SI Real Estate Tampa and The Beaches

Real Estate Buyers: This is Your 11th Hour! First-time homebuyers have been making up a large share of home sales in Tampa, Florida and across the nation. The extension of the First-Time Homebuyers Tax Credit has been a huge factor in this equation. According to HousingWire’s article First-Time Buyers Take Larger Share of Home Sales in March , first-time homebuyers accounted for 48.2% of all home purchases in the month of March, which was greater than the previous high of 46.9% last October 2009. Thomas Popik, research director for Campbell Surveys stated “The strong participation of first-time homebuyers this spring is a welcome surprise. Many observers had felt that the pool of first-time homebuyers had been depleted last fall, but this is turning out not to be the case. Instead the normal spring-summer buying season is combining with the tax credit to produce blow-out results for first-time homebuyers.” SI Real Estate has seen first-hand the enormous affect of the extension of...

Just the FHA Facts The federal government’s decision to extend the 2009 Homebuyer Tax Credit is strong incentive for first-time homebuyers and move-up homebuyers to get off the fence and purchase a home. If that were not enough, new Federal Housing Administration (FHA) policy changes may push those who have been waiting to take the leap to make that real estate purchase sooner rather than later in Tampa, Florida and around the nation. FHA is one of the largest sources of financing with its low down payment program and generous seller concessions. FHA is often the only way for many to afford to purchase a home. It is a well-known fact that many are able to afford monthly housing payments, but coming up with the down payment is extremely difficult for a large majority of those who wish to purchase a home. Bearing that in mind, FHA is taking new measures to help manage risk while maintaining support for the housing market and its recovery. In a HUD Press Release on January 20, 2010 F...

The Tampa housing market has been hit hard with a glut of foreclosed properties that have forced home prices to spiral downward, along with most areas in Florida and the rest of the nation. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan has announced a temporary policy to ease FHA 90-day seasoning guidelines to facilitate the sale of foreclosed properties, which should bring price stabilization to the real estate market in Tampa, Florida and other areas across the country. FHA has prohibited insuring mortgages on a home owned by a seller for less than 90 days. This has slowed the sale of many foreclosed homes. In the January 15, 2010 press release HUD Takes Action to Speed Resale of Foreclosed Properties to New Owners , HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan addressed this problem saying, “As a result of the tightened credit market, FHA-insured mortgage financing is often the only means of financing available to potential homebuyers. FHA has an unprecedented opportunity to fulfill its mission by helping many home...

First-time home buyers dominated the Tampa real estate market in 2009 and that trend is expected to continue into the first quarter of 2010. The 2009 First Time Home Buyer tax credit has been extended so that those with a binding contract on or before April 30, 2010, and closing before June 30, 2010, will be able to take advantage of this fantastic opportunity. That combined with fire sale real estate prices will create a second wave of first-time home buyers eager to take advantage of the benefits of homeownership. It will be forthcoming first quarter 2010 according to real estate market forecasts. Paul Bishop, vice president of research of the National Association of Realtors stated in an article titled  NAR Survey First-Time Home Buyers Set Record in Past Year that “several factors have been at play. Tax incentives, record high affordability conditions and pent-up demand brought a record share of first-time home buyers into the market. These buyers are critical to housing and ...