August 16, 2010
Good News when Selling Your Home
Home Capital Gains Tax Exclusion $250,000/$500,000
One homeowner can avoid capital gain taxes up to $250,000. The exclusion increases to $500,000 of capital gains if married and filing jointly. The homeowner is not required to buy a replacement home in order to be eligible for this exclusion. Homeowners can use the exclusions as often as every two years.
The old tax law allowed one-time $125,000 tax exclusion on capital gains for home owners that were 55 years of age or older. This exclusion only allowed these capital gains to be deferred. The home owners were required to purchase another property that was of greater value.
With this newer tax law from 1997, homeowners are never required to pay capital gains for their primary residence, as long as they meet all of the IRS’s guidelines. The requirements to qualify for this exclusion are as follows:
1. The home must serve as the taxpayers principal residence for a total of 2 years during the 5-year period ending on the date of the sale. The two years of residency do not have to be continuous. The IRS provides some exceptions for military service, disability, partial residence and other reasons.
2. The taxpayer cannot use this exclusion more than once in a two year time period. There are exceptions due to change in employment, illness, or other unforeseen circumstances. Some examples of unforeseen circumstances as given by the IRS are as follows: natural disasters, acts of war, acts of terrorism, change in employment or unemployment that left you unable to meet basic living expenses, death, divorce, separation, or multiple births from the same pregnancy.
3. If a married couple is filing jointly, only one of the spouses needs to meet the 2-year ownership requirement.
Written by Pat Egan
August 6, 2010
Market Statistics for July 09 through July 10 by City
We know foreclosures and short sales are selling, but can a "standard" home sell (one that is not a foreclosure or short sale)? Yes, it can! Check out this webpage.
http://www.statsforagents.com/docs/744/MCR%20August%202010%20Maricopa.pdf
August 5, 2010
Some Common Mistakes Made by First Time Home Buyers!!
1. They don’t ask enough questions of their lender and end up missing out on the best deal.Let me help you through that first home buying experience!
2. They don’t act quickly enough to make a decision and someone else buys the house.
3. They don’t find the right agent who’s willing to help them through the homebuying process.
4. They don’t do enough to make their offer look appealing to a seller.
5. They don’t think about resale before they buy. The average first-time buyer only stays in a home for four years.
Source: Real Estate Checklists and Systems, http://www.realestatechecklists.com/.
WASHINGTON (July 1, 2010) – Following a surge driven by the home buyer tax credit, pending home sales fell with the expiration of the deadline for qualified buyers to sign a purchase contract, according to the National Association of Realtors®. I thihk this is important because it shows that our market is STILL very much a buyers market and will remain so for some time to come.
The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator, dropped 30.0 percent to 77.6 based on contracts signed in May from a reading of 110.9 in April, and is 15.9 percent below May 2009 when it was 92.3. The falloff comes on the heels of three strong monthly gains as home buyers rushed to take advantage of the tax credit.
The data reflects contracts and not closings, which normally occur with a lag time of one or two months. However, many closings have been delayed recently from a rush of buyers into the system and slow processing of short sales, in addition to the heavy volume and a more thorough loan underwriting process. As many as 180,000 buyers who signed contracts by April 30 may have missed the June 30 closing deadline for the tax credit. However, Congress passed legislation yesterday to extend the deadline for delayed contracts and President Obama is expected to sign.
NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said, “Consumers are rational and they rushed to meet the tax credit eligibility deadline in April. The sharp decline in contract signings in May is a natural result with similar low levels of sales activity anticipated in June,” he said. “Surprisingly, though, some local markets such as Portland, Maine, and Jacksonville, Fla., actually experienced an increase in contract signings from a year ago without the tax credit.
