UPDATED - November 7th, 2009 **It is LAW - signed by Obama on Friday**!

The Florida First-Time Home buyer Tax Credit may soon be known as the Home Buyer Tax Credit… being opened to non-first time buyers for the first time.

As you have likely already read on My FHA Mortgage Blog - the Florida First-Time Home Buyer tax credit is on the verge of extension.   I noted there that there are a few exciting changes that benefit you - the home buyer!  Here is an explanation as to their significance.  Those noteworthy changes between the current tax credit and the proposed tax credit are:

• Change in the deadline. From November 30, 2009 to April 30, 2010.  MORE IMPORTANTLY, however is what has to “happen” by the deadline date.  As it is now, you ahve to close by Nov. 30th.  The extension has wording that states you need to be under contract by April 30th.  HUGE difference - especially if you are looking at an Orlando Short Sale, Orlando Foreclosure, or Orlando Bank owned property.  The difference can not be overstated! It does not remain open-ended however… you have 60 days from 4-30-10 to close on that property.
• There is also a possibility that the tax credit would be opened up to non-first-time buyers. It looks like non-first time home buyers could be eligible to receive a $6500 credit for homeowners that have lived in their home for 5 years or more.  This is big since many of the Orlando homes for sale are not suited for the first time home buyer market.  This allows those that own to sell and move up - furthering the impact the housing market can have on the sputtering economy.
• Income limits are also possibly effected. Right now to receive the full benefit, the income limits are $75,000 and $150,000 for single/married income earners [respectively]. That may jump to $125,000/ $225,000. This furthers the number of folks that fit the parameters and can be the key to making this effort work!

Understand that as this gets enacted, it will get crazy busy for folks in the industry, so it is of vital importance to let those you care about know about this blog post so that they can get the groundwork done before it gets nuts!

It is important to note that - while it is not yet through he entire process, the momentum seems to be behind the extension of the Florida First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit until April 30, 2010 if it makes it to the President and is signed.  Here is what needs to happen. [In case you missed it from my syndicated blog post on MyFHABlog.com.]

Contact me ASAP to review the best scenario for you and the people you care about.

Chris Brown
Orlando Mortgage Pro
Direct: 407 - 377 - 0500 x 210
Chris@OrlandoMortgagePro.com

_____________________________________________________

Chris is Florida’s #1 FHA Mortgage Broker and a syndicated mortgage blogger. He is regular contributor to the many leading industry blog-fronts including The Mortgage Chili Blog, My FHA Mortgage Blog, Top of Mind Networks, the newest contributor to Lenderama and has been recently featured on Fox35 News.

Chris can be found at
Orlando FHA Loans,
Chris[at]OrlandoMortgagePro[dot]com,
or by calling 407.377.0500 x 210

Click Here to Apply Online

Not sure how to connect? Find out at FindChrisBrown.com

Congress both extended and expanded the First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit program Thursday.

The White House says the President will sign it into law today.

The up-to-$8000 tax credit’s expiration date has been pushed forward to spring, requiring homebuyers to be under contract by April 30, 2010, and to be closed by June 30, 2010.

The program’s basic eligibility requirements remain the same:

• Buyers can’t purchase the home from a parent, spouse, or child
• Buyers can’t purchase the home from an entity in which they’re a majority owner
• Buyers can’t acquire the home by gift or inheritance
• All parties to the purchase must meet eligibility requirements

The new law includes some notable updates, however.

For one, the definition of “first-time home buyer” has been expanded to include most homeowners with at least 5 years in their current home.  “Move-up” buyers like these are now eligible for IRS tax credits, but with a cap at $6,500.

This means that you don’t have to be a true first-time home buyer to claim the “first-time home buyer tax credit”.

Other eligibility changes include:

• The subject property’s sales price may not exceed $800,000
• The subject property must be a primary residence
• Income thresholds raised to $125,000 for single-filers and $225,500 for joint-filer

And remember, the First-Time Home Buyer program grants a tax credit as opposed to a deduction.  This means that a tax filer would receive a cash payment of $2,000 from the U.S. Treasury if his “normal” tax liability totals $6,000 and he was eligible for all $8,000 available under the new law.

The complete list of qualifying criteria is posted on the IRS website.  Be sure to review it with a tax professional to determine your eligibility.  Then mark your calendar for April 30, 2010.

It’s 5 months away.

Chris is Florida’s #1 FHA Mortgage Broker and a syndicated mortgage blogger. He is regular contributor to the three leading industry blog-fronts including The Mortgage Chili Blog, My FHA Mortgage Blog, Top of Mind Networks, the newest contributor to Lenderama and recently featured on Fox35 News.

