"Color Our World with Hope" is the theme for this year's Gala and Auction to celebrate and support the Pregnancy Center of Pinellas County and New Life Solutions. 

The event held at The Historic Coliseum located at 535 Fourth Ave North in St Petersburg sponsors and celebrates the work of that the ministries continue to do each year with a silent auction, fine dining and entertainment.

I am proud to sponsor and attend this exciting event in support of the Pregnancy Center of Pinellas county and New Life Solutions. 

For more information go to www.newlifesolutions.org

Sheryl Manor subdivision in St Petersburg FL is a neighborhood is nestled north to south between 22nd avenue N and 38th avenue N and east to west of 62nd street and 58th street. This area is a central location in St Petersburg close to Tyrone Square Mall, St Petersburg General Hospital, shopping centers, fitness centers, several A plus schools and other useful locations.

Many homeowners that live in Sheryl Manor enjoy the local Northwest Park and the J.W. Cate Recreation center where sports such as softball, soccer, swimming, tennis, karate, gymnastics, cheerleading, basketball, volleyball, or dance are offer. Families can enjoy playing on the park or walking the dog around the 1 mile trail that surrounds this popular St. Petersburg park.

Sheryl Manor consists of over 900 homes that were built in the the 1960’s. Most of the homes in Sheryl Manor St Petersburg subdivision are one story single family residential block homes with an attached garage. Just over 200 homeowners in Sheryl Manor St Petersburg have pools and most of the homes have approximately 1500-2000 square feet of living space.

St Petersburg Florida Home Buyer's can continue to take advantage of the first time home buyer tax credit and current homeowners can benefit with a cash refund now also if they are looking to buy a larger home or downsize.

This week the Senate and House passed the bill almost unanimously and tomorrow the President has announced that he will sign the legislation that will extend the first time home buyer $8000 tax credit and create a new $6500 incentive for current home owners who are buying a new property and have owned a property for 5 years.  This legislation takes affect immediately for current homeowners making a new home purchase that qualify and close after tomorrow. 

St Petersburg homeowners if you are preparing to close on your new home you can collect the tax credit as long as your closing take places after November 6th.

All first time home owners (defined as those who have not owned a home in the last three years) will continue to enjoy this benefit with minor adjustments the tax credit will be available to more buyers by increasing the cap on the adjusted gross income from $75,000 to $ 125,000 for single filers and $150,000 to $225,000 for joint filers.

 According to the estimate made by National Association of Realtors, 355,000 homeowners, by the end of November, will have purchase a home because the of tax credit.  Maybe the tax credit is helping to stabilize the St Petersburg market!

In late September the U.S department of Housing and Urban Development released FHA Mortgagee Letter 2009-28 in efforts to reaffirm FHA appraisal requirements which relate to appraiser independence to support prudence lending practices.  This letter details a series of changes that will take affect as of Jan 1st 2010.  These changes will have a significant impact on the way that lenders currently do business. 

Here is a list of the changes that will be made.

1) Mortgage brokers and commission based lenders will be prohibited from involvement in the appraisal process.

2) FHA-approved lenders have new responsibilities to ensure that FHA appraisers are ".compensated at a rate that is customary and reasonable for appraisal services in the market area."

3) "The fee for the actual completion of an FHA appraisal may not include a fee for management of the appraisal process or any activity other than the performance of the appraisal." "AMC and other third party fees must not exceed what is customary and reasonable for such services provided in the market area of the property being appraised."

In my opinion this is a benefit to the appraiser as they will not have additional work to complete for the brokers such as estimated value requests to help the lender determine loan to value ratios.   There will also be a gray area of questions as to what is a customary and reasonable cost for the appraisal process which may result in big differences in the cost of appraisal for the comsumers. 

According to the National Association of REALTORS(R) we are "almost there" in terms of extending the tax credit. Below are the details NAR listed on the process unfolding.

The extension and expansion of the home buyer tax credit is the pending business in the Senate. After a long week of negotiation on the credit, an agreement on the scope of both expansion and extension has been reached. The extension is part of a larger bill that has not yet gone to a vote, however. A Senate vote on the underlying bill will occur in the Senate during the week of November 1. The package will then go back to the House. The House is expected to accept the Senate amendments, vote on the package and send it to the President for signature. The underlying bill is an extension of unemployment benefits. Other provisions in the bill include expansion of the net operating loss carryback rules, new requirements for some tax return preparers and noncontroversial provisions that "pay for" these changes.

The provisions of the current amendment for the home-buyer tax credit are:

• Credit available for purchases before May 1, 2010. Prospective purchasers with binding contracts in place as of April 30, 2010 will be allowed an additional 60 days to complete the transaction.
• Credit remains at $8000 for first-time purchasers. No change to definition of first-time purchaser.
• New $6500 tax credit for repeat buyers who purchase between December 1, 2009 and May 1, 2010. Repeat buyers must have lived in their homes consecutively for 5 of the previous 8 years.
• Income limits are expanded to $125,000 on a single return and $225,000 on a joint return. Current law $20,000 phase-out retained.
• New anti-fraud limitations are imposed.

Check back for more details on the Home Buyer Tax Credit Extension.

Home sales in the Pinellas and Hillsborough county areas are increasing and that increase has taken place 8 straight months in a row!  According to the Florida Association of Realtors the Tampa Bay/St Petersburg area sold a total of 2,326 single family homes in April which is up 11% from April 2008 when the sales where 2087.   The median sales price in April was $135,200 which is a drop of 23 percent from last year's $176,000 partly due to the low listing prices from the large amount of foreclosed home sales flooding the market.  There is a hopeful sign in the numbers as the median home price in Jan was 122,400.  Even a slight increase to the current 135,200 in April's median home sales is a positive sign for the St Petersburg area.  With the new bill from the State of Florida allowing First Time Buyer's to borrow their tax credit for their down payment until next year's tax refunds the St Petersburg housing market should have an excellent 3^rd quarter!

If you are be interested in applying for a St Petersburg Mortgage use this application.

Click here is you need more information on the most popular mortgage loan with the easiest qualifications and lowest down payment, the FHA Mortgage Loan 

First time buyers that are in the Military or are Veterans can also take advantage of the down payment assistance loan utilizing the VA Mortgage Loan

During Mid May the Legislature approved a 66.5 billion dollar state budget that allotted for 30.1 million towards state funded down payment assistance programs.  Although details are still in the works the State of Florida announced beginning July 1st those first time home buyers who could qualify for the $8000 federal first time home buyers tax credit will be able to apply for down payment assistance in advance. 

The funds will be provided upfront to help homeowners purchase before the tax credit expires.  These first time borrowers will then be required to refund the tax credit once they receive the funds during their next tax period.  The program will be operated through local county housing operations and details are scheduled to be released soon.

St Petersburg First Time Home Buyers should be ready in advance by getting their mortgage financing applications started so that they can take advantage of the 30.1 million in funds quickly.

Apply here if you may be interested in beginning the St Petersburg Mortgage application.

Click here is you need more information on the most popular mortgage loan with the easiest qualifications and lowest down payment, the FHA Mortgage Loan 

First time buyers that are in the Military or are Veterans can also take advantage of the down payment assistance loan utilizing the VA Mortgage Loan