Denise Allen Realtor@ Chesapeake, Hampton Roads

The latest report shows that housing prices were up again in August. I know in our housing market buyer activity was up. First time home buyers were trying to buy a home before the tax credit ends the end of November. The tax credit was the most impportant to my first time buyers. The Virginia Housing Development Authority added a mortgage loan where the buyer can use the tax credit as part of their loan so that they did not have to have alot of money to buy a home.

The tax credit is coming to an end the end of November. For most first time home buyers the end of the tax break is the end of their owning a home dreams. The requirements on credit are getting tougher all the time also. Between the 2 things first time home buyer sales will fall because the buyers will find it harder to qualify and they do not have the funds needed to buy.

I really hope the government will extend the tax credit until spring. Home sales seasonaly drop in the winter months. With the tax credit extension it will help keep the housing market moving and give the economy more time to work on recovering.

The latest reports show that sales of homes went up in Apri in Hampton Roadsl. Buyers are starting to buy homes. The prices also had a slight increase in April. Generally prices and sales do go up in the spring. Hopefully this trend will continue and we are starting to see an upswing in real estate. The only way to know if we hit the bottom is to see an increase.

The report also stated that first time homebuyers make up the largest increase in buyers. The federal tax credit has been a factor in first time homebuyers buying now.

Only time will tell us for sure if real estate in Hampton Roads is starting to recover. The next couple of months will give us a good idea where we are headed.

I do not believe there is anyone that has perfect credit scores. With the mortgage companies raising the credit scores for buying a home it sometimes take some work to get the credit scores up high enough to qualify for a mortgage loan.

The first step is to get your credit report. You can either get this on your own or through a mortgage loan officer. The first thing is to look for credit fraud. I have seen credit fraud becoming more of an issue. You will need to get the fraud cleared up as soon as possible. Talking with a local lender or a lawyer can help you with this process.

If you have collections or judgements on your credit report you will need to get them paid off in order to buy a home. To help you work on this it is best to sit down with a mortgage lender to go through each account. The loan officer will be able to set you up on a plan to help raise your scores. They can tell you which accounts to work on first that will raise your score the fastest. If you follow the plan you will be able to buy the home you want.

Getting your credit scores higher does not only help you buy a home. When you buy a vehicle you will be able to get better interest rates on the auto loan the higher your credit score is. Even homeowners insurance is linked to your credit report. Even if you are only looking to rent a home your credit score plays a major role in being able to get the home you want.

Do not let your credit report hold you back. Take action today.

I recently read an article that talked about the differences in buying an older home over a new home. There are pluses to both.

The article talked about the fact that you can usually get an older home that has the wallpaper and paint already done. Sometimes you can actually negotiate to have the window treatments included with the home. The closing can occur in a short period of time. On the down side you are buying a property that has used carpet, appliances, heating, and cooling systems to mention just some of the items in the home that have already been used since the home was built.

When you buy a new home you are buying a home that is under warranty for the minimum of 1 year. Nothing in the home has been used prior to the buyer moving in. The buyer can select the items that go into the home if they are building from the ground up. If the buyer does buy an inventory home they can usually get the best incentives from the builder. Even if the buyer does not get to pick out everything for the home, most builders put neutral flooring in the home and sometimes they actually put upgrades into the home. Right now builders are offering allot of incentives to buy their homes. There is a down side to buying a new homes. The main down side is that it normally takes 4 to 5 months to build a new home. If their is an inventory home you like you can close as quickly as a resale home. Allot of time there is going to be construction going on in the neighborhood after you close.

I have been previewing resale homes lately. Most of the homes I have looked at clearly needed some TLC. I was surprised that with the market as slow as it has been that the sellers have not put more into the staging their homes to sale. I know that there are homeowners that do take allot of pride in their homes also. After looking at older homes I have to say that I believe buyers are going to get allot more for their money in a new home. One of the big things that I noticed is that new homes are brighter and have more windows to let natural light into the home. I would recommend that buyers whenever possible buy a new home over buying someone else's headaches.

Higher unemployment obviously has a negative effect on housing in Chesapeake. Job losses prevent twentysomethings from finding their first jobs. As they find jobs the baby boomer parents are thrown out of their jobs. It throws them into a job market that's unreceptive to both younger unskilled people and older workers alike. Unemployment prevents otherwise well-qualified people from buying homesand pushes more homeowners into foreclosure. It keeps prospective home buyers who feel insecure about their paychecks on the fence. The real estate sector, which has lost plenty of jobs in construction, brokerage, lending and affiliated businesses, could shrink further.

The bottom line is that jobs are once again an issue of great importance to real estate in Chesapeake. People whose businesses and livelihoods depend on housing would do well to pay attention to the trends.

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