There is only three weeks left of December! I can hardly believe it. Time is ticking away to buy holiday gifts, prepare for New Year's Eve parties and to make home enhancements to save energy and money. Wait . . . what was the last item?
Yes, doing certain renovations to your existing home can reduce your utility bills as well as offer sizeable tax credits when filing your 2010 income tax return. Renovations include upgrades such as energy-efficient windows and doors, insulation, water heaters and cooling equipment. You have until December 31 to qualify for up to $1,500 in said tax credits.
Note that the house must be your principal residence, as the credits don't apply to new construction.
EnergyStar.gov offers more information so visit their Web site. But below is a quick synopsis of what qualifies for the tax credit.
Products and upgrades eligible for the tax credit:
Some of the tax credits will take into account installation costs, while other credits do not. It really does depend upon what you're claiming the credit on. To find out if your product is a part of the credit, and whether you can include installation costs, check out the government Web site here.
Read more about "Update your Phoenix home to be more energy-efficient - and save money at tax time too!," at MyPhoenixmls.com
Freddie Mac announced earlier this month that it has "ordered all evictions involving foreclosed occupied single family and 2-4 unit properties that had Freddie Mac mortgages to be suspended from December 20, 2010 to January 3, 2011." Happy holidays!
They went on to provide a statement by Anthony Renzi, executive vice president of single family portfolio management at Freddie Mac, that "if the property is occupied, [Freddie Mac] foreclosure attorneys will suspend the eviction to provide a greater measure of certainty to families during the holidays."
This is actually something that Freddie Mac has been doing for years. So if you're considering a foreclosure but were worried about where you might be spending the holidays, review whether you will be impacted by the temporary holiday foreclosure freeze.
Foreclosures are nothing new to the Phoenix housing market. They account for over half of the resale market and are expected to continue into 2011. Though we want to see people staying in their homes, foreclosures are offering many younger first-time buyers the opportunity to get into the market - as well as offering investors an opportunity to build their portfolios.
Read more about "Phoenix foreclosures continue . . . but not during the holidays!," at MyPhoenixmls.com
Can you believe it's December already? The chill in the air sure makes it feel like winter but it still surprises me how quickly the year went by. I - like many of you - am already looking ahead to 2011; making predictions and plans for the coming year.
Speaking of predictions, the 47th Annual Economic Forecast Luncheon was held this week at the Phoenix Convention Center. The luncheon is co-sponsored by Arizona State University's W. P. Carey School of Business and JPMorgan Chase. Top economic experts discussed their predictions to the over 1,000 attendees at the luncheon. They spoke about both the national and local Phoenix economies. And . . . drumroll . . . they had good news. Great news, in fact. Both economies are on the upward trend with "significant improvements" to be seen in 2011.
Lee McPheters, director of the JPMorgan Chase Economic Outlook Center at the W. P. Carey School of Business, was quoted in the event's official press release as saying that "every Arizona indicator should show improvement next year. The state's economy ‘bumped along the bottom' for most of 2010, but the Arizona outlook for 2011 is brighter than we've seen since the national recession began in December 2007."
McPheters also discussed at the luncheon the biggest four-letter word to the economic recovery: J-O-B-S. He said that Arizona recently (in August 2010) began to experience year-over-year job increases and is predicted to add 48,000 jobs in 2011. He went on to say that Arizona and Texas would enjoy the largest employment growth next year among the Western states. That is great news as jobs are the way to a stable and thriving economy.
Joel L. Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors and recipient of the 2008 Lawrence R. Klein Award for economic-forecasting accuracy and Bloomberg Business News' 2008 forecaster of the year, spoke about the national economy. He said that the main problem has been expectations (or wishful thinking) that the economic recovery would be like the tortoise and the hare race but with the hare winning. Sadly, we must be patient as it is the tortoise who will the race.
He explained that the economy has been growing for five consecutive quarters and that the private sector has added more than 1.1 million new positions to the workforce. Sometimes it doesn't feel like we have experienced that kind of growth nationally but, indeed, we are growing.
Read more about "Experts agree: Phoenix economy looks rosy in 2011," at My Phoenixmls.com
If a foreclosure is threatening your happy holiday, you should know you're not alone. Millions of Americans are in the same situation, and it is my goal to help ease the stress that comes with the threat of foreclosure for as many as I can reach.
As a CDPE-designated agent, I help struggling homeowners navigate the various options they have to avoid foreclosure. One possible option is a mortgage modification, which makes monthly payments more affordable.
For more information regarding this and other solutions, please download the free report located on this site.
Read more about "Foreclosure Stress Never Goes on Holiday," at MyPhoenixmls.com
It's that time of month again. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices came out yesterday. The full report can be found here.
Quickly, The S&P/Case-Shiller National U.S. Home Price Index, which is the leading measure of U.S. home prices, tracks the value of single-family housing nationally. The index is a composite of home price indices for the nine U.S. Census divisions and is calculated quarterly. The data that was released yesterday followed home prices through September of this year.
And what did the data show? In the U.S. National Home Price Index, prices declined 2 percent in the third quarter of 2010, after having risen 4.7 percent in the second quarter. Nationally, home prices are 1.5 percent below their year-earlier levels.
What this shows is that there continues to be upward and downward movement in the market. Overall - and over the year - we saw a modest decrease of just over 1.5 percent. Would we rather have seen an increase? Of course. However, the market continues to see movement upward and downward without huge hits to home prices. This is good news as we aim for a stable housing market.
Month-over-month, in the September numbers, 18 of the 20 metropolitan areas were down from August; with two areas showing gains. However, the average decrease was just .7 percent. Analysts believe that the spring tax incentives and still active foreclosures are influencing some of these numbers. And .7 percent is - indeed - a modest decrease given that there were inflated numbers earlier in the year due to those tax incentives.
Read morea bout "S&P/Case-Shiller numbers show small gains and small losses," at MyPhoenixmls.com
I specialize in selling Phoenix real estate -- Scottsdale homes and Phoenix homes, including Phoenix short sales and bank owned homes. To see my listings and learn more, visit www.MyPhoenixMLS.com
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