Friday, October 9, 2009

First-time buyers boost real estate market and receive tax credit

The real estate market is getting a much needed boost as first-time buyers rush to take advantange of the $8,000 fedral tax credit that is set to expire on December 1st.

Nationally, August home sales were down one percent over the comaprable period last year.  This is the smallest year-over-year decline since late 2007. The National Association of Realtors is lobbying Congress to extend the credit to continue to stabilize real estate sales.  A full accounting of the program's accountability won't be available for several months.  But, I believe first-time home buyers have been driving much of the real estate sales activity in the market in recent months, especially median priced homes ( $125,000 - $175,000.)

This has really fueled the Chattanooga real estate market.  And I think anyone waiting until now is going to pay top dollar in the $125,000 to $175,000 price range.  It has created a seller's market within an overall buyer's market.   Home choices in this price range is shrinking as buyers make offer to have a closing before the tax credit deadline.

Now is the time to act to make sure you can get the tax credit.  In order to qualify for the tax credit, a  buyer must close on his or her property by November 30th. In most cases, this gives potential real estate buyers about four more weeks to allow enough time to get a real estate purchase to close on time to qualify for the credit.

1 comment:

  1. Nice information, have you checked out the site http://www.firsthomeexperience.com/main/ to see if there is anything for you to share with First Time buyers. I'm also curious to hear the thoughts of professionals like yourself.

    ReplyDelete