Chris can be found at
Orlando FHA Loans,
Chris[at]OrlandoMortgagePro[dot]com,
or by calling 407.377.0500 x 210

Andrea Tlumacki was one of the “action takers”.  With the deadline of the $8000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit looming - it is important to have a game plan.  Many folks are focused on the Nov. 30th deadline.  Okay… but many are not “reverse-engineering” the calendar in order to determine milestones that one needs to meet if they wish to capitalize on the Tax Credit.  This can be done by employing the advice of seasoned real estate professionals - both a Realtor and a Certified Mortgage Planning Specialist.

Andrea Tlumacki did.  Expert real estate advice from Robert Brown of Prefer One Realty proved invaluable.  Not only was she able to secure an amazing interest rate of 4.500%, but she got stellar direction from Robert Brown’s corporate-world negotiating skills to get a surprisingly low purchase price.

We all know that the last week of November is Thanksgiving week, but there seems to be a disconnect regarding that fact and the banker’s hours of that week.  Banks will be closed 4 of the last 5 days of the month of November - hence making closing any of those days an impossibility.  In her interview with Andrea, Tracy Jacim points out that the time crunch is upon us and the time to postpone has past.

Many of us are familiar with Student Syndrome - where work seems to expand to the time allowed in which to complete it… well the “24-hours before the term paper is due” is here!  The need to:

• get approved for a mortgage,
• identify a home you wish to purchase, and
• go-under-contract

…has a time limit of about a week from the time of this post.  Sure, things can be closed a bit quicker, but as volume increases for the mortgage companies, the length of time it takes to actually close will be elongated.

In other words… it is important to engage in the Orlando Real Estate process quickly if you hope to benefit from the First-time Home Buyer Tax Credit before it expires.

Chris is Florida’s #1 FHA Mortgage Broker and a syndicated mortgage blogger. He is regular contributor to the three leading industry blog-fronts including The Mortgage Chili Blog, My FHA Mortgage Blog, Top of Mind Networks, and proudly the newest contributor to Lenderama.

Chris can be found at
Orlando FHA Loans,
Chris[at]OrlandoMortgagePro[dot]com,
or by calling 407.377.0500 x 210

As covered on Fox 35 News:

Email Chris your questions now.

The government’s $8000 First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit available for Lake Mary Real Estate expires Nov. 30 — a short sixty-ish days from now.

When you consider that in the “New World” of Lake Mary Real Estate financing, closings can take up to 45-60 days, first-time buyers have 2 weeks at most to find a home.

Buyers that do not have a fully-executed contract by Oct. 15 have little chance of meeting the November 30 deadline and, therefore, little chance of claiming the tax credit.  At best - they are rolling the dice.

Email Chris your questions now.

This is especially true for Lake Mary real estate purchases involving short sales… in fact if you are not under contract by around Oct. 7th - you can forget closing on a short-sale in time!  My Opinion.

Congress passed the First-Time Home buyer Tax Credit program as part of the 2009 economic stimulus plan. IRS Form 5405 outlines the program criteria and includes the following stipulations:

• A Home buyer can’t have owned a “primary home” in the past three years
• The home can’t be bought from a family member such as a parent, spouse, or child
• The adjusted gross income [AGI] for the household must be below $75,000 [single tax filers] and $150,000 [joint tax filers]

The credit is capped at $8,000 or 10% of the purchase price, whichever is less.  And don’t forget – the First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit is a true tax credit.  It’s not a deduction.

Email Chris your questions now.

Follow me here - this means that a tax filer who claims the full $8,000 and whose typical tax liability is $5,000 would receive $3,000 cash from the IRS and have their $5000 obligation wiped out.  If you have already paid your 2008 taxes and are filing an amended tax return to receive the credit, you would get the whole $8000 from the US Treasury.

If you can’t close by November 30, 2009, though, you can’t claim the credit.

The clock is ticking. If you’re planning to use the First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit, the time to act is now.

Chris is Florida’s #1 FHA Mortgage Broker and a syndicated mortgage blogger. He is regular contributor to the three leading industry blog-fronts including The Mortgage Chili Blog, My FHA Mortgage Blog, Top of Mind Networks, and is the resident “Money Guy” on Realty Resolve.

Chris can be found at
Orlando FHA Loans,
Chris[at]OrlandoMortgagePro[dot]com,
or by calling 407.377.0500 x 210

In a bit of good news for the economy, Consumer Sentiment fell to 4-month lows in August.  The drop wasn’t “good news”, per se, but because it wasn’t nearly as large as economists expected, Wall Street cheered it.

