With the sun out, lawns green, flowers blossoming, and summer breezes blowing, the market is coming back. Not only is the weather nice but it's a nice time to buy a home if you have not owned a home in the past 3 years. Why 3 years? Because 3 years is what the government has defined as a first time home buyer. That's right, if you have not owned a home in the past 3 years you can receive the $8000 for buying a home this year.
With short sales being over 40% of the market it's most likely going to take some time to get into the home. Why does this matter you may ask, one of the keys to getting the money is you must be closed AND moved into the home by the end of the years. I know the end of the year is over 6 months away but with the market picking up banks are getting more swamped than ever with short sales so real estate transactions are taking longer to get closed. Its not unusual for a short sale to take 6 months to close, putting you into December and some can take even longer. On the other hand some are able to close in 90 days so it's a bit of a mystery as to when you will be able to get into your new home.
One more item going for home buyers is the market is showing many signs of stabilizing, meaning home are going to be selling after less days on the market and in turn prices will be going up on the bottom half of the market even more so than currently. The inventory of homes continues to drop removing some of the power buyer's currently have. I'm not saying it's a seller market by any means, but the great deals are becoming MUCH harder to find and are selling quickly when they do come onto the market.
One more very appealing piece of help available to first time home buyers is a program here in Idaho allowing up to $7000 of the $8000 tax credit to be used towards your down payment. When combined with an FHA loan only requiring 3.5% down you can now buy a home for $200,000 and pay nothing out of pocket. This means most of you can pay nothing out of pocket and still receive money back to put into savings for a rainy day. Call a lender today to see if you qualify for the down payment assistance program. Let's get you into a home before the tax credit money is no longer available and home prices exceed your budget.
Lee Taylor
Realtor/IMLS
Genesis Real Estate Group
208-371-9881
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