Tuesday, December 29, 2009

2009 Perspective - cont'd

In all fairness, we should give credit where credit is due for some efforts made during 2009 to help kickstart the house industry recovery. An unprecedented $8000 first-time home buyer tax credit sparked the motivation to get out there and buy now. Cash actually delivered by the federal government to first-time buyers and extended to many "trade-up" buyers on December 1st encouraged many fence-sitters to make their move. The simultaneous push was to see the real market statistics encouraging "Buy now before the prices go up."

The state helped, too. Supported by Florida Realtors, the 2009 Florida Legislature created a law that enables buyers to use the federal tax credit as part of the down payment on a home. It essentially became a bridge loan for the buyer to use prior to actually receiving the tax credit check from the IRS. There are still funds available for use that will flow into 2010.

Recent signs seem to indicate that the economy - while fragile - is slowly starting to stabilize in our area, though analysts' reactions to the actual date are mixed. Still, at the end of 2009, most economists foresee a steady, yet very slow, improvement by Summer 2010.

No comments:

Post a Comment