Gina McKinley, ABR, CDPE, CRS ~ Chandler, Gilbert, & Mesa's #1 Expert

Be careful what you spend these days when you are thinking about remodeling your Mesa AZ house. Home values are down and so are the recovered costs of remodeling.

It is best to take a look at the cost vs. value before taking on a remodel project. In 2005, at the peak of the real estate market nationwide, approximately 87% of the cost of a remodel would be recouped in the sale of a home. Today's real estate market is recovering approximately 64% of the remodel costs.

Everybody is watching their wallets, so if you are considering a remodel think carefully. While remodel costs are down it is important to remember that home values are down too. Unless you want to stay in your Mesa home for the duration of your mortgage, you cannot count on recovering costs of a major remodel.

However, some remodel options that are more cost effective than others in today's market. These projects include: roofing, siding, windows, and doors. Redoing or finishing a basement or attic is also recommended instead of adding an addition. These items are recommended because a seller will recoup a greater percentage of the cost when they sell their Mesa AZ home.

Gina McKinley can help you buy or sell a Mesa home. Gina McKinley, a Mesa real estate agent, can be reached at (480) 355-8645 or by email. Gina McKinley also maintains a AZ foreclosure website at www.azforeclosurereliefnow.com.

If you have been following real estate news and reports during the last year, it comes as no surprise that there hasn't been a better time to be a first time home buyer in years.

First time home buyers alone attributed to 46% of real estate transactions this year, compared to 41% of home sales for the prior year. Of course the fact that interest rates are hovering at historically low rates, and homes are less expensive than they have been in years, are huge factors to the prior statistic.

These conditions make home buying ideal, but the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit has also added an incentive to make buying real estate in 2009 extremely enticing for the first time home buyer.

Overall, the first time home buyer is helping to stabilize the Chandler AZ real estate market and nationwide. According to NAR president Paul Bishop, "These buyers are critical to the housing and general economic recovery because the market always heals from the bottom up. New home buyers absorb inventory, free existing owners to make a trade to a new home, and stimulate related goods and services."

The First Time Home Buyer tax credit has recently been extended and expanded to include current home owners who have lived in their homes for at least five years as well. Clearly the current incentives have worked for the first time home buyer, and the inclusion of current home owners should help further stabilize the real estate market.

Gina McKinley is a Chandler real estate expert in the first time home buyer arena. Gina McKinley would be happy to show first time Chandler AZ home buyers what homes Chandler AZ real estate has to offer.

Gina McKinley can be reached at (480)355-8645 or by email.

There has been a lot of talk about what caused the housing bubble to crash, but hopefully learning the reasons behind the real estate market downturn could help us avoid a future occurrences. As with anything in life, hindsight is always 20/20, but economists are blaming the housing bubble on a few factors.

One economist, Randal O'Toole, points out that the housing bubble crashes that have occurred across the country was actually more localized and in far fewer markets than the general population has been lead to believe.

According to O'Toole only 12 states have really been hit by the housing bubble burst. This particular economist attributes the the largest issues occurred in states with urban planning departments because they typically restricted further development which can create a volatile real estate market.

Of course, one of the largest reasons is the 0% down loans. The traditional 20% down on new houses purchases helped cover a borrower during typical market fluctuations and also kept borrowers from going belly up on their homes.

When the 0% loans were offered to future home buyers, a borrower had nothing to lose if they foreclosed on their new property. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac further perpetuated the problem by purchasing loans with 10%, 5% and then 0% down. Other lending institutions then followed suit making the sub-prime loans run began to snowball.

Hopefully we can learn from our mistakes as a nation regardless of whether the real estate bubble burst has happened in 12 states or 50 states. Understanding how we got here will help us face the future, but ultimately now is the time to take advantage of the recently leveled out housing market.

The buyer's market conditions of today can be taken as a huge opportunity for many future Arizona home buyers. AZ homes on the market today due to AZ foreclosures can be a great place to begin your Arizona housing search.

Gina McKinley, an AZ real estate agent in the Phoenix AZ area, can help you find your Phoenix AZ home, Gilbert AZ home, Scottsdale AZ home, or Mesa AZ home today. Gina McKinley can be reached at (480) 355-8645 or by email.

A recent report shows real estate appears to be stabilizing across the country. The well known S&P/Case-Schiller index shows that in the 10 city index and in the 20 city index both showed a marked improvement in real estate in the majority of cities.

Although these are small improvements or minimal devaluation in home values, this news is still a welcome relief to many around the country and especially to Chandler AZ property owners. Home values are up anywhere from .1% to 3.4% in ten cities.

While the news is certainly not a staggering improvement, it is still encouraging because it indicates that real estate markets across the country are leveling out. Home values have stopped falling sharply and people are being drawn back into the real estate market.

To many, the recent market stimulation is due to low home values, low interest rates, and the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit have all combined to create an ideal buyer's market, especially in the Chandler AZ real estate arena.

Gina McKinley, a Chandler AZ realtor, would be happy to show you your dream Chandler AZ property or tell you more about Chandler AZ homes. Gina McKinley can be reached at (480) 355-8645 or by email.

This last Wednesday, the Senate has approved an extended and expanded tax credit for home buyers. The First Time Home Buyer Tax credit has been seen as a huge success in Arizona home sales and nationwide real estate. Its expiration on November 30 has had many in the AZ real estate industry feeling nervous about what its end would mean.

Those fears can now be put aside. While the bill still has to pass through the House, which it is expected to do next week, is was overwhelmingly approved by the Senate in a 98-0 vote.

What is new and improved with the extended and expanded tax credit? The new and improved tax credit is still for first time home buyers but will also include home buyers who haveowned their current home for 5 years or more. The credit is up to for $6,500 for these current homeowners and remains at up to $8,000 for First time home buyers or home buyerswho have not owned a home for the past three years. The tax credit is income restricted, as an individual cannot make more that $125,000 annually and a couple cannot make morethan $225,000 jointly.

A home must be a primary residence and valued at $800,000 or less. Buyers must have an Arizona property under contract to purchase by April 30, 2010,and the AZ property must close by June 30, 2010.

The passing of this extended, expanded tax credit is good news on the Arizona home sales front and is expected to be the last taxcredit offered for a long time to come.

Gina McKinley, a Arizona real estate agent, can help you find your perfect Chandler AZ home, Gilbert AZ home, Mesa AZ home, Scottsdale AZ home, or Phoenix AZ home to take advantage of the new and expanded tax credit for home buyers.. Gina McKinley can be reached at (480) 355-8645, by email, or on her Arizona real estate website.