It is Spring – known as Peak Home Buying Season.
U.S. real estate has experienced that Spring is the peak season for home buying for the last several years. But what is the position now with the foreclosure fiasco plaguing the country and making the housing market sluggish as never before?
The updates we are getting as of now are encouraging of course. The National Association of Realtors announced lately that pending home sales in the country were up by 5.3 percent in March this year, compared to the previous month of February, and up by 21.1 percent compared to March 2009. The given data is about signed contracts of home sales and not necessarily closings of the deal, which may in the normal course, take up to 30 to 60 days, meaning that April home sales should really see a big boost.
On the economic front, statistics reveal that personal income and spending were up all over the nation during the month of March. New jobs created stood at 290,000 during April. The national average fixed rate mortgages are reported to be at their lowest levels according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey in the last six weeks.
Another news is those who were unable to take advantage of the first-time home buyer tax credit of $8,000 which has just expired on April 30, 2010 need not worry, as a new program will be available. The 2010 New Home and First-Time Buyer Tax Credit is to benefit taxpayers, who purchase a qualified principal residence on or after May 1, 2010 can avail a lesser value of either 5 percent of the purchase price of the property or $10,000 whichever is high.
The stipulation is the tax credit should be applied in equal amounts over 3 successive tax years (up to a maximum of $3,333 per year) beginning with the year in which the home is purchased. And some restrictions apply to this new credit.
Home buyer activity has started already in markets like Austin and some major metros of Texas, where the housing market is steady even in these hard days of foreclosure crisis. So this Spring will spring a surprise for the good as another best season of home buying.
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