The index, jointly published by the University of Michigan and Reuters, measures how Americans feel about their situation today, and how they envision it six months in the future.

Since bottoming 5 months ago, consumer sentiment has added more than 10 points.

Rising Consumer Sentiment figures can foreshadow economic growth because confident consumers are more apt to spend money on big-ticket items including appliances, automobiles, and, of course, new homes.

The recent run of sentiment data is one more reason to believe a full economic recovery is underway.

That said, the Consumer Sentiment survey has its flaws.

For one, the survey’s sample set includes just 500 households nationwide and that’s not a true cross-section of America. And second, just because people feel more confident about their finances doesn’t always mean they’ll spend more money — sometimes, they choose to save.

For now, though, stronger-than-expected sentiment data should help propel both retail sales and home sales volume through the fall season, and may even create some inflationary pressure on the economy.

If these levels are sustained, expect that mortgage rates will rise.

Chris is Florida’s #1 FHA Mortgage Broker and a syndicated mortgage blogger. He is regular contributor to the three leading industry blog-fronts including The Mortgage Chili Blog, My FHA Mortgage Blog, Top of Mind Networks, and is the resident “Money Guy” on Realty Resolve.

Chris can be found at
Orlando FHA Loans,
Chris[at]OrlandoMortgagePro[dot]com,
or by calling 407.377.0500 x 210

Mortgage markets were flat last week overall, although mortgage rates were somewhat volatile from day-to-day.

For rate shoppers, the best pricing was available Monday morning and Friday afternoon — everything in between was slightly elevated.

It’s the second consecutive week in which rates finished unchanged.

There was a string of good news last week about the economy, led by housing.  New Home Sales, Existing Home Sales, and the Case-Shiller Index all surprised to the high-side and consumer confidence numbers came in higher-than-expected, too.

In prior weeks, strong data like this would have caused mortgage rates to rise.  Last week, however, it didn’t.  Mostly because foreign demand for mortgage-backed bonds has remained strong.

This week, there’s only one major data release and its timing may prove to be problematic.

Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the August Non-Farm Payrolls report.  With housing’s rebound seemingly underway, the jobs report takes on added significance.  Joblessness can undermine consumer confidence and spending and cause harm to the recovering U.S. economy.

This is one reason why rate shoppers should be cautious toward the end of the week — the jobs report will move markets.  The other reason to be cautious is because Friday is the day before Labor Day and Wall Street will be short-staffed.

Fewer traders means more volatility — if rates start to pop, they’ll really pop.

Chris is Florida’s #1 FHA Mortgage Broker and a syndicated mortgage blogger. He is regular contributor to the three leading industry blog-fronts including The Mortgage Chili Blog, My FHA Mortgage Blog, Top of Mind Networks, and is the resident “Money Guy” on Realty Resolve.

Chris can be found at
Orlando FHA Loans,
Chris[at]OrlandoMortgagePro[dot]com,
or by calling 407.377.0500 x 210

Orlando Mortgage rates are suffering through another volatile week, causing problems for mortgage rate shoppers and Orlando home buyers.

After falling Monday and Tuesday, mortgage rates surged Wednesday and Thursday.  The momentum higher appears to be carrying into the weekend, too.

There are several data-related reasons for the mortgage market’s spastic activity this week:

1. Unemployment claims fell
2. Leading economic Indicators went up
3. Inflation readings remained stable

But while the up, down, and flat data points above fueled Orlando mortgage rate volatility, it’s not the data that’s making markets move the most.  It’s the psychological impact of the data.

See, data tells us about the past.  It measures and reports on what’s already happened.  Unfortunately for rate shoppers, mortgage markets are not made on data from the past – they’re made on the expectations of what will happen next - on the now and on the ‘yet to come’.

Therefore, Orlando Mortgage rates and Orlando FHA Mortgage Loans reflect Wall Street’s opinion of the future.

In reading the papers and watching the news, you’ll notice ongoing debate about the U.S. economy.  It’s unclear whether the recession is worsening or improving. 

On one hand, data is weak and sub-optimal.  On the other hand, the data is not nearly as weak as it was 6 months ago and, in some cases, it’s strong. To some, this is a signal that a recovery is already underway.

Or, it may just be a blip.

We can’t be certain in which direction the economy is headed and the same can be said for Orlando mortgage rates.  Because sentiment is changing so often, though, it forces us to be on our toes.  Huh, who saw American’s being fickle!? 

