Esko Kiuru - Las Vegas NV Mortgage Consultant

The drama is over for Las Vegas valley's - including Summerlin, Southern Highlands, Green Valley, North Las Vegas, Anthem and Mountain's Edge - residents. The first-time home buyer tax credit has been extended because many considered it a strong demand booster for the ailing housing market and more of the same is needed at least for the time being. In fact, it was expanded to include the move-up buyer as well, a factor that should further power the demand side. Let's look at a few of the more appealing aspects a move-up buyer can enjoy with the up to $6,500 tax credit.

The contract deadline is April 30, 2010, preferably with the mortgage already approved and ready to go, and closing needs to happen by June 30. That's the time line.

The move-up, or repeat, buyer is one who has owned and lived in the same property five consecutive years of eight years before the purchase date. He can buy a home that is less expensive than the existing one.

Single taxpayer income limit is set at $125,000 and married taxpayers filing jointly are at $225,000.

The new home has to be the buyer's primary residence. The legislation says nothing about the old home, so it can become a rental or a second home. Selling it now for a reasonable price in Las Vegas would probably be tough, therefore hanging onto it for a spell would make sense. The new house's price ceiling is pegged at $800,000.

Just about any type of a home will qualify. Existing and new construction single-family houses, condominiums, townhouses, manufactured and mobile homes and even boats that are used as principal residences. Investment property and vacation homes are out of luck here.

These are the highlights of the program and may bring Las Vegas homeowners something they can work with. Especially useful can be the provision that the old home does not have to be sold to qualify for the tax credit. An excellent website that will offer further details can be accessed here: http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/

The housing debacle in Las Vegas and throughout the country is testing consumers' patience in a major way. Real estate values have eroded without mercy in many areas, to the tune of double digit percentages. Some Southern Nevada - featuring Summerlin, Mountains Edge, Henderson, North Las Vegas, Pahrump, Southern Highlands and Anthem - communities have seen drops in the 50 to 60% range. Many homeowners here and elsewhere, as a result of that, find themselves underwater, meaning the underlying mortgage is higher than the property's value. The foreclosure epidemic hasn't let up yet, either. There really isn't much to write home about.

Those applying for a mortgage loan nowadays have run into their own set of issues, largely thanks to the unstable housing market.

To approve and close a mortgage took 30 days in 2008, but this year that time span has grown to almost 47 days, asserts J.D. Power and Associates in its recent study. That is a serious jump and Las Vegas mortgage borrowers certainly can identify with it. Main reason is the added scrutiny every home loan application now receives. Mortgage providers continue walking on thin ice and are doing everything to avoid approving loans that may not work out. A half inch mortgage file can balloon into a 2-inch thick stack after all the supporting documents the nit-picking underwriter requests are in. That kind of stuff can test any applicant's staying power.

Also, home loan firms seem to have shifted some resources away from origination to deal with foreclosures, short sales and mortgage modifications. And what not. It obviously will slow down the already lengthy process even further. So, when J.D. Power comes and asks How did it go?, the consumers will first take a deep breath and then happily let it all out.

There is a way, however, to keep mortgage applicants more or less happy. It has been tested time and again and it works. It's called communication. Home loan originators, and even real estate agents, could include a brief explanation about the current thorny state of the market and the potential challenges it may present early on in the process and that would help prepare them for the journey to a satisfying closing. And a new home.

The real estate meltdown that continues to churn on has already seen some vein-popping scenarios concocted by many mortgage banks seeking to take advantage of homeowners facing foreclosure. And new ones keep surfacing. One of the latest creations could be called a home loan provider "walkaway", because that's what it really looks like.

When a mortgage lender executes a foreclosure the normal route is to take possession of the property in question and then decide what to do next. Now many of them have begun leaving the property in the former homeowner's name after the foreclosure, basically the exact opposite of what was done before. This is bound to happen when the home has liens attached to it that would cost a good chunk of money to clear. And most of all when the property is underwater, since now the mortgage provider cannot sell it at break-even basis, much less at a profit.

They are in essence forcing ex-homeowners to at least deal with taxes, possibly also with HOA dues and any code violation penalties for as long as possible. People who have already gone through the trauma of a foreclosure now may have to defend themselves against these collection efforts. That while they are living elsewhere and trying to put their lives back together.

