HOME PRICES RISE FOR 6TH STRAIGHT MONTH IN NOV.

Awesome News!!! National home prices continue to rise, according to Case-Shiller. To find out if your area's home prices have stabilized give me a call 801.243.8202.

MIAMI (AP) — Home prices rose for the sixth straight month in November, with 14 of 20 metro areas posting improvements from the month before.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday inched up 0.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted reading of 145.49. The index was off 5.3 percent from November last year, nearly matching analyst's estimates that it would fall by 5.1 percent.

The index is now up 3.4 percent from its bottom in May, but still 30 percent below its peak in May 2006.

Phoenix and San Francisco posted the highest month-to-month gains on a seasonally adjusted basis, while New York and Chicago had the largest declines.

Recent price gains have been fueled by a federal tax credit for first-time homebuyers, who rushed to purchase homes ahead of a Nov. 30 deadline. Congress eventually extended the deadline into the spring, and expanded the program to include a tax credit for current homeowners.

While prices have risen steadily on a national basis, some economists predict they will dip again early this year because of high unemployment and foreclosures.

"Until we get job growth, we won't get complete healing of the housing market," said Jeff Humphreys, an economist with the University of Georgia.

Humphreys said data for December and January could show price declines due to a lull in buyer activity after the tax credit was extended.

Rising prices are important to the economic recovery because they make homeowners feel wealthier and lead them to spend more money. They also help millions of homeowners who owe more to the banks than their houses are worth.

Only 100 Days left to claim the $8,000 or $6,500 tax credit for new home owners

There are a few changes you need to be aware of regarding FHA purchase:


* Max seller concessions is now 3% max ( use to be 6% )

* Clients with a fico score of 580 will need to put down 10% ( Not many companies will do these loans anyway so not a big deal )

* Remember, only 100 Days left to claim the $8000 tax credit for new home owners


November 6, 2009, Congress voted to extend and expand the First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit program. The expiration date of the up-to-$8,000 tax credit has been pushed forward to spring, requiring home buyers to be under contract for a home no later than April 30, 2010, and to be closed no later than June 30, 2010.

In addition, “move-up” buyers were also added to the program’s eligibility list meaning you don’t have to be a first-time home buyer to be eligible for the tax credit. If you’ve lived in your home for 5 of the last 8 years, you meet the IRS requirements.Move-up buyers are capped at a total tax credit of $6,500.

* The tax credit’s basic eligibility requirements remain the same:
* You can’t purchase the home from a parent, spouse, or child
* You can’t purchase the home from an entity in which they’re a majority owner
* You can’t acquire the home by gift or inheritance
* All parties to the purchase must meet eligibility requirements

The new law includes some notable updates. First, the subject property’s sales price may not exceed $800,000. Homes sold for more than $800,000 are ineligible. Also, household income thresholds have been raised to $125,000 for single-filers and $225,500 for joint-filers.

And lastly, don’t forget that the program is a true tax credit — not a deduction. This means that a tax filer who’s eligible for the full $8,00 credit and whose “normal” tax liability totals $5,000 would receive a $3,000 refund from the U.S. Treasury at tax time.

The complete list of qualifying criteria is posted on the IRS website. Review it with a tax professional to determine your eligibility. Then mark your calendar for April 30, 2010.

Have a great day, and let me assist you in the purchase of your new home!

Information aquired from:
Mike Yancey, Senior Loan Officer
801-747-1224 Office . 801-755-5359 Mobile

Home builders press ahead from tough 2009

By Lesley Mitchell
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 01/13/2010 12:14:12 AM MST

For home builders along the Wasatch Front, 2009 was one of the worst years ever -- but a step up from a particularly dismal 2008.

Builders took out permits for the construction of 4,337 single-family homes last year, up from a low of 3,992 in 2008. But home-building activity in the state's most populous area is still off from a peak of more than 15,400 permits in 2005, according to a report by Construction Monitor, a service that tracks activity throughout the West.

Hundreds of small builders have gone out of business in recent years, and those remaining are focusing on first-time buyers and setting prices in the $300,000-and-under range.

"We've definitely seen the bottom, and we're going to see some improvement this year, but I don't think we're going to go back anytime soon the levels of construction activity we saw in 2006 and 2007," Clark Ivory of Ivory Homes said Tuesday.

Ivory believes his company will see a 12 percent increase in closings this year, compared with 2009. But even with the increase, Ivory would be building at 2002-2003 levels.

"People this year will be motivated by (low) interest rates and tax credits," Ivory said.

But mortgage rates, which hit historic lows last year, are expected to inch ever higher. And federal income tax credits for buyers as high as $8,000 apply only to those who go under contract by the end of April.

Most economists agree the federal incentive and low interest rates have had a positive impact on the home-building industry nationwide.

Set to expire Nov. 30, the federal income tax credit has since been extended to first-time buyers (or anyone who hasn't owned a home in the past three years) who sign on the dotted line as late as April 30. It's also been expanded to include a $6,500 incentive for repeat buyers.

