Maybe a new reason to smile.
SANATOGA PA – With home sales nationwide already in the basement and threatening to sink lower still, the real estate broker who leads the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors – and who also operates a branch office at 2500 E. High St. – sees any boost to the housing market as a good thing.
Sales of existing single-family homes across the country fell 4.7 percent from December (2008) to January (2009), the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Wednesday (Feb. 25, 2009). Last month’s sales also were 7.1 percent lower than those of January 2008, it added. Those are two reasons why NAR’s Pennsylvania affiliate welcomes newly enacted plans to help current and future home owners, its president, Greg Herb, said.
- Sales of new homes during January, reported today (Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009), fared even worse. Read the story at MarketWatch.
Herb is owner and managing broker of Herb Real Estate, which operates offices in Sanatoga and Gilbertsville.
The national Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan, discussed Tuesday (Feb. 24, 2009) by President Obama in his highly watched televised address to Congress, intends to provide access to low-cost refinancing and help reduce monthly mortgage payments for as many as 9 million U.S. home owners facing the prospect of foreclosure. A second initiative, the First-Time Homeowner Tax Credit, gives first-time buyers an $8,000 refundable tax credit on the purchase of a home in 2009.
- Who qualifies? First-timers are considered those “who haven’t owned a primary residence in the past three years,” according to Jay Brower, a CPA in the Philadelphia accounting firm of Gold Gocial Gerstein. “In the past, taxpayers had 15 years to pay back this credit,” Brower said, “but 2009 buyers are off the hook as long as they live in the home for at least 36 months.”
- Help for those who bought earlier. A smaller tax credit is available for homes purchased on or after April 9, 2008, and before Jan. 1, 2009, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
Both measures “can help invigorate the economy and the real estate industry overall,” Herb said, “by giving more residents the opportunity to save their homes and others a chance to purchase a home.”
A graph of home sales in the 19464 zip code from 2003 to 2008.
On the foreclosure front, at least, Pennsylvania seems to be faring better than other states. RealtyTrac, a company that monitors foreclosure activity, reported that national foreclosure rates decreased in January and that Pennsylvania ranked 29th in the nation for foreclosures, below the national average.
Graph from City-Data.com. Photo from Clipart.com
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[...] Help Welcomed As Home Sales Keep Falling The president of Pennsylvania’s real estate trade association, who operates a brokerage office in Sanatoga, sees new federal housing legislation as a boon to business. [...]
[...] Help Welcomed As Home Sales Keep Falling The president of Pennsylvania’s real estate trade association, who operates a brokerage office in Sanatoga, sees new federal housing legislation as a boon to business. [...]