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Washington home sales and The Weekend Poll

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0500

How much did the $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit boost local home sales? By about 1,900 deals that otherwise would not have occurred, according to local real estate analysts at Delta Associates. The area's lofty prices and high number of transients make our market less influenced by first-timers than most other parts of the country, Delta analysts say in a report released with Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc., the local multiple listing service. Well, that tally of deals is poised to go up. President Obama is expected to sign the legislation (possibly today) just passed by Congress extending the $8,000 tax credit until spring. It also creates a new $6,500 tax credit for some move-up buyers. The earnings caps included in the legislation will limit the program's effect locally. For either the $8,000 credit or the $6,500 credit, a phase-out kicks in for people earning $125,000 a year or more,

Fannie Mae to allow some troubled owners to rent back

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:39:27 -0500

Fannie Mae announced a new program Thursday that will allow some homeowners facing foreclosure to hand the deed back to their lender but remain in the home as a renter. The idea behind their new "Deed for Lease Program" is that allowing rent-backs will minimize family displacement and stanch the deterioration of neighborhoods plagued by vacant foreclosures, according to Fannie's announcement. THE DETAILS: The servicer has to decide that the borrower qualifies for a "deed in lieu of foreclosure." Basically, borrowers who are in default on their loan voluntarily give the deed back to the lender, negating the need for a drawn-out foreclosure process. Traditionally this has been considered less damaging to the borrower than foreclosure, although both actions have severe effects on a borrower's credit standing--and both result in loss of their home. Borrowers-turned-tenants must be able to afford market rent on the home. That rent can't exceed 31

Now you can get closed-sale prices as fast as a real estate agent

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0500

If you're interested in home values in the Washington area--and about a dozen other big real estate markets around the country--the Redfin online brokerage has a sweet new tool for you. Starting this morning, Redfin is posting closed-sale prices and photographs for all homes on the multiple listing service as soon as the listing broker marks the sale as final. "With this upgrade, Redfin should have pictures of every sale within 15 minutes of the agent's taking it off the market," Redfin chief executive Glenn Kelman wrote in an e-mail. "It's a big deal because brokers have long kept to themselves the data that consumers need to do a CMA; it's a major reason why people feel like they need a real estate agent." (CMA stands for "comparative market analysis," a study of recent sales prices and current listings, which sellers need to perform before deciding on their own listing

Refinancers save $3 billion in a year

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0500

Mortgage interest rates have been bobbing around record-low territory through much of the summer, which led to a boom in refinancing. Freddie Mac said Monday that 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged only 5.1 percent during the first nine months of this year, which is the lowest interest rate in the 38 years Freddie Mac has tracked those loans. People who refinanced during the July-September quarter cut their interest rates by an average of 1.1 percentage points, and they stand to save $3 billion, all together, over the first 12 months of their new loan. Only 36 percent of refinancers took cash out--the lowest share in six years. The median age of their old loan was 3.5 years. Another telling statistic: The median appreciation of the refinanced property was 0 percent during the third quarter. Zero. In the third quarter last year the median appreciation was 16 percent. And it was as

First-time buyer credit and The Weekend Poll

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:00:00 -0500

There's some movement on Capitol Hill toward extending the first-time buyer's tax credit. As reported by the Post's Dina ElBoghdady, there is consensus in favor of a limited extension of the $8,000 tax credit. The latest version said to be favored in the Senate would extend the credit to home sales that go under contract by April 30 and close by June 30. A new, $6,500 tax credit would be available for buyers who have owned during five of the eight years prior to the purchase. (Vacation or investment homes would not qualify.) Among the highlights: the home price limit would be $800,000; the annual income limit to qualify for the tax credit would be $125,000 for singles and $250,000 for couples; and the cost to the Treasury would be $10.2 billion. Stay tuned: the compromise has not yet been voted on by the Senate. And the House of Representatives

Washington area is short 40,000 homes affordable to average earners

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:00:00 -0500

Families are being priced out of the Washington-area housing market. Or at least they’re being driven to the far edges of the region and forced into long commutes to and from the area’s employment hubs. That’s the message in a new report about to be released by the Urban Land Institute’s Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing. It’s not exactly news to anyone of average income looking to buy a home in the area — or to drivers stuck on clogged local roads. But the Terwilliger Center report quantifies our misery — and says things are likely to get worse if someone (ahem, government) doesn’t do something to make it profitable for developers to build more affordable homes. Those homes would accommodate families earning between 60 and 100 percent of the area's median income and be located close to jobs in the region’s six employment cores: Alexandria (including Crystal City and

Act fast to cash in credit card rewards

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:00:00 -0500

If you have a Home Depot Rewards MasterCard--and have been counting on tapping that line of credit for a big job--you need to go shopping, and fast. Citi, which issues the card, has announced that cardholders can use them to make purchases only through Saturday, Oct. 31. And Rewards Points must be redeemed by Jan. 31, 2010, or they expire. Samuel Wang, VP for Public Affairs at Citi, said in an e-mail that they mailed letters to card holders in late August announcing the changes and have repeated the warning in subsequent billing statements. But those are easy to overlook among the credit card solicitations that still pour through mailboxes. And people who receive their statements online may not bother to open such mail. Wang stressed that Citi is still continuing its regular Home Depot credit card--the one that doesn't pay rewards. Discontinuance of the Home Depot rewards card is

