Alan Lurie

MEN ARE FROM MARS...

The following post has been copied in full from CRS Magazine(Nov 2009)...

Gender and Home Buying Decisions
When it comes to making home buying decisions, men and women often have different priorities. A Coldwell Banker survey finds that most women are able to select a home much more quickly than men. almost 70% of women need only 1 visit to a new home to decide that it's right for them, compared with 62 percent of men. About one third of men (32%) need two or more visits.

More than half (55%) believe it's more important to live closer to their extended family than to their job, compared with only 37% of men. Women are also more likely than men (65% compared with 51%) to loose intrest in the home of their dreams if there are concerns about the home's security.

Although the press and our association is crowing about the continuing months of increased sales...I believe...

HOUSING CONTINUES TO BE A TEETER-TOTTER

Although I've been a REALTOR for over 8 years, this year seems to the year that continues to be among the most difficult to see a sustainable pattern on which we can hang our hats.

Depending on whom you've heard or read last , conclusions regarding the 'bottoming out' seem to to waiver daily. I, as a studious agent, am afraid to speak with any real sense of confidence because my clients are searching for and expect me to give them something more definitive than a guess . That said...A recent forecast made in the Kiplinger letter (Aug 7,2009) is the one which most closely is akin to my own convictions.

Paraphrasing their early August writings...Kiplinger thinks that the rebounds we are now seeing really mask a continuing decline...their words were "big problems". They believe that the market will still drop another 5-8% before we find a firm bottom...and once reached, the decline may be as deep as a 40% retraction from the 2006 market highs. Another authoritative source is Case-Shiller whose statistics tell us that today's pricing is that of mid-2002.

Kiplinger further suggest that the recovery to previous peaks "will take years'. They continue in their forecast to say that "in most of the country it may take 7-12 years to regain lost ground".
To that, without an inflationary spike ...I CONCUR...at 3% per year increase, the arithmetic is easy. Factored into their forecast is the rising joblessness and the high supply of unsold inventory.

They continue to conjecture that if prices do rise...the glut of sellers who were waiting for that to happen will put their homes on the market in a manner which will again gives us an over-inventory...and a continuation of the current cycle. Those new market inventories and the new foreclosure will dampen whatever short term "excitement" we'll see.

Still...I DO believe that the end to the decline is in sight...we'll just be flat for some 9-12 months and then ...the corner will be turned and we'll be in a more predictable and normal market. To help effect that The Fed will work to keep mortgage rates low...and better housing days will be on the horizon!

So... I suggest telling our clients that...if you are a buyer...BUY, and if you are a seller...PRICE YOUR HOME RIGHT. Getting an appraisal wouldn't hurt. You'd then have a better sense of what a lender might do.

These are the thoughts of an idle mind...MINE.

WASHINGTON -- Senate negotiators reached a tentative deal to extend a tax credit for first-time home buyers, but its passage remains uncertain.

The agreement would extend the existing credit for first-time home buyers, worth up to $8,000, while offering a new credit of up to $6,500 for some existing homeowners, Senate aides said. The reduced credit would be available to all home buyers who have been in their current residence for a consecutive five-year period in the past eight years.

The new provisions are aimed at broadening availability of the credit beyond first-time buyers and giving the weakened real-estate market a bigger boost while preventing real-estate investors from benefiting.

Many property experts have cited the credit as a reason for signs of recovery in the housing market in recent months. But that recovery was somewhat undercut by the September drop in new-home sales reported Wednesday.

The credit would be extended from its current expiration date of Dec. 1 to all contracts entered into by April 30, and closed before July 1. It is expected that income limits on people claiming the credit would be increased to $125,000 for singles and $250,000 for couples, from the current $75,000 and $150,000, aides said. The credit phases out for people making more than those amounts.

While Senate lawmakers appear to have reached a deal on the substance of the tax credit, they are still at odds over how it would be brought to the Senate floor. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) hopes to add it to a bill currently on the Senate floor to extend federal unemployment insurance benefits. But agreement on that hasn't been finalized.

While Senate Republicans are likely to support the measure, House Democrats have raised concerns that it carries a high cost to the government. The Internal Revenue Service is examining the program for alleged abuse.

SENATE NEGOTIATORS REACHED A TENTATIVE DEAL TO EXTEND A TAX CREDIT FOR FIRST TIME HOME BUYERS !