Daily Real Estate News  |  October 29, 2009

Homebuyer Credit Gets New Life

Key lawmakers in the Senate have tentatively agreed to extend the existing $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers and also offer a new $6,500 credit for existing homeowners who have lived in their current residence for a consecutive five-year period in the past eight years.

Home buyers must be under contract by April 30, 2010, and close before July 1. House Democrats have expressed concern about the cost of the tax credit for the government, and allegations of abuse have resulted in an IRS probe of the program.

Source: Wall Street Journal, Corey Boles and John D. McKinnon (10/29/09)

Congratulations to the 2009 Pop Warner Football Junior Midget South Anchorage Bucs who won the state championship on Sunday October 25th with a 14 - 12 win over the East Eagles who beat them earlier this year and accounted for their only loss this season.  Playing on the Bucs are, Preston Epley (#88), Edison Pascual (#41), and Collin Thompson (#56), all of Girdwood.  Defensive coaching by Girdwood Resident Jake Thompson.

Daily Real Estate News  |  October 22, 2009

Half of States Avoid Big Housing Drop

Parts of the U.S. with plenty of open space and moderate prices have mostly escaped the housing meltdown.

Over the past three years, home prices have risen in most of the metro areas of 23 states, according to analytics firm Fiserv. States mostly likely to escape the housing meltdown were in the South, the Plains states, and most of the non-coastal West.

The state that is the best example of this phenomenon is Texas, where home prices rose in all 26 metro areas over the last three years.

The 16 states hardest hit by the decline were in New England and the Northeast, plus California, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona.

The seven cities that are the best bets for a quick recovery are San Francisco, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Rochester, N.Y., Memphis, Tenn., Oakland, Calif., and Birmingham, Ala.

Source: CNNMoney.com, Les Christie (10/21/2009)

Upon arrival at the haunted Hotel Alyeska, guests will check in and the murder mystery officially begins with a vampire welcome reception, gruesome dinner and deathly dessert buffet. Find out who dunnit before the evening’s out. Package includes one-way rail/one-way bus Anchorage-Girdwood. A cash bar and complimentary appetizers during the train ride. One-night stay at The Hotel Alyeska, seated dinner, dessert buffet, and entry to the Halloween Dance Party.

BOOK NOW!!!

At last night's Regular Meeting of the Girdwood Board of Supervisors, the following Budget(s) were approved by the Board:

Fire Service Area:  $558,593

Parks and Recreation:  $122,650

Roads/Maintenance and Operations:  $738,470

All Budget(s) repesent a decrease from last year with the Fire Service Area Budget being reduced 2.5%, the Parks and Recreation Budget being reduced 7%, and the Roads/Maintenance and Operations Budget being reduced by 6%.  These reductions are less than or equal to those beging discussed throughout the Municipality of Anchorage.

A total of $54,750 in Non-Profit Grants were also approved as follows:

Challenge Alaska:  $3,500 ($10,000 requested)

Four Valleys Community School:  $20,750 ($21,000 requested)

Girdwood Art Institute:  $2,750 ($6,000 requested)

Girdwood Community Club:  $3,250 ($7,000 requested)

Girdwood Nordic Ski Club:  $12,250 ($25,000 requested)

Glacier Valley Ski:  $6,250 ($10,000 requested)

Little Bears:  $6,000 ($10,000 requested)

Input can still be received as these Budget(s) are forwarded to Anchorage where Public Meetings will be held and approval will eventually be sought from the Assembly.

Congress Debating the Tax Credit

Congress is considering expanding and extending the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit, which expires Nov. 30.

More than 1.8 million home buyers will have used the credit by the end of November, including an estimated 355,000 who wouldn’t have bought a home without it, according to the National Association of REALTORS® and other analysts.

Mark Zandi, chief economist for MoodysEconomy.com, is among those in favor of extending the credit. Zandi would also make it available to all homebuyers. "The most fundamental argument for the credit is that nothing works in the economy if housing is falling," Zandi said. "[The credit] is a good insurance policy. It's vital to stem the housing price declines."

Opponents argue that the tax credit is too expensive and doesn’t help enough people.
Extending the credit through the end of 2010 and making it available to single filers earning up to $150,000 and joint filers earning up to $300,000 would cost an estimated $16.7 million. Some in Congress propose using unspent money from the $787 billion stimulus bill to pay for it.

Source: CNNMoney.com, Les Christie (10/14/2009)

Long-Term Mortgages Near Record Low

Thirty-year, fixed-rate mortgages moved closer to the all-time low of 4.82 percent reached in May, falling to 4.87 percent this week from 4.94 percent a week ago, according to Freddie Mac.

Home owners who refinance have an opportunity to reduce their payment on a 30-year, fixed-rate loan for $200,000 by nearly $134 a month from a year ago, when long-term rates averaged 5.94 percent.

Other mortgage averages were as follows:

• 15-year loans fell to 4.33 percent.
• Five-year adjustable-rate mortgages dropped to 4.35 percent.
• One-year ARMs rose to 4.53 percent.

A Historic Time to Buy

Young people just starting to invest and buying their first homes are potentially the winners in this recession.

First-time homebuyers, most between the ages of 25 and 45, accounted for about 45 percent of home sales from January through July 2009, according to the National Association of REALTORS®

"This is a historic time," says George Jaramillo, a 35-year-old business analyst in Atlanta, who recently bought three homes, two of them foreclosures. "It's a great opportunity to make some great gains in the future."

A study by investment company T. Rowe Price points out that investing when prices are low can result in amazing gains. For instance, between 1970 and 1990, the annualized rate of return for the S&P 500 was 11.5 percent.

"We need to be shouting from the rooftops that this is not the time to get out of the market if you're young," says Christine Fahlund, a senior financial planner with T. Rowe Price. "This is the time to be in the market."

Source: The Associated Press, Chip Cutter (10/05/2009)

The Girdwood Board of Supervisors is in the midst of setting the 2010 Budget(s). 

Click here for the PROPOSED 2010 Fire Department Budget (5% reduction). 

Click here for the PROPOSED 2010 Parks and Recreation Budget (7% reduction).

Click here for the PROPOSED 2010 Roads Budget (8% reduction). 

Feedback can be given by e-mail to the Board at GBOS@Muni.org.

Daily Real Estate News  |  September 29, 2009

Housing Economists Predict Slow Growth

The fundamentals that drove the increase in housing values for the last century – increasing population, incomes, and household wealth – may not follow in the United States in the future. Some housing experts speculate this will change the economics of homeownership.

Over the next few decades, "We can expect a gradual rise [in home values], but not the bonanza we've become accustomed to between the end of World War II and 2006, and especially the last 20 years," says Robert Reich, public policy professor at UC Berkeley and U.S. Labor secretary in the Clinton administration.

The reasons for the change include the absence of pent-up demand that followed the Great Depression and World War II and the aging of the baby boomers who carried that housing demand forward, says housing consultant Thomas Lawler.

Source: Los Angeles Times, Peter Y. Hong (09/27/2009)