Time running out on $8000 tax credit

Adding in the time it takes to close on a home purchase the time is getting tight to get the first time home buyers tax credit. Buy your Spokane real estate now!

clipped from www.spokesman.com Buy a house, get paid Market gets boost as tax credit motivates first-time buyers Jared and Meredith Lyda expect to receive a check from the federal government within the next few weeks. The $8,000 tax credit should cover the renovations the Coeur d’Alene newlyweds made to their first home, a three-bedroom, two-bathroom rancher they moved into on July 31. The tax credit for first-time homebuyers also allowed the Lydas to buy a slightly bigger, newer home than they expected. “We knew immediately when we walked in the door,” said Meredith Lyda, an assistant manager at Starbucks. “It was a no-brainer.” Activity has amped up as the tax credit’s Nov. 30 expiration approaches, Realtors say. Because closing a sale usually takes 45 to 60 days, buyers who hope to take advantage of the tax credit need to find homes soon, real estate professionals said. Though interest rates and low prices also are driving sales, Hardie and other Realtors said the tax credit’s impact on the market is undeniable.

Home sales pick up in Washington state

This is good news for Spokane real estate. Buyers and sellers are making deals and commerce is beginning to move quicker.

clipped from www.spokesman.com Business in brief: Home sales fare better than same quarter last year Home sales picked up in Washington state in the second quarter compared with last year – the first quarter-over-quarter improvement in sales numbers in more than two years, according to the “housing market snapshot” produced quarterly by Washington State University’s Center for Real Estate Research. Glenn Crellin, director of the center, cautioned in a news release that “a one-quarter improvement should not be considered a trend,” and that the sales increase likely was fueled by a new federal first-time homebuyer’s tax credit. Home sales statewide increased 11.6 percent in the second quarter compared with the same period the previous year. Sales in Spokane County were up 13.4 percent over the year-ago period. Crellin said sales prices are another indication of market stability, and that only four counties in the state experienced higher median sales prices during the second quarter.

I'm Hot

clipped from www.spokesman.com Spokane hits triple digits for first time in ‘09 Carolyn Lamberson The Spokesman-Review Yes, it really was that hot. The National Weather Service recorded an official high at the Spokane International Airport of 101 degrees today, tying the record for the day set in 1971. It also marked the first time this year that Spokane reached the triple digits, said Laurie Nisbet of the weather service.

Spokane Foreclosures Rising

It takes some time for unemployment to result in foreclosure but the recession's job losses is painfully ending in foreclosure for more and more homeowners in Spokane. This will likely have an impact on the Spokane real estate market.

clipped from www.spokanejournal.com Six-month foreclosure filings jump Further rises said likely to push default level here near or over 2002 peak The Spokane County Auditor recorded 378 foreclosure filings here in the first half of this year, up 49 percent from 254 filings in the year-earlier period. If that rate were to continue, total foreclosures here for the year would reach 834, which would be the highest since 2003, when foreclosure filings in the county totaled 1,030. Foreclosures here peaked at 1,152 in 2002. In Washington state, one in 138 homes was the subject of a foreclosure filing in the first half of the year, up from one in 283 homes in the first quarter. Spokane County, however, had more than double the foreclosure filings as of June than it had in the first quarter, when RealtyTrac reported that one in every 1,060 homes here faced foreclosure. The company ranked Spokane then as having the 26th lowest foreclosure rate of 203 metropolitan areas in the U.S. with populations of more than 200,000.