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June 2010
Newsletter 50
Plenty of Reasons to Buy a Home Even after the Tax Credit
Even though the home buyer tax credit expired on April 30, 2010 and won’t be renewed, there may never be a better time to buy a home than today, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Many outstanding opportunities still exist for home buyers, but they may not be around forever.
“The home buyer tax credit was just one of many factors motivating Americans to buy homes,” said NAHB Chairman Bob Jones, a builder and developer in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. “But buyers can still take advantage of today’s low interest rates and competitive prices to get a home they may not have been able to purchase just a few years ago.”
Economists Think It’s Unlikely Federal Reserve Board Will Raise Interest Rates This Year, News Service Survey Reveals
If you’re a betting person, you’ll like the odds on the Federal Reserve Board keeping interest rates near current levels until at least the final quarter of this year, maybe longer.
Cambridge Realty Capital Companies Chairman Jeffrey A. Davis says three of four economic experts polled by the Associated Press news service in a new quarterly survey think it’s unlikely the Fed will be making a seismic policy shift anytime soon.
Most economists expect the economy to lurch along slowly and fitfully for the remainder of this year and next. Unemployment is expected to remain stubbornly high for the next two years, and home values, the other pillar of American financial security, are projected to remain flat for the foreseeable future as well, noted Davis.
As Housing Market Nears Bottom, Pent-Up Supply Waits
While Zillow’s Q1 Real Estate Market Reports did contain a few bright spots regarding the housing market, we continue to have plenty of cause for concern. Peaking foreclosures and mortgage delinquencies are among them, but another threat is pent-up supply, or homeowners who want but don’t need to move, and are waiting on the sidelines for hints that the market is improving.
As part of our Q1 Homeowner Confidence Survey, we asked homeowners how likely they would be to put their home on the market in the next 12 months if they saw signs of a turnaround. The results were troubling: 7% said they would be “very likely” to put their home on the market, while 8% said “likely” and 14% said “somewhat likely.”
