Real Estate Information Archive

Great news for repeat buyers.  If you have owned your own home for the last 5 out of 8 years, then you may qualify for a tax credit of $6500!  Some of the program guidelines include having a contract to purchase your next home by April 30, 2010, and going to settlement on that house by June 30, 2010.  Just contact Karen for more information to see if you qualify.

Currently, the real estate market is extremely active.  In many ways, this tax credit program is putting so many buyers out there that there's now a shortage of nice homes for sale in the Northern Virginia area.   

There are currently some amazing benefits for first time homebuyers.  Call everyone you know who wants to buy their first home (or who hasn’t owned one in three years), this is too good to miss – it’s a $8,000 tax CREDIT (not deduction but a credit).

If you have not owned a home in three years, you qualify as a first time home buyer.  If you buy a home now you can still quality.  Call your friends who just bought and tell them they may take $8,000 off their tax bill if they qualify.  It has to be your principal residence, so rentals do not count.

Other restrictions stipulate that you have to buy your first house in three years before June 30, 2009, not have super high income, not use bond financing and buy anywhere in the US.

If you’d like to learn more about this program, please call me!

I’m often asked if this is a good time to buy a home.  Some clients are concerned that home prices may fall further than they have already.  They are assuming that the best course of action is to wait for the bottom in the market and then buy.  The problem with this approach is that you don’t know where the bottom is until you see it in the rear view mirror, meaning until you’ve missed it!

Home prices are one factor in determining your cost of ownership, but so are interest rates and financing availability.  Even though interest rates have gone up in the last six months, they are still near historic lows.  Since your monthly mortgage payment is a combination of paying down your principal and paying the interest owed, if home prices come down a little further but interest rates go up, it could cost you even more to service a mortgage on an identical home!

While a home is a major investment, it is also the center of your personal life.  It’s important to live in a home that reflects your taste and values, yet is within your financial “comfort zone.”  To that end, it may be more important to lock in today’s relatively low interest rates and low home prices, rather than to hope for a further break in prices in the future.

Please give me a call if I can be of any assistance in determining how much home you can afford in today’s market.