Las Vegas valley - with communities like Summerlin, Henderson, Southern Highlands, Anthem, Mountains Edge, Green Valley and North Las Vegas - mortgage borrowers are especially vulnerable to this type of enterprise. Foreclosure rate here is still high and housing values have plunged leaving thousands upon thousands severely underwater. This of course applies to any region in the country, but those mortgage borrowers most at risk live in the hard-hit areas.

At least one state, Ohio, has enacted new laws that will address this obvious abuse mortgage lenders try to administer on unsuspecting homeowners in distress. Nevada, Arizona, California and Florida, the top four in foreclosures, ought for sure to keep a vigilant eye on this type of development and possibly stiffen up their existing laws. Preferably act before it becomes a meaningful problem.

Las Vegas real estate has recently been the punching bag of many industry observers and for a good reason. Mortgage foreclosure rate here is still reaching for the moon, housing inventory remains high and the economic picture is painted in dark colors. True, mortgage rates are enticing and home prices have plunged and have together provided some hope, but a lot more needs to happen for it to reach the "normal".

What's encouraging is that the vital signs are slowly improving, with emphasis on the word slowly.

As was reported by GLVAR, or Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, 3,535 single-family houses were closed in October, logging a nice 5.3% boost from September. This actually translates into a 30.1% jump from a year ago, a strong show of progress. As a note of caution is the fact that much of the demand still comes from first-time buyers and opportunistic investors. They are almost exclusively feasting on the lower end of the price scale.

Southern Nevada - including Mountains Edge, Anthem, Green Valley, North Las Vegas and Southern Highlands - median home values labored higher to $139,100, a $1,100 advantage over September. It's not much but Sin City gladly takes anything at this point. The price curve is in essence trying to establish some kind of a steady course upward, taking one small step at a time. On the sobering side, it is still down 26.8% from last year.

The housing inventory in Las Vegas continues to hover above the psychologically important barrier of 20,000. In October it in fact grew a little, to 20,998, amounting to an about 1% rise. As GLVAR states, a large share of this is pending a sale in some form, which is good, leaving only 8,000 or so listings without a contract. Nevertheless, this statistic has remained stubbornly high for months on end and needs to come down for a chance to spawn a sustainable recovery.

The word optimism is slowly returning to the vocabulary of many Southern Nevada real estate observers. Much more needs to be done but it's good get a taste of it anyway.

Southern Nevada - with communities of Henderson, Anthem, Summerlin, Green Valley, Silverado Ranch and Mountains Edge - is in the very eye of the tornado when it comes to real estate markets sucked into its furious spin. Home loan foreclosures here are now as commonly talked about as the weather. Many homeowners have given up on trying to hang on to their properties while some are tenaciously seeking solutions to stay on. The latter have several avenues to explore, either directly through their mortgage lenders or then with assistance from a legal counsel.

Now they have a new weapon to deploy. It's called the retro appraisal.

It simply is an appraisal that is based on a past date. It could be three years ago, or five years ago. Normally appraisals are done for the present to be part of a mortgage application, vouching for the collateral's value.

Lawyers representing Las Vegas homeowners in mortgage foreclosure cases, foreclosure mediations and home loan modifications can now rely on these retro appraisals. The basic argument is that lenders were approving loans back in the day using inflated appraisals, largely ignoring any risk management protocols they may have had in place. As the infamous bubble was gathering steam the goal generally was to close mortgage loans as soon as possible for maximum profit and then sell them off to investors. The housing market was piping hot and everybody wanted to make the most of it.

A rather high number, put at 70%, of appraisals for mortgages were plenty overstated between 2005 and 2007, says Retro Appraisals, a firm that has created the back-looking valuation method. "The historical revised real estate appraisal is extremely helpful to a borrower or his or her counsel when seeking to modify a mortgage, defend against a foreclosure or take part in a court-ordered mediation," explains the company's co-founder.

This instrument can be truly effective in the more severely affected housing markets like Las Vegas and much of Arizona, California and Florida. The bubble really galloped out of control in them, artificially pushing up prices that then in many cases became the official appraisals for mortgages. If employed properly, it can be a useful bargaining tool.