Well, it is now official, having passed both houses of Congress and getting the President's signiture the first time home buyer's tax credit for up to $8,000 is now officially extended to April 30th. Qualifying buyers have to be in contract by this date but can close up to 60 days beyond this to comply with the criteria. Additionally, "move up" buyers, those who have been in their principle residence for 5 out of the last 8 years qualify for $6,500 tax credit. Under both scenarios an individual buyer cannot earn more than $125,000 or a couple purchasing together up to $225,000.

It hasn't been signed into law yet but what it looks like is that the $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers who earn less than $125,000 as a single buyer or $225,000 for a couple will be extended from our current drop dead date of November 30th to April 30th 2010. Buyers need to be in escrow by this date but are allowed to close up to 60 days later. Additionally, "move up" buyers, those who have been in their home for at least 5 years and who also meet the income requirements of first time home buyers will be given a $6,500 credit. It should be passed as soon as next week. For any of you agents out there, bring one of these buyers for MLS #616699.

What else can I say? Since the Corvallis housing market wasn't hit near as hard as others, our time of correction also took less time to recover. It isn't as robust of a market as a few years ago but we are seeing multiple offers, back ups, and immediate sales IN OCTOBER!

As we hurl headlong into the last few days for the first time home buyer to obtain the  tax credit I would like to put out there a little known fact: the first timer can have a co-signer and still qualify! I presently have a buyer utilizing this opportunity and a buyer in contract to purchase one of my listings is doing the same.

I was just trolling through the Pew Research Center's Social and Demographic Trends site (if you haven't gone there check it out! They have some neat info and surveys to take) and came across something interesting but to me not at all surprising. They have charts of "magnetic states", ranking the propensity the state has to draw people in and rankings of "sticky" states, the measure of how well any individual state retains its native born citizens. Nationally, Oregon ranked a combined 6th place in both magnatism and stickiness. To my surprise, Arizona topped the list. Being from the NW I guess blistering hot deserts and rattle snakes don't make me want to pack up and move. I've never been to West Virginia, but it unfortunately ranked last in both categories.

The chasim between what we Realtors know about the local housing market here in Corvallis and what the general skeptical public opinion may be has once again been narrowed thanks to US News and World Report. Their stataticians ground through employment and population data from 384 distinct statistical areas around the country and came up with their top ten cities for appreciating markets over the next ten years. Corvallis came in as the forth strongest market in the US with a projected 4% annual appreciation over the next ten years. Our encouraging Spring and now early Summer volume of pending sales support that we could be in the primary stage of recovery.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary Shaun Donovan announced to the NAR on Tuesday that FHA- approved lenders are able to monetize the first time home buyer tax credit through short term bridge loans allowing these borrowers to access the funds at closing. Yes, if I heard it right, the first timers are able to use this credit as a down payment. Some time next week FHA will go public with this news and the fine details will be clarified. Every so often the government does something so out of character that it is actually effective.

Yesterday, we had a panel of six mortgage professionals come to the office for a Q and A session. When the question was asked "How much down and what credit score if required to obtain preferred interest rates on owner occupied single family dwellings?" the pros said that a 740 credit score and 10% down will get it done with mortgage insurance and a 720 score minimum with 20% down without mortgage insurance. It was stated that zero income loans weren't happening even with 55% down, so LTV is less important than DTI 42%, this is a new change since the meltdown.

We keep hearing that "we're all in this together", it isn't just a unfortunate few who are feeling the sting of a slow market but the great majority of us. Since the financial component of our lives is being seriously challenged, a few tips on how to cut costs and actually INCREASE internet exposure is worth looking into.

Being by nature a kind of extrovert, one who prefers face to face contact over digital, the overwhelming currant to "blog" and "text" just seems too sterile for my taste. But, tastes can be learned. At a time when a great many of us have terminated costly websites for self promotion a free approach to social networking is really attractive. The utilization of websites such as LinkedIn, which is designed as a professional network and Facebook, a site very familiar with the younger folks but nevertheless can be easily used by real estate professionals are both free and are the emerging trend.  Pack your profile with full spellings of all manner of local points of interest and when people troll the internet looking for such a local feature that you mention in your site "bam' your site promoting you as a real estate professional comes up. Aside from Active Rain, other sites to look at are: retagger, and real town. Play with them, add as much info as they will allow and link them to each other and invite others to join you. I don't understand the cyber world but there are "spiders" that creep through the web collecting bundles of info and if you can get your business into a bundle of information your free internet exposure will begin to expand exponentially.