The last few months have been marked by large mortgage rate swings across small windows of time.  A rate that’s offered in the morning, for example, is rarely available in the afternoon.  Therefore, do your Orlando rate shopping in a compressed period of time and be ready to lock your rate at a moment’s notice.

When markets move, they tend to move quickly.  If you are a Orlando first time home buyer looking for the tax credit?  Don’t wait too long!

I am not sayin… I’m just sayin… =0)

The country’s, including Orlando, mortgage rates rose by 0.625 percent yesterday [Wednesday] - Ouch! Yes, you read it right. Zero-point-six-two-five percent.

The surprise surge in pricing started shortly after 1:00 P.M. ET, then continued all the way until the market’s closing. It was the sharpest one-day surge in mortgage rates in recent history. Perhaps ever.

For Orlando mortgage rate shoppers swept up in the surge, monthly payments are now higher by $29 per $100,000 borrowed.

That’s a significant shift.

For as rare as Wednesday’s events were, though, middle-of-the-day, 0.625 percent rate changes don’t just happen. Yesterday, the action was the result of a confluence of factors, including:

• Rising oil prices and gas prices
• Optimistic predictions about the end of the recession
• Concerns over the U.S. total debt load
• Fears of inflation

In addition, momentum-trading played a role.

As markets worsened, selling begat more selling, amplifying Wall Street’s total losses. As mortgage bond prices fell, mortgage rates went up. By a lot.

Mortgage markets are notoriously fickle and yesterday’s events proved it. Days like Wednesday are precisely why insiders recommend shopping for mortgage rates in a compressed timeframe. The faster you finish, the lower the risk of losing low interest rates to new market conditions.

If nothing else, this illustrates why you need a trusted advisor watching for your best interest - we were able to lock in several people before the shift, others - that second guessed, got hammered.

________

Chris is Florida’s #1 FHA Mortgage Broker and a syndicated mortgage blogger. He is regular contributor to the three leading industry blog-fronts including The Mortgage Chili Blog, My FHA Mortgage Blog, Top of Mind Networks, and is the resident “Money Guy” on Realty Resolve.

Chris can be found at
Orlando FHA Loans,
Chris[at]OrlandoMortgagePro[dot]com,
or by calling 407.377.0500 x 210

Being an FHA licensed Longwood mortgage company, we at Trinity Mortgage feel honored to offer our First-Time Home Buyers with Longwood Government-backed FHA programs that can truly provide for the American Dream of home ownership.

With low down payment requirements, competitive mortgage interest rates, flexible credit history guidelines, and common sense underwriting practices, FHA mortgage loans are designed to meet the primary needs of many First-Time Home Buyers.

Buying your first home can be, simply put, overwhelming at times… that is why is is imperative to make sure that you are not solely focused on just rates, but in getting sound mortgage advice as well. Seeking only rate has been one of the main contributers to the mortgage mess we now find ourselves in.

There are literally hundreds of questions that our clients uncover as they start their initial mortgage and Longwood real estate related searches.We invest a significant amount of time and effort in updating our blogs and home buyer packets with the most relevant and valuable information necessary so you feel confident that you are making the most informed decisions. Our goal - earn your trust through communication and service and the lowest cost of borrowing money over time.Please feel free to contact us directly at any time via phone, email, or online FHA mortgage application form if you desire no-nonsense mortgage insight to gain a better understanding of some of these complex details.

Floridas 1 FHA Mortgage Lender 407-377-0500 x210

Chris is Florida’s #1 FHA Mortgage Broker and a syndicated mortgage blogger. He is regular contributor to the three leading industry blog-fronts including The Mortgage Chili Blog, My FHA Mortgage Blog, Top of Mind Networks, and is the resident “Money Guy” on Realty Resolve.

Chris can be found at
Orlando FHA Loans,
Chris[at]OrlandoMortgagePro[dot]com,
or by calling 407.377.0500 x 210

Is Zero-down back for Lake Mary’s First Time Home Buyers?  Could be.  This is the next best news to working with Florida’s #1 FHA Mortgage Broker.  This info was released right at the close of business yesterday - getting it to you ASAP!

Hot off the press!

4:47 PM ET -  Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban  Development, said that the Federal Housing Administration [FHA] is going to permit its  lenders to allow homeowners to use the $8,000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit as a down payment.  According to Donovan, the FHA’s approved lenders will be permitted to ‘monetize’  the tax credit through short-term bridge loans. This will allow eligible home  buyers to access the funds immediately at the closing  table.

For more information on this email me, or call me at 407 377 0500 x 210.  Or, you can get prequalified now with the online mortgage application.