ShareThis

The latest Senate proposal would drop the requirement that the credit be available only to first-time buyers, broadening the program but also adding to its cost, estimated by congressional analysts at $16.7 billion.

The backers of the idea, Georgia Republican Johnny Isakson and Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat who is chairman of the Senate’s banking committee, have suggested that their measure be attached to another pending bill aimed at throwing a lifeline to people hit by the recession – an extension of federal assistance to the millions in danger of exhausting unemployment insurance benefits.

While the White House says there will not be a second stimulus package following the $787 billion economy booster enacted last February, extending the home buyers’ credit and unemployment benefits are among several primary means being pushed by the administration or Congress to help people get through the prolonged economic downturn.

Others include continued subsidies for laid-off workers trying to keep their health insurance and a proposal by President Obama to provide seniors and others with a $250 payment to make up for the lack of a Social Security cost of living increase next year.

The stimulus-package credit allows first-time home buyers to reduce their federal income taxes by 10 percent of the price of a home, up to a maximum of $8,000. The credit, which could cost in the $12 billion to $15 billion range this year, is set to expire Dec. 1.

The Isakson-Dodd proposal would extend the credit to June 30, 2010. It would also remove the first-time home buyer requirement and raise the eligibility income limit to $150,000, or $300,000 for a couple. That’s double the current phase-out limits.

As with the Cash for Clunkers program for cars, skeptics have questioned whether the credit will have any long-term effect on the housing market.

Brookings Institution economist Ted Gayer wrote in a recent report that the tax credit is “very poorly targeted.’’ He calculated that of the 2 million or more people who would make use of the credit if it were extended for a year and expanded to cover all buyers, only about 383,000 would be additional sales motivated by the credit. He estimated the real cost of the credit would be about $40,000, rather than $8,000, per buyer.

But believers say it has been instrumental in sustaining an economic recovery highly dependent on housing.

Meanwhile, the San Antonio Express-News reported yesterday that the tax credit could be extended for another year for military personnel under proposals in the House and Senate.

The proposals have faced no opposition as lawmakers cite sacrifices made by members of the armed services.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

Tax credit may be expanded – The Boston Globe

Posted using ShareThis

Posted using ShareThis

Posted using ShareThis

Posted using ShareThis