Tammy Lehman

For those of you that have started to receive their 2010 property tax assessments. This may help you fight your tax assessment. Despite what we all have seen in the local market for the last several years assessments continued to increase, despite frustration and yearly visits to the board of review. Property values continued to rise according to your local assessor. This is due to current law that allows a home's taxable value to increase each year by either the rate of inflation or 5%, whichever is lower. However, this tax year is particularly interesting because Michigan has a negative inflation rate. So, almost every homeowner should see a property tax decrease of at least .3%. This form may help you be prepared to fight that assessment.

http://www.mirealtors.com/content/upload/AssetMgmt/Documents/propertyassessment10.pdf

Good Luck with your Appeal.

For those of you that qualified for the First Time Home Buyer tax credit. You may be angered to learn that the IRS is reporting long delays and still no ability to e file for your return. What does this mean to the consumer counting on the money to reimburse for closing costs and repairs? It means months of delays to get the refund. The new form was just released http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f5405.pdf

Finally some good news in the Ann Arbor housing market. Local housing activity took a favorable

turn upwards. December residential sales are up over last year according to statistics released by the Ann

Arbor Area Board of Realtors®. The 6% increase in single family residential sales and 63% increase in

condo sales reflect the momentum of increased activity spurred by the home buyer tax

credit incentives offered through November 30, 2009 and still low interest rates. The average residential

sales price rose for the third month in a row, to $178,059, showing strong year-end activity, after a

sluggish start to the year. Overall dollar volume was up 8% for the month of December, as compared to

last year, yet another indicator of a strong year-end market.

Information provided by the Ann Arbor Board of Realtors

http://www.aaabor.com/downloads/News/HousingStats/2008-2009/12dec2009.pdf

Currently there are 121 active residential listings available in the Chelsea School System and 21 pending residential homes. There are 11 active condos and 1 pending condo respectively.

The first time home buyer tax credit continues to improve the market. Spring will continue to show improvements.

FHA and Rural Development Loans in the last 2 years have been the staple in my market. Over 60% of home buyers closed in 2009 were one of these loans. Why? Because these loans options continue to provide 1st time home buyers the ability to buy a home with as little as 0% down.

FHA LOANS

Just 5 years ago it was rare to see a buyer use FHA financing for two reasons. First because there were so many other options available with less closing costs. Second because many markets home values were surpassing FHA loan limits in areas. Which made obtaining an FHA loan in good school districts impossible.

There are many benefits of using FHA loans now. Mainly, Buyers with less than perfect credit can still get FHA loan approval. Credit scores can be less than those approved for conventional loans.

RURAL DEVELOPMENT LOANS

Rural development loans were designed to help families attain home ownership in rural communities with populations of 20,000 or less.

Either loan program is a win win in any community.