I am always coming across interesting articles that might help my clients understand the real estate process a little easier.In congress there are two important bills that will help out struggling home owners. The first is H.R. 1852 - Expanding American Homeownership Act of 2007. This bill will help out first time buyers with higher government lending limits. Currently they are at $362,000 for a secure governmnet backed loan, this legistation will raise the limit to $417,000. Which will help those looking to buy a home in the Inland empire.
The next piece of legistation is H.R. 3648 - Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, The bill gives a tax break to homeowners who have mortgage debt forgiven as part of a foreclosure or renegotiation of a loan. No taxes would be owed on the value of any debt forgiven or written off. Currently such debt forgiveness is taxable income. This was actually just signed into law by the president last week. "This is going to make a happy holiday for many homeowners," Bush said of the bill moments before signing it into law.
In our local area home prices have dropped on average 11.9 percent from November 06 to November 07. We all expected a drop like this. There is no surprise with these numbers. The amount of resale homes that went pending in November has gone up from October. I have personally seen a lot more activity out in the housing market. Three of my buyers that I am working with have submitted offers on a property to find out that there are already other offers submitted. I am coming in contact with more and more buyers that are seeing the benefits of buying right now. With interest rates low, home prices are favorable, and there are a lot of homes to choose from. More renters are becoming home owners. 2007 was a tough year I know a lot of agents that have left the business. It is sad to see them go, but in the coming months we will start to see more qualified and professional REALTORS. We should start to see a lot of positive changes in the first or second quarter of 2008. If you have any questions feel free to email me or call me at 951-710-1662.
Sincerely Kevin Williamson local REALTOR http://www.williamsonteam.net/
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