This was an interesting video I saw this morning on YouTube. Could this be a new way to stall your foreclosure? This “Produce The Note” is new to me, but an interesting idea.
While this will probably not save your home forever, it may buy you more time to come up with another solution or sell your home on a short sale.
Prices of condos in downtown Phoenix and Tempe have come down over the last year, but the market was hurt even more when the FHA lending limits were reduced at the end of 2008.
FHA loan limits on a condo and single family home in Phoenix and Tempe were raised last March from $263,150 to $346,250. [Read more...]
I have been working with a lot of first time home buyers lately. One thing a lot of them ask me, is now a good time for a first time home buyer to make the jump and buy a home? In real estate when you ask a questions the most common answer is maybe or it depends. This is one where the maybe takes a back seat. If you are considering making your first purchase of a home and you have a good steady income now is a great time to make that jump.
And a first time home buyer is not just someone who has never purchased a home before. [Read more...]
The U.S. Senate working on their own version of the “Stimulus Package” last week came up with a compromise to gain Republicans support and added a Republican proposal to add a $15,000 tax credit for home buyers to the bill. The $15,000 credit would have been allowed to have been taken by the home buyer over a two year period. The credit also would not have been required to be repaid.
The proposal would have given a much needed shot in the arm to the housing industry and made it much easier for buyers to get into houses. With more buyers in houses the current inventory levels would have decreased and property values would have begun to recover.
According to this AP report that no longer matters as the Senate Majority Leader has announced that provision has been removed from the bill.
Many of you probably have heard something about the new amendment that passed the US Senate last night that will give a $15,000 tax credit to home buyers if it is signed into law. There is still some questions about what the final bill may contain, but I have put together a short blog on what I think it means to buyers. You can read my write-up here at the website for the real estate team I am on.
Above is a rendering of what the Gaylord Resort would look like in East Mesa if Proposition 300 passes. I can assure you that this is only half the picture.
As I have mentioned in previous posts I have stayed at two Gaylord Resorts, and while both may have started like this picture represents, they did not stay that way for long. Gaylord’s have a reputation of springing up commerce all around them. Malls get erected, restaurants are built, shopping centers and entertainment opportunities sprout all around the complex up to support the tourists. Yes the Gaylord has all those things and more, but sometimes you just want to get away after being there for a conference all day and this brings even more opportunity and more tax revenue.
Not only will this bring more revenue, it will bring thousands of new jobs and new opportunities for home buyers and sellers alike. Houses in East Mesa, Gilbert and Queen Creek that currently empty will all of a sudden have new value and a new demand as more people will want to live closer to the new jobs.
Does Mesa need to give up some of the bed tax it would collect from the Gaylord to get it here? Yes, but here is the part you don’t hear often. If there is no Gaylord, there is no bed tax to collect in the first place.
Is this a savior for Mesa? Maybe not, but it will go a long ways towards helping. We lost out on bringing the Cardinals here, and look what it did for Glendale. Let’s not lose out again.
