Golden Realty Blog

The United States of America, a nation where freedom includes a promise of prosperity and success and is rooted in the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence - that “all men are created equal” and that they are “endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights” including “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Homeownership has been the measuring stick for achieving the promise of prosperity and success; a status symbol that indicates if you are living the American Dream. But, times have changed, and today’s rising housing costs coupled with a challenging economy begs the question, is the American dream of homeownership still alive?

I think it was summed up best  by James Truslow Adams, the historian who coined the phrase “the American dream, “That dream,” he wrote in 1933, “has always meant more than the accumulation of material goods.” Home should be a place to build a household and a life, a respite from the heartless world, not a pot of gold.

Regardless of a “Dream”…Home will always be where your heart is.

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The price of a home is a marketing tool. Simply stated, the price gets a pool of buyers within a certain price range to look at the home and discover all the wonderful things about the property and whether or not it fits their particular needs. The value of a home…now that is another story.

A motivated seller should, in theory, be setting the price of their home at, below or near the true value of the home. However, there are many factors involved in setting the price of the home, including the expertise of the listing agent, money owed, location of the home, amenities with in the home, and the list goes on.

In this ever changing market and the market conditions, the only way to find out the true value of the home is to MAKE AN OFFER! The price tag is just a starting point. So if you are a buyer and find a home you desire to purchase, don’t complain that the price is too high, or that the counters are not granite, or that the landscape is too bare…just MAKE AN OFFER. Then and only then will you have the ability to negotiate the price and discover the true value or worth of the home in today’s marketplace.

Last week the Senate approved an amendment to the pending economic stimulus package that would give a tax credit up to $15,000, for anyone buying a primary residence within the year period, and it would not have to be repaid. This proposed amendment would have added $19 billion to the stimulus package. As lawmakers looked to trim the large price tag of the stimulus package, this amendment was killed, but was replaced with a similar yet smaller measure.

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported:

The $15,000 homebuyer tax credit didn’t survive the final negotiations on the stimulus bill. Instead, Congress slightly increased to $8000 an existing $7500 credit for first-time homebuyers and eliminated repayment provisions. Congressional negotiators said that $8000 number isn’t yet finalized.

The move was sure to disappoint those who had favored a more generous $15,000 credit for all home buyers in the Senate bill.

The new credit is retroactive to December 31, 2008, which means that anyone who buys a house this year, through August, won’t have to repay it. First time buyers who used the credit in 2008 still have to pay it back over a 15-year period.

The news is bittersweet for the real estate industry, but lawmakers who support the bill are not giving up and will continue to push for the increased tax credit in a separate stand alone bill.

Tax Credit for Homebuyers