HUD: Tax Credit Can Be Used on Closing Costs

A good news for first time home buyers.

FHA-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 eagerly awaited guidance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on so-called home buyer tax credit loans that was released today.

Under the guidance, 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 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 down payment.

Read more>

Dallas home prices down 5.6%, second lowest decline among the metropolitan areas

There is a good news in the bad news. Dallas had the second lowest decline in price at 5.6 percent after Denver 5.5. Great time to buy and invest.

The pace of Dallas home prices declines increased in the first quarter – down almost 6 percent from a year earlier.

The year-over-year decline was the largest reported for the Dallas area in the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller monthly index benchmark.

The 5.6 percent Dallas area home price drop was still just a fraction of the almost 19 percent nationwide annual decline in values, the researchers said Tuesday.

All 20 of the U.S. metropolitan areas in the Case-Shiller index showed drops in prices..

Some economists have recently been forecasting that nationwide home prices will soon rebound.

“Based on the March data, however, we see no evidence that a recovery in home prices has begun,” S&P’s David M. Blitzer said in the new report. “All 20 metro areas are still showing negative annual rates of change in average home prices with nine of the metro areas having record annual declines.”

The steepest annual home price drop was recorded in Phoenix with a 36 percent decline. And prices in Las Vegas were down 31.2 percent in March from a year ago.

The smallest price decline was recorded in Denver – down 5.5 percent. And Dallas had the second lowest decline at 5.6 percent.

Read more>

Home Sellers, Please Relax

Good practical advises for sellers in this article. We are still not on the bottom, so if you would like to sell, price aggressively in order to excite the byers pool and generate multiple offers, instead you prise high on old fassion way and negotiate the price down, if some offer come across.

What's the rush? Home sales are starting to stabilize, so why push into a bad deal?

Forbes recently gathered a panel of real estate experts to discuss whether the U.S. is truly experiencing a bottom in housing prices. Panelists include Pat Lashinsky, Michael Feder, Spencer Rascoff and Peter Slatin. Our panel believes that if you are a seller it might still be prudent to wait as the bottom is not yet here. The discussion follows.

Read the article>

Report: Dallas-Fort Worth is No. 2 in new-home sales, starts

Despite huge cuts in the residential construction business, Dallas-Fort Worth still ranks second in the country in new-home sales and starts.

Only Houston had more new-house construction and sales during the 12-month period ending in March, housing analyst Metrostudy Inc. said Tuesday in a new report.

"I expect the D-FW area and Houston to continue to lead the nation in new-home starts and closings," said David Brown, who heads Metrostudy's Dallas office. "Even though activity has fallen off dramatically, the slowdown in Dallas-Fort Worth and other Texas markets is not nearly as severe as other markets around the country.

Read more>

Report: Dallas-Fort Worth is No. 2 in new-home sales, starts

Despite huge cuts in the residential construction business, Dallas-Fort Worth still ranks second in the country in new-home sales and starts.

Only Houston had more new-house construction and sales during the 12-month period ending in March, housing analyst Metrostudy Inc. said Tuesday in a new report.

"I expect the D-FW area and Houston to continue to lead the nation in new-home starts and closings," said David Brown, who heads Metrostudy's Dallas office. "Even though activity has fallen off dramatically, the slowdown in Dallas-Fort Worth and other Texas markets is not nearly as severe as other markets around the country.

"Dallas-Fort Worth and Texas have not been as severely affected by the recession as other regions of the country," he said. "Consequently, consumer confidence is much stronger in our region than any other area in the country."

Builders have cut the number of home starts in North Texas more than 50 percent in the last year because of the housing sector decline and slumping national economy.

Read more>

Home Sales Figures Offer Glimmers Of Hope

Acceptance of lower prices by sellers could indicate bottom is near.

Dark clouds are still looming ominously over homes sales in 25 large housing markets, but a silver lining is starting to shine through, especially in California. That's according to data released Thursday by Radar Logic, a New York-based data provider.

The good news-bad news numbers indicate that California homeowners who are not under severe pressure to sell are nevertheless starting to accept lower bids. Such sales are considered vital before local housing markets can find their bottoms. Owners who fit this description include those who are neither in possession of foreclosed properties or face severe pressure to sell from the home's mortgage lender.

Read more>

Big Improvement to First-Time Buyer Tax Credit

Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, on Tuesday said that the Federal Housing Administration is going to permit its lenders to allow home buyers to use the $8,000 tax credit as a down payment.

Previously, most buyers wouldn't receive the funds until after they filed their tax return, and that deterred some people from using the credit. The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® has been calling for the change.

“We all want to enable FHA consumers to access the home buyer tax credit funds when they close on their home loans so that the cash can be used as a down payment,” Donovan says. His remarks came in an address to several thousand REALTORS® gathered Tuesday morning at "The Real Estate Summit: Advancing the U.S. Economy," at the 2009 REALTORS® Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo in Washington, D.C..

Read more>

Foreclosures up 32% since April 2008

The number of foreclosures nationwide increased by 32 percent compared to the same time last year and by 1 percent in April compared to the previous month, RealtyTrac said Wednesday.

The online company reported 342,038 foreclosures, which includes default notices, auction-sale notices and bank repossessions.

RealtyTrac officials said the report shows one in every 374 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing in April, the highest monthly rate since the company started tracking them in January 2005.

Read more>

Tax Credit Can Be Used for Down Payment

Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, on Tuesday said that the Federal Housing Administration is going to permit its lenders to allow home buyers to use the $8,000 tax credit as a down payment.

Previously, most buyers wouldn't receive the funds until after they filed their tax return, and that deterred some people from using the credit. The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® has been calling for the change.

Read more>

92% of Dallas County homes to get lower or flat appraisals for '09, official says

For Dallas County commissioners, the news Tuesday about this year's tax roll was bleak but not unexpected: Home foreclosures, declining building permits and high office vacancy rates will combine to send property values downward for the first time in years.


And that means fewer property tax dollars flowing into county coffers during a particularly brutal budget crisis.

For homeowners tired of seeing their values increase, however, it's good news. About 92 percent of all residential properties will either fall in value or remain the same, said Ken Nolan, the county's chief appraiser.

Read more here>