Alan Zibel, AP Real Estate Writer
Wednesday February 25, 2009, 4:43 pm EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of existing homes sank unexpectedly last month to the lowest level in nearly 12 years as potential buyers worried about their jobs and awaited details of President Barack Obama’s plans to stabilize the housing market.
But the banking industry’s teetering [...]

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The bill provides an additional $500 million to existing USDA Rural Housing programs. The RHS provides both a guaranteed loan program and a direct housing loan program for those meeting the program’s eligibility criteria. The direct loan program will receive $270 million while $230 million will be allocated for unsubsidized guaranteed loans. It has [...]

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The bill reinstates last year’s 2008 loan limits for FHA, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae loans. These limits were equal to the greater of 125% of the 2008 local area median home price or $271,050 for FHA and $417,000 for Fannie and Freddie, with an overall maximum cap of $729,750. For the few areas where [...]

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Division A, Title XII of the bill provides $2,000,000,000 in additional funding for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP). The NSP was created by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2009 (Public Law 110–289) to provide grants through the Community Development Block Grant program (CDBG) to states and localities to address the problems that [...]

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Homebuyer Tax Credit – The bill provides for a $8,000 tax credit that would be available to first-time home buyers for the purchase of a principal residence on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009. The credit does not require repayment. Most of the mechanics of the credit will be the same [...]

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Please find below the National Association of Realtors take on the current Stimulus Package and the proposed impacts on the national housing market.
“We look at the Stimulis package AND the Treasury’s package holistically, in compliment with each other - mostly because that’s how the Obama team is looking at it. Your representatives, the NAR Board [...]

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Have you wondered how an investment in home improvement will impact your homes value?
We all want to know that our hard earned dollars are being put to use in a prudent manner. The National Association of Realtors recently published its 2008 remodeling returns, which I have copied here for your review.
Siding and window replacements and [...]

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Selection, selection, selection. There are about 8,000 resale homes on the market geographically. Regardless of the price range a buyer desires, there are plenty of houses from which to choose. Just a few years ago the resale inventory dropped below 4,000 units. A buyer was forced to make compromises if they were going to locate [...]

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Think of a declining real estate market like a stock market sell-off. In a bear stock market what tends to happen is that sellers chase the market down. In other words they keep agreeing to lower, and lower prices just to lock in what little profit they may have left. Believe it or not the [...]

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