Germany Takes Top Honors in Solar Decathlon

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:36:30 -0500

Team Germany--led by students from Technische Universitat Darmstadt--won top overall honors in the 2009 Solar Decathlon, the Department of Energy announced Friday. Second place, overall, went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and third place went to Team California, which was a partnership of Santa Clara University and California College of the Arts. Houses built for the decathlon are still open for free tours on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. This is the second straight time that a German team won the overall prize. According to DOE, the team's "Cube House" design--which was covered on all sides by shiny, black solar panels--produced a surplus of electricity even during three days of rain. The ability to feed the most solar-generated electricity back into Pepco's electric grid was the most heavily weighted challenge of the 10 categories that made up the this year's decathlon. Team Germany earned

Solar Winners, Chat Day and The Weekend Poll

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:00:00 -0500

A couple of early winners have been announced at the Solar Decathlon still underway through this weekend on the National Mall. So far, Team California has taken first place for architecture and communications; the University of Louisiana at Lafayette has taken first place for market viability; and the University of Minnesota has taken first place for lighting design. The rest of the winners will be announced Friday. Here's the link to the ePropertyWatch service that monitors local government records for changes to your deed records. Details are in yesterday's blog post. Chat Day is today! Join the conversation live from 1-2 p.m. today, or submit your comments early. Weekend Reading: For all they give us, trees don't get a lot of recognition. That's changing in Arlington and some other communities. Susan Straight has the details. And columnist Kenneth Harney reports on government warnings about credit-repair cons. The Weekend Poll poll

Get Free Alerts if Someone Messes With Your Deed

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:00:00 -0500

First American Core Logic, a company that sells lien-monitoring services and automated appraisal information to lenders, is now offering similar services to homeowners at no charge. Their ePropertyWatch Monitoring Service allows users to set up a password-protected account and receive e-mail updates reporting recent home sales, foreclosures and, most important, the registration of any changes to public records reflecting your ownership of the home. Such changes could include liens or deed transfers filed without you knowing about it. The records-alert service could be useful. You could get a mechanic's lien filed by an unpaid contractor, by a taxing authority, by your lender, by someone making a mistake--or by someone with malevolent intent. According to the FBI, there is a type of identity theft called "house stealing" in which scam artists create fake IDs with your information and use the documents to fraudulently change the deed records on file with your

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Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:00:00 -0500

AIG Headquarters Going Condo?

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:27:00 -0500

Oh, the irony! The Wall Street Journal's Deal Journal blog is reporting that the former headquarters of American International Group -- AIG-- in Manhattan will be turned into luxury condos. AIG--the giant insurance company that had to be bailed out by the federal government after it insured way too many mortgage-backed securities that turned sour. AIG--ground zero of the financial meltdown (or at least one of them) will turn into luxury condo apartments! I wonder who's going to insure those mortgages?

What's the Mortgage-Interest Deduction for That Yacht?

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 06:00:00 -0500

I wouldn't be in this business if I weren't nosy. So the $17 admission fee to the giant sailboat show in Annapolis last weekend was thrifty entertainment, allowing me to spend the afternoon wandering below deck on yachts worth more than my house. The really tricked-out ones had all sorts of sea-worthy goodies like radar and automated sail-trimming gear--most of which is way beyond my limited knowledge of sailing. Below deck, some of these yachts were trimmed out with granite countertops, dishwashers, full-size showers, large flat-screen TVs and even a washer and dryer. These boats also come with a mortgage interest deduction. If a boat (or an RV) has a place to sleep, bathe and cook, it counts as a home and may qualify for the deduction. Taxpayers, married or single, can deduct interest on up to $1.1 million used to buy or rehab their first and second homes, combined.

Low-Tech Sustainable Houses and The Weekend Poll

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:30:00 -0500

Visiting the cutting-edge designs on display in the Solar Decathlon actually got me thinking about some low-tech houses in Bermuda that have been employing green principles, by necessity, for many years. The islands of Bermuda have no rivers or freshwater lakes, so residents have to collect their own rainwater from their roofs and store it in a tank. That's why Bermuda houses have those pretty, white roofs; they're treated with a special fungus-killing paint every couple of years to help keep the residents' water supply clean. The roofs are also built to withstand hurricane-force winds. After all, evacuating the country is hardly a practical option, so Bermudans need a tough refuge. You can find more information about this traditional building style from This Old House. I chatted about the way we've drifted away from old, low-tech solutions the other day with Lance Davis, a member of the American Institute of

Early Peek at Solar Decathlon Houses

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:00:00 -0500

Twenty prototype solar houses are taking shape on the National Mall, racing to be ready for the contest's opening on Thursday and public viewing starting Friday. I haven't been inside any yet, but I picked up a few interesting tidbits. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is building a house that reflects Cajun culture--and can withstand 140 mph sustained winds. It's Cajun by way of a "dogtrot." A staple of traditional homes in the area, a dogtrot is a covered breezeway between the part of the house where cooking and other heat-generating activities take place and the living and sleeping spaces. And they've designed the house so a homeowner could batten down the hatches in a hurry, evacuate for a hurricane and collect fresh rainwater during the big storm. Within days, owners could return to their homes and rely on a good supply of potable water and solar electricity, two

Sidewalk Superintendent Browses Solar Decathlon

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:49:09 -0500

The village of solar-powered prototype homes was going up rapidly on the National Mall over the weekend. Though the exhibit doesn't open for public viewing until Friday, passersby were allowed to stroll down a corridor cutting straight through the construction sites. I wandered through on Friday evening as cranes were still lowering some building components into place, power drills whined and the aroma of fresh drywall mud wafted through the air. One entry, in particular, has sparked my curiosity. Cornell Univesity's entry, Silo House, incorporates several huge, vertical--and rusty--metal cylinders. I can't wait to see how that evolves. And, from what I could see so far, many of the entries seem to be emphasizing their architectural appeal, compared to the last Decathlon two years ago. You can follow the teams' progress on You Tube.