Ideal Conditions for Buyers and $8,000 Credit Can Be a Down Payment
By Bill Primavera
The Home Guru
As published in The Examiner, May 2009
According to a statement released on May 14 by Chief Economist of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), Lawrence Yun, “there has never been a better time to buy.” Presenting NAR’s economic outlook at the Economic Issues and Residential Real Estate Business Trends Forum in Washington, he said that housing affordability and low mortgage interest rates, combined with buyer opportunities in the distressed sales market, have increased home sales in many areas of the country.
Also, during a national real estate summit in Washington earlier in the week, Shaun Donovan, U.S. Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, announced that the Federal Housing Administration is going to permit its lenders to allow qualified home buyers to use the $8,000 tax credit as a down payment.
While Yun stated that he doesn’t expect an immediate pickup in sales, he believes early summer will be a critical indicator of how home buyers are responding to the $8,000 tax credit. “The home buying process takes time,” he said, indicating that the effect of the credit will be known by summer’s end.
Evidence of recovery is already demonstrated in other areas of the country, such as California, where home sales are rising faster than anticipated. Some areas in the state are seeing a 70 to 80 percent increase in sales. Yun attributes this extraordinary surge to buyers who may have been sitting on the fence but are now taking advantage of the great opportunities for fear of being left out of current deals in the market.
Nationally, about half of all recent transactions have been distressed sales. Fifteen to 20 percent have been short sales and 30 to 35 percent have been foreclosures. Yun says that, while these statistics are unfortunate, the situation along with current home buying incentives have created an impressive window of opportunity for potential home buyers.
Here in upper Westchester and Putnam Counties, an increased evidence of first time buyers is being felt in real estate offices surveyed during the last couple of weeks.
Bill Primavera is a Westchester, NY-based realtor ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and marketing practitioner ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) who can be reached for questions or comment directly at 914-522-2076.
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