Great News for Hawaii's First-Time Home Buyers!

HUD recently announced that qualified First-Time Home Buyers who want to take advantage of the available tax credit of up to $8,000 now have another option available to them to help them become homeowners.  Please remember that there are a great many programs available to help you qualify and to be considered "Qualified".  Phone a reputable Mortgage Broker or phone us and we can refer you to one. Tana Feeley is a Vice President at Central Pacific Homeloans and is a good place to start.  Contact her at tfeeley@cp-homeloans.com.  Another wonderful Mortgage Broker is Steven Penske, Branch Manager at Home Mortgage Resources in Honolulu, (808) 375-8422.  Please let them know we referred you to them as they take EXCELLENT CARE of our clients.

It's clear that first-time home buyers have been having a major impact on the housing market this year.The National Association of Realtors announced that first-time buyers, who typically account for less than 40% of home sales each year, have been especially busy…in March, homes that were purchased by first-timers accounted for 53% of all sales, and this percentage is expected to hold true for all of 2009.

With home affordability higher than ever, available tax credits and some of the lowest interest rates ever recorded for home loans, who can blame them? Particularly as a first-time buyer, there may never be a better time to buy a home than right now.

However, the availability of a tax credit, while a great incentive, does not put the money in the hands of a buyer right away. HUD's announcement now allows for prospective and qualified home buyers to borrow the money from approved agencies and lenders.

While details of participating lenders and HUD-approved agencies are not yet available, this should greatly help prospective first time home buyers to get busy searching for their next home.

As further details become available, I will post them here for you, or you may contact me anytime.  We are so excited that one more barrier to home ownership is being removed so the time to start shopping is now!

Gayle and I are also very pleased to share that we are now with Hawaii Realty Group.  We are the LARGEST Privately Held Real Estate Company in Hawaii and we now have offices across the Island of Oahu.  We will be happy to meet with you at any of our offices at Kapolei, Hawaii Kai, Waikiki or even at your favorite Starbucks!

Warm Regards-

Mike