If you are reading this by way of doing research before putting your house on the market in Greensboro, take this one, key idea away with you:

Don’t do it.

Just don’t list a property for sale right now unless you really need to. It will only hurt your feelings. And you risk leaving money on the table if you do get an offer. That’s what happens in a buyer’s market. And there hasn’t been a buyer’s market like this since James Stewart played George Bailey going toe to toe with Mr. Potter. And while life may still be wonderful, being a seller in this market is not.

On the other hand, if you are a buyer – and don’t have a house to sell before you can buy – you should be doing a happy dance right about now. Seriously. Low interest rates, tons of inventory and, if you’re a 1st time buyer, the government will throw $8,000 at you to get you off the fence.

So get off the danged fence already!

The total number of houses on the market in Greensboro are down from last week. But that’s due to the fact that pending properties tend to close at the end of a month. So, while lower inventory is good, in relation to the inventory after end of month closings in January, we’re up.

Ugh. We’re just going to have to get through the houses on the market. Only then will there be what can really be considered a turn around.

Inventory is still quite a bit lower than in was in the 4th quarter of 2008. But we need to see month over month numbers improving.

Here are the numbers for properties on the market in Greensboro.

As always, whether the news is good or bad, you’ll see it here.

_________________________________________________________

If you have questions, comments or a good joke to share shoot me an email.  I’m a full time Realtor®, I love what I do and would be thrilled to hear from you.

* All data from Triad Multiple Listing Service (MLS). “Single-family” does not include Duplexes or manufactured homes.

[UPDATE: The tax credit has been extended to April 30, 2010 and expanded to include existing homeowners who will receive a $6500 credit when they meet certain criteria]

I’ve resisted writing about this very important tax credit because it has changed several times since introduced a few weeks ago as part of the economic stimulus package. Now that President Obama has signed the package into law, let’s take a look. For those who want a quick read, here’s a PDF of the new tax credit compared to the one from last year.

Nuts & Bolts:

• 1st time home buyers – or those who have not owned a home in the past 3 years – are eligible
• it’s good on single-family, townhouses and condos
• it does NOT need to be paid back (this differs from the previous credit)
• there are income limits
• purchases made between 1/1/09 and 12/01/09 are eligible***[SEE COMMENTS]

Now, some VERY basic explanations. For complex answers, ask a deeper thinker or, better yet, a tax expert.

A tax credit is different than a tax deduction. A tax credit is a dollar for dollar reduction in the amount of tax burden (what you owe in taxes). A tax deduction reduces your amount of taxable income on which your tax burden is calculated.

So this tax credit means that if at the end of the year your tax burden is, say, $8,000, and you receive the $8,000 tax credit  because you wisely purchased your 1st home, you will owe ZERO dollars in federal tax.

If your tax burden is $5,000 and you get the $8,000 tax credit, you would receive the difference. $8,000 credit – $5,000 owed = $3,000 in your pocket.”

Some are bellyaching that this is not a a true stimulus for home buyers.

I guess those folks don’t look at $8,000 as real money. Mazel Tov to them.

There are plenty of 1st time buyers who will be more than thrilled to get $8,000 credited to them come tax filing season next year. And that’s in addition to the benefits of the mortgage interest payment tax deduction on those same returns.

Consider this as well – When those tax refund checks start going out in the spring, there will be a whole new generation of homeowners, with houses to furnish, decorate and all that comes with owning your own place.

Sounds stimulating to me.

When you look at this tax credit, the low interest rates, the motivated sellers and high inventory it’s hard to imagine a better time to buy.

As I’ve repeated many, many times, most people are having to pay to live somewhere. And those renting are indeed paying for a mortgage. Just not theirs. And they’re not getting the benefits of it.

Time they started reaping those rewards themselves.

[BTW, the president is announcing a separate plan of those who currently own homes, The Help for Homeowners Plan. I'll write about then when there's complete information available. The White House has a link to it here.]

You may have, just maybe, heard a news story or two (thousand) about the economy. In broadcast journalism, the practice of coining a few catchy phrases and repeating them ad nauseum, has become the rule of the day. You know what I mean. One begins to wonder if certain words can be uttered without certain others. Try to say “downpour” without saying “torrential”, or “controversy” without “firestorm of”. Or “credit” without “meltdown”.

Go ahead. Just try.

But the thing is, there can be downpours that aren’t torrential and not all credit is in meltdown.

There is mortgage money to be loaned. And the lenders want to make you these loans. They don’t make money unless they loan money. (Commercial credit, now that’s another creature and is not to what I refer here.)

The catch is that you have to have a job, a decent FICO score and some money to put down, none of which is unreasonable if you want to borrow money. And it’s the way it always was up until things got wacky in the lending world, what with the “no doc” loans, borrowers with FICO scores lower than their bowling scores and 0% down.

But things are mostly back to normal in regards to lending requirements. And rates are great. My friend and colleague, Christie Caldwell, sent out these rates a couple of hours ago.

Assuming a purchase price of $250,000 rates looked something like this, using the FICO/LTV/Interest Rate model:

• 680/95%/5.50%
• 680/90%/5.50%
• 680/80%/6.00%

• 700/95%/5.50%
• 700/90%/5.50%
• 700/80%/5.875%

• 720/95%/5.375%
• 720/90%/5.375%
• 720/80%/5.50%

• 740/95%/5.375%
• 740/90%/5.375%
• 740/80%/5.50%

If your FICO is below 680, you can still get a loan, but you’ll be looking at paying more for ‘points’. And a gold star to the first one to see where things may seem a bit odd in this. [HINT: put down more, pay higher rate?]

Keep in mind that rates can change frequently. As in, several times a day. But these are good guidelines for where things are in general. Also, a borrower’s rate will be impacted by the amount financed, debt/income ratio, etc.,

Again, these numbers are a guide for today. Around noon. Before I go get another cup of coffee.

Just know that the torrential downpour of news items covering the firestorm of controversy about the credit meltdown may be missing some of the facts regarding mortgages.