A state-level incentive that helped further motivate buyers in Utah last year, is no longer available. About 1,650 grants worth $6,000 each were quickly claimed by new home buyers as part of the state's "Home Run" program. A second round of 1,400 grants worth $4,000 also went quickly. Unlike the federal incentive, which applies to buyers of new and existing homes, the Home Run program was geared specifically toward buyers of properties never before occupied.

Like the new-home sector, the existing-home market has received a boost from the federal incentives and also is poised for a rebound. But it is expected to be just as tepid.

In its 2010 Housing Forecast released this week, the Salt Lake Board of Realtors predicts sales of existing homes this year along the Wasatch Front could increase as much as 10 percent compared to 2009.

Home prices are another matter. The cost of an existing single-family house is already off 13 percent from its peak three years ago and sits at a median sales price of $222,000, the board says. And the prediction for this year is that prices probably will fall another 3 percent to 5 percent.

"I think we're going to see a year of downward pressure on prices, and then it should stabilize in 2011 and begin to inch back up, but nothing like what we've seen before," said Bill Heiner, president of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors. He was referring to the 2005-2007 time period, when many areas posted double digit home-price gains.

In the new-home sector, Utah's Ivory Homes remained the top builder along the Wasatch Front last year, according to Construction Monitor, with permits issued for the construction of 444 single-family units.

Utah County-based Salisbury Development, which focuses on entry-level housing, was a distant No. 2, with 228 units. Richmond American, part of Denver-based MDC. Holdings, Inc. , which has struggled along with many of the other nation's builders, was No. 3.

North Salt Lake-based Woodside Homes, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in 2008, is No. 4. Neither Salisbury, Woodside or Richmond American representatives immediately returned calls seeking comment.

Fort Worth, Texas-based DR Horton, which has been trying to carve a niche in Utah, rounded out the top 5.


Homebuilding: A slight rebound
Builders took out permits for the construction of 15,428 single-family homes along the Wasatch Front in 2005, a peak building year. Building activity hit a low of just under 4,000 units in 2008, but thanks to unprecedented federal home-buying incentives, the industry experienced a slight rebound last year.
2009: 4,337
2008: 3,992
2007: 9,898
2006: 15,370
2005: 15,428

Source: Construction Monitor

Utah outlook on housing is improving

By Jasen Lee
Deseret News

The Wasatch Front housing market has been on a historic roller coaster ride for the better part of the past decade, reaching its pinnacle just over two years ago. A new report indicates that wild market ride may finally be "pulling into the station" this year, offering some hope to wearied consumers, Realtors and other industry insiders.

"In Salt Lake County, we've probably touched bottom in 2009 and we're going to see a slight improvement in 2010," Jim Wood, director of the University of Utah's Bureau of Economic and Business Research and author of the "2010 Salt Lake Housing Forecast," told the Deseret News.

Wood said while the new year might eventually see some growth in new single-family home sales and construction, the previous year was among the most challenging on record.

"In 2009, only 900 new single-family homes were built in Salt Lake County — the lowest level since the war years of the 1940s — while about 9,100 existing single-family homes were sold," he said in the report, released Monday.

He added that existing homes for sale make up the disproportionate amount of inventory currently on the market, which should continue to work in favor of buyers during 2010.

Consequently, Salt Lake County home sales this year will show some slight improvement over last year, he said in the report.

The report showed that median housing prices in the Salt Lake metropolitan area peaked during the third quarter of 2007 at $246,600, dropping just over 11 percent over a two-year period to $218,900.

For Salt Lake County, the median value peaked at $254,900 during the 2007 third quarter before falling nearly 10 percent to $230,000 in the third quarter of 2009.

Wood predicted that home values along the Wasatch Front would continue to decline this year, falling another 3 percent to 5 percent.

"This will bring the decline in median sales price of homes in Salt Lake County to 15 percent through 2010," he said in the report. "By then, the price declines should be over, replaced by stable to slightly improving prices in 2011."

As for the current number of unsold inventory left available in the wake of the statewide housing crisis, another local analyst is optimistic the tide is beginning to change.

Speaking at the 2010 Salt Lake Housing Forecast breakfast Monday at the Little America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City, Arthur "Chris" Nelson, presidential professor of city and metropolitan planning at the University of Utah and director of the Metropolitan Research Center, told the audience of about 800 real estate professionals that demand in the Utah housing market is on the upswing, as is the state's overall population.

"Between 2010 and 2011, we're going to have to build 100,000 new housing units in Utah to meet the needs of pent-up demand and growth by the end of 2011," Nelson said.

He said while that kind of construction is unlikely to occur in the near term, it demonstrates the long-term viability of the state's housing market.

"This is going to be the year of a slow uptick," he said.

"The bottom has passed and we are going to be inching up, and 2011 and 2012 are going to be extraordinary years for homebuilding."