Oct. 29, 2009 - Senators reached a compromise to extend the $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers, a boost the housing industry expects will help it pull out of its two-year-old downturn.

Lawmakers in Washington also added a $6,500 tax credit for other primary-home purchasers and raised the qualifying income limits to $125,000 for single taxpayers and $225,000 for joint taxpayers, housing-industry sources said.

Under the Senate compromise, buyers must have sales agreements in hand by April 30, but they will have until June 30 to go to settlement, the sources said. The measure still faces votes in the full Senate and the House.

The current tax credit did little for the new-home market in September, the Commerce Department reported - news that took many industry analysts by surprise. Sales fell 3.6 percent from August and 7.8 percent from September 2008.

Industry observers had expected a fifth consecutive monthly increase in new-home sales, believing that the tax incentive for qualified first-time buyers - credited with 357,000 sales of previously owned homes so far this year - would do the trick.

Instead, sales of typically more expensive newly built houses slipped.

As the Senate worked on the compromise, third-quarter data were released showing that the burden of foreclosure filings in the post-bubble market continued to shift from the subprime-ridden "sand" states (California, Nevada, Florida and Arizona) to areas with rising levels of unemployment and adjusting rates on the "exotic" mortgages prevalent in high-cost metropolitan markets.

Yet Las Vegas remained the toxic-loan capital, according to the third-quarter survey by RealtyTrac Inc., of Irvine, Calif. - its rate of foreclosure filings was seven times higher than the national average.

Labels: home buyers tax credit

Oct. 1, 2009 - Pending home sales have increased for seven straight months, the longest in the series of the index which began in 2001, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in August, rose 6.4 percent to 103.8 from a reading of 97.6 in July, and is 12.4 percent above August 2008 when it was 92.4. The index is at the highest level since March 2007 when it was 104.5.

The Pending Home Sales Index in the Northeast jumped 8.2 percent to 85.3 in August and is 12.0 percent higher than August 2008. In the Midwest the index rose 3.1 percent to 90.8 in August and is 7.6 percent above a year ago. In the South, pending home sales increased 0.8 percent to an index of 104.6 and is 8.2 percent above August 2008. In the West the index surged 16.0 percent to 130.5 and is 22.3 percent above a year ago.

Labels: real estate pending home sales

Oct. 1, 2009 - The respite from rapidly rising insurance rates is ending for Florida homeowners.

State regulators approved an average 19 percent statewide increase for Federated National Insurance. The insurer, a subsidiary of 21st Century Holdings in Lauderdale Lakes, has 30,889 policies in Florida.

Northern Capital Group was approved for a 10 percent hike on the policies it has taken out of Citizens Property Insurance, the state-run insurer.

Both companies said the rate increases will cover higher reinsurance costs and make up some of the revenue they've lost due to higher wind mitigation credits they must provide.

Nearly half a dozen companies have applied for rate increases or are working on filings.

United Property & Casualty has asked for a 12 percent average statewide increase. Southern Fidelity and its sister company, Capitol Preferred, have requested a 7.2 percent average statewide increase.

In July, Citizens began to submit its filing for its first rate increase in three years. Its rates have been frozen since 2007.

Citizens is limited to a 10 percent increase, due to a new law passed in May.

But its initial staff analysis found that some areas of the state could be due rate decreases.

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