Jeff Boyer

Good morning! Just wanted to touch base with all of you about the extension of the tax credit for first time home buyers.

It seems that Senators have come to a decision to extend the tax credit for first time homebuyers through the end of April 2010! This is great news! Builders that are hurrying to get homes finished have a little breathing room now. Also, it helps those people who were on the fence about buying a home to take advantage.

Also, Senators have decided that they will extend the tax credit to those who have owned a home for at least five years and want to purchase another primary residence. The tax credit for this program will be $6,500 rather than the $8,000 allowed to first time home buyers. The income limits for this program will be increased to $125,000 and $225,000 rather than the $75,000 and $150,000 for the first time homebuyers. This is a great program to help stimulate the economy as well! Families wanting to upgrade into a larger home can now do so!

I will keep you posted!

Good afternoon all! Things in Helena are very busy. Lots of purchases going on. We have lots of residential building happening as well. I believe the increase in construction is due to the $8.000 tax credit available.

Just heard that the powers that be are thinking about extending the tax credit for at least 6 months. I hear that they have already extended it for military, diplomatic and intelligence personnel that are serving overseas. Definitely a step in the right direction. So an extension for the rest of the first time homebuyers is definitely an option

There is word that they might even extend the tax credit program for people are trying to buy new homes and selling their old homes. I guess it is still under wraps but surely being talked about. I will let you know as soon as I know.

Good morning all! We are in the final stages of summer and the first days of fall are right around the corner. We have seen that refinances are still around but more surprising is the amount of purchases we have been doing! There have been many new purchases coming on as well as new construction loans! Seems that builders are building homes as fast as they can so their buyers can beat the November 30th deadline for the $8,000 tax credit.

Economy in Helena seems to be holding steady and hopefully increasing. Other parts of the state are much slower and even Billings I hear is starting to slow down. I am very optimistic about Helena coming out of the recession with all of the affordable housing that is popping up all over the Helena area.

I hope that the builders will be able to meet the November deadline.....what happens after November 30th? I hear there won't be anything done until the health care issue has been taken care of. I have heard rumblings that they may extend this tax credit but nothing has been decided on. I will keep you informed.

Good morning all! Here we are in the first weeks of summer for 2009. Things have been very busy here in Helena, Montana as far as real estate lending is concerned. We have been going gangbusters with refinancing over the past couple of months. Now that interest rates have crept up, we have begun to see the slow down.

Interest rates were at 4.50%....the lowest I have ever seen them but now they are at 5.25%. 5.25% is still a very good rate compared to what they have been in the past 25 years. Have applications slowed down becuase of interest rates rising or has it slowed down because everyone that has the opportunity to refinance has already done so?

With the increased pricing on 10 year bonds, the yield has come down slowly therefore reducing the mortgage interest rates. Unemployment is at an all time national high of 9.25% and it seems that Montana is seeing its share of it too. Fortunately, in Helena we are very lucky so far as to see pretty minimal unemployment while other parts of the state have shown higher signs.

We are seeing more purchases coming around as well as new starts on construction loans, including speculative. I don't believe the refinance boom is over either. Let's keep our heads up and keep working hard to help as many people as we can and hope Helena doesn't get hit by the recession! Talk to you soon!

Good morning all! Just a quick update on HB645. Governor Scweitzer passed HB645 last Friday but vetoed parts of it. Most importantly for first time homebuyers....the Governor vetoed the bridge loan portion of the bill that would let first time homebuyers use their $8,000 tax credit right away.

The following is a letter from the Governor to the Secretary of State. The whole letter is not shown here but is talking about the housing portion of HB645.

"Welcome Home Loan Proqram, $2 million state special revenue (page A-3;sections 60 and 61, pages 49 and 50): While the language establishing this newprogram would lead the undiscerning reader to believe its purpose was to assist, first-time home buyers, the program actually is set up to protect financial lenders by shifting the risk of certain home loans exclusively to the State. Under this temporary, new program, lenders, such as banks, could loan money to first-time home buyers for down payments and closing costs to be pledged with federal tax credits. If home buyers failed to repay their loans by June 30, 2010, the State of Montana would be obligated to purchase those loans before August 1, 2010. The effect would be that the State would step into the shoes of the lender holding a defaulted loan obligation - not a particularly desirable position. Furthermore, the State, as a creditor, would be in a subordinate position to the mortgage lender, which would be the first lien holder. To summarize, though billed as a program to assist home buyers, the real effect of the program would be to benefit lending institutions by shifting all risk on these loans to the State. I also note that the State of Montana already has a first-time home buyer program that has been in existence since 1977, and that program is well-run and sufficiently funded."

So now we are waiting to see if FHA/HUD is going to step up and do something similar to what the State of Montana proposed. Will keep all informed.