Eric Reid

$8000 Tax Credit extension likely?

CNBC insider reports maybe YES

Diana Olick, CNBCs Real Estate Reporter, thinks the administration is going to extend the $8000 Home Buyers Credit. I was on the fence for a while as to whether Congress would extend the $8000 first time home buyer tax credit and whether the Administration would stand behind that, but I'm getting some clues that have pushed me over the side, Olick says. I think it may happen. She names a couple of insiders who deflected her questions about an extension, but cites Secretary Geithner as saying, We're not going to make the mistake many countries made in the past of putting the brakes on too early and creating risk that we have a, you know, weaker recovery with even higher levels of unemployment going forward. And Geithner again: [we are] looking at a set of programs like unemployment insurance, other sets of things that have--that are set to expire. And there's a good case for extending them. And I think a lot of support fundamentally for doing

it. Olick also cites a report by the Joint Committee on Taxation on extending and even broadening the credit that Capital's Washington Research Group says, "strongly suggests that a mere extension of the program will be much less and refutes whispers in Washington that an extension alone could cost more than $15 billion.

No to Interest-Only Mods

The Mortgage Investors Coalition, a trade group of asset managers holding more than $100bn in residential mortgage-backed securitizations (RMBS) on behalf of pension funds, college endowments, and other investors, is calling on the Treasury Department to reject a proposal to offer distressed borrowers interest-only payments for a certain length of time as part of the terms of a Making Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) workout. The coalition said the proposal fails to address the issue of negative equity, and that it is not in the best interest of the housing industry and consumers. Modifying homeowners into mortgages that have future payment increases and adjustable interest rates will not improve a homeowners situation, said Micah Green, a partner at Patton Boggs and coalition spokesman. Doing so would ignore the fact that many of these homeowners are already in interest-only or other non-traditional mortgages and owe more on their mortgage than their home is currently worth

Municipal general election to be held at the Lawrenceville City Hall, 70 South Clayton Street, Lawrenceville, Georgia, on Tuesday, November 3, 2009, to elect two members of the City Council. The poll will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The posts for this election are currently occupied by Councilmembers Robert Clark and Peter "P.K." Martin, IV.

Those residents desiring to vote in the election who are not now registered as a qualified voter must register to vote no later than the close of business on October 5, 2009.

JUST VOTE

JUST VOTE

JUST VOTE

JUST VOTE

The country is going through a house selling boom at the bottom. Nationally, home prices are down 31% from the 2006 peak, and lots of the sales are foreclosures, although just about anything that's moving is cheap. A lot of the investing action around the country is in lower-end homes, which have a ready market of renters and are often priced low enough to be purchased for cash. The activity is centered primarily in fading manufacturing hubs like Detroit and Cleveland, and famous bubble cities like Miami, Phoenix, and Sacramento, but investors are sniffing around for cut-rate deals just about everywhere from Memphis to Philadelphia.

Average Sold Home Prices in the greater Gwinnett are for August were $187,542

Mortgage rates up

Two weekly surveys this week reported a rise in mortgage rates, ending a nearly six-week run of steady or declining rates in the Freddie Mac weekly survey. Freddie Macs weekly survey of agency-purchased loans put the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) stayed below 5% but increased 5bps to 4.92% with a 0.7 point for the week ending October 15. Last year, the 30-year FRM was 6.46%. The 15-year FRM rate was 4.37% with a 0.7 point in the Freddie Mac survey, up from 4.33% last week, but down from a year ago when it was 6.14%. Bankrate.coms index, which tracks large US banks and thrifts, put the 30-year FRM at 5.32% with a 0.34 point, up 10bps from the week prior. Bankrate.com put the 15-year FRM at 4.7%, up 10bps. The five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 4.38% with an average 0.6 point, up from last week when it was 4.35%. A year ago, it was 6.14%. The one-year ARM averaged 4.6% with an average 0.5 point, up from 4.53% last week.