The $8,000 Home Buyer Tax Credit expires Soon

The information below was taken from the National Association of Home Builders' site.

$8,000 Home Buyer Tax Credit at a Glance

The information on this page pertains to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

* The tax credit is for first-time home buyers only. For the tax credit program, the IRS defines a first-time home buyer as someone who has not owned a principal residence during the three-year period prior to the purchase.

* The tax credit does not have to be repaid.

* The tax credit is equal to 10 percent of the home’s purchase price up to a maximum of $8,000.

* The credit is available for homes purchased on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009.

* Single taxpayers with incomes up to $75,000 and married couples with incomes up to $150,000 qualify for the full tax credit.

Real Estate Round-Up

Below is a reprint of City Influence's Market Trend Analysis for September 2009


This month's market trend analysis focuses on market activity in the Washington region as an indicator of market health. We looked at new listings, pending sales and closed sales from 2003 through the first six months of 2009. The number of sales that closed in July of 2009 was very close to, but slightly higher than, the number of sales closed in the beginning of 2003. The numbers were slightly on either side of 10,000 transactions.

The number of sales peaked toward the end of the second quarter of 2005 at over 20,000 transactions.

Analysis of the number of new listings provides a clear explanation of the market's surge in 2004 and 2005 and subsequent contraction in 2007 and 2008. The number of new listings available to be sold fell below the number of closed transactions at the end of 2003 and the beginning of 2004 and remained tight until the second quarter of 2005. This close supply/demand ratio produced higher prices and encouraged a dramatic increase in new supply by the third quarter of 2006.

The number of new listings peaked in June of 2006 at about 31,000 listings. So the increase in the number of new listings available for sale continued to increase for more than a year after the peak in the number of sales.

Currently, the number of new listings (18,000) is at about the same level we saw in the first quarter of 2004, as are the number of closed sales. The trend for new listings has been descending since that peak in 2006, but we are far from the low of 10,000 new listings that we saw in early 2003.

One more interesting point. The low number for closed transactions was reached twice during this period - in January of 2008 and in January of 2009, at 5,000 sales. The number of new listings in January 2008 (20,000) was four times the number of closed transactions (5,000), the largest gap in the studied time frame.

The trends are in the right direction for a stabilized market with prices appreciating at a rate within historic norms.

Contact City Influence for more information.

Real Estate Round-Up

Three core jurisdictions we follow in this blog - the District, Arlington and Alexandria, represent the strongest performing jurisdictions in terms of price in the Washington metro area. The average price in this core area in the second quarter of 2009 was $497,216, which is 6.4% higher than in the first quarter of 2009 but lower by 8.7% than one year ago.

The average price in the District in June of 2009 is 6.2% lower than June of 2008. The average price in Arlington in June of 2009 is 1.9% lower than June of 2008. The average price in Alexandria in June of 2009 is lower by 5.6% than June of 2008.

The market remains a good one for buyers, with prices still lower than last year, but inching up as the year goes on.