Indy Home Marketing - November 2009 Newsletter

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November 2009 Newsletter

Volume 3, Number 11


			BREAKING NEWS Senate Plans to Extend and Expand Home Buyer Tax Credit October 30, 2009—(The Wall Street Journal) The Senate has reached a compro- mise on extending and expanding the $8,000 tax credit for first-time
	home buyers, a boost the housing industry believes will help it pull out of its two-year-old downturn. While its passage remains uncertain, the agreement would extend the existing credit for first-time homebuyers, worth up to $8,000, while offering a new credit of up to $6,500 for some existing home- owners, Senate aides said. The reduced credit would be available to all homebuyers who have been in their current residence for a consecutive five-year period in the past eight years. Continued


	Cut Drafts and Save Energy with Inexpensive Foam Gaskets... Electrical outlets and light switches, especially on outside walls, are prime places for cold air to leak into your home. Add foam gaskets be- hind covers and switch plates, and use safety plugs in unused outlets. The gaskets are avail- able from most hardware and home centers and only take seconds to install.


			Don't Forget to Turn Your Clocks BACK 1 Hour on November 1st... Did you know Benjamin Franklin, while a minister to France, first suggested the idea of Daylight Savings Time in an essay he titled "An Economical Project for Diminish- ing the Cost of Light?" The essay was first published in the Journal de Paris in April of 1784! Learn more about the history of Daylight Savings Time HERE.


	RECIPE OF THE MONTH Bourbon Pecan Pie With Thanksgiving just weeks away, it's time to start planning your menu. Here's a classic pie that will be en- joyed by all! Courtesy: Food Network

INGREDIENTS:

•	1 cup sugar	•	1 1/2 to 2 cups pecan halves
•	3 large eggs, beaten	•	2 tablespoons good-quality bourbon
•	1/2 cup dark corn syrup	•	1 (9-inch) deep-dish pie shell, unbaked
•	3 tablespoons butter, melted

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. In a medium bowl, stir to-
gether the sugar and melted butter. Add the corn syrup, eggs,
pecans, and bourbon, and stir until all ingredients are combined.
Pour mixture into an unbaked pie shell, and place on a heavy-
duty cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Lower the oven temp-
erature to 350 degrees F, and continue to bake for an additional
25 minutes, or until pie is set. Remove from oven and cool on
a wire rack.

Senate Plans to Extend... (Continued)

Lawmakers in Washington also raised the qualifying income limits
to $125,000 for single taxpayers and $250,000 for joint taxpayers,
from the current $75,000 and $150,000, housing-industry sources
said. Under the Senate compromise, buyers must have sales a-
greements in hand by April 30, but they will have until June 30
to go to settlement, said the sources. The measure still faces
votes in the full Senate and the House.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and HUD Secretary Shaun Don-
ovan are in full support of the Senate’s proposal to both extend
and expand the first-time homebuyer tax credit and called on
Congress to approve key housing measures that include the tax
credit. “We welcome efforts taken by Congress to extend the
First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit for a limited period. This
credit has brought new families into the housing market and
contributed to three consecutive months of rising home prices
nationwide,” said Secretaries Geithner and Donovan. “In ex-
tending the credit, we urge Congress to include strict measures
to combat tax fraud and protect responsible homeowners.”

The current tax credit did little for the new-home market in
September, the Commerce Department recently reported—
news that took many industry analysts by surprise. Sales fell
3.6% from August and 7.8% from September 2008. Industry
observers had expected a fifth consecutive monthly increase in
new-home sales, believing that the tax incentive for qualified
first-time buyers—credited with 357,000 sales of previously
owned homes so far this year—would do the trick. Instead,
sales of typically more expensive newly built houses slipped.
“The decline in new-home sales seems to us to be more a
function of the attractive pricing available on resales in the
current environment than a reflection of weakening demand,”
said Michael Feder, president of Radar Logic in New York,
which tracks the market.

“Since hitting rock bottom in March, demand is up 20 percent,”
said Joel L. Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisers in Holland, Pa.
For Naroff, the robust rise in existing-home purchases—9.2%
year over year in September—indicated that the housing
market was not faltering. “Maybe the issue is supply, which
fell to its lowest level in 27 years,” he said. “Builders, at
least those left standing, have been making sure they don’t
have any houses sitting around, and they have been very
successful in controlling inventories.”

IHS Global Insight economist Patrick Newport echoed that,
noting new-home inventories “sank for the 29th straight
month to their lowest level since November 1982.” Naroff
maintained housing has recovered enough to stand without
the tax credit, but Newport said that if the credit were not
extended and expanded, housing demand would take a hit,
and home sales would drop.

The new provisions are aimed at broadening availability of the
credit beyond first-time buyers and giving the weakened real
estate market a bigger boost while preventing real estate
investors from benefitting. While Senate lawmakers appear
to have reached a deal on the substance of the tax credit,
they are still at odds over how it would be brought to
the Senate floor. Return to Top