Lets look at the new homes for Sale in Cordova & Trellis community of Windingwalk located in Eastlake Chula Vista.

It appears that brand new home buyers in Chula Vista are not paying any closing costs for the time being. With such good prices, low rates of interest, incentives of saving money and the existence of home buyer tax credit, the opportunity is almost too good to be true. Why not welcome 2010 with a brand new home in this neighborhood?

Home prices at Cordova, Windingwalk begin at around $300,000 and six floor plans are offered along with two-story homes with three or four bedrooms, three bathrooms and garages. Homes in Cordova come with formal dining and living spaces, huge master suites with equally huge closets, well-designed kitchens, downstairs bedrooms and appliances of stainless steel. Some even provide yards.

At Trellis, Windingwalk, on the other hand, single-family homes offer four floor plans with four or five bedrooms, three bathrooms and garages. These homes begin at around $400,000. Homes in Trellis come with traditional styles of architecture with details that range from Spanish to California Cottage. They also come with formal dining and living spaces, butler’s pantries, maple cabinets, granite countertops, downstairs bedroom suites and stainless steel appliances.

This perfectly planned community even comes with various amenities, such as convenient marketplaces, retail centers, and popular food and entertainment places. Anyone familiar with Eastlake Chula Vista know that it offers everything you need to live comfortably.

Residents of Windingwalk have their own private parks, recreation center that provides top-notch amenities like resort-like swimming pools, spas, grassy play areas, basketball courts, spacious courtyards, outdoor barbecues, and wedding garden with a covered gazebo and plush lawns. These facilities stand out with their dramatic covered walkways, entry towers and archways.

Once completed, Windingwalk hopes to offer up more than two thousand residences along with various community facilities, public parks, office spaces and high schools. So what are you waiting for? Take advantage of the market and look at the options available at Windingwalk in Chula Vista.

If you missed your chance to reap the benefits of the first-time homebuyer tax credit this past year, you will get one more shot.  The Senate passed a bill on Thursday 98 to 0 that will extend the original first time homebuyer tax credit for another seven months and expand the bill to benefit some current homeowners looking to buy a new home. The bill should reach the House floor by next Thursday and then require the signature of the President.

So what does this new bill consist of? Well, for starters, contrary to many of the proposed bills, this bill does not increase the amount of tax credit. It remains $8000 for first time homebuyers. However this time around, if you are currently a homeowner that has owned your home for at least five consecutive years, you are eligible to receive a $6500 tax credit if you buy a new primary home. In other words, if you are buying a 2^nd home you will not get a tax credit, but if you looking to move and buy a new primary residence, you might be eligible.

Who is eligible? Obviously first time homebuyers, and as previously mentioned, folks that have owned a home for at least five consecutive years. But the bill limits the purchase price of the home to $800,000 and there are income caps, which disqualify any individual who makes more that $125,000 annually and couples who make more than $225,000. In addition, this tax credit offer won’t last as long the second time around. One must sign a contract by April 30 2010, and close on the home by June 30^th to qualify. And if you think they will probably end up extending the offer even further, think again.

According to Dina ElBoghdady of the Washington Post reported that Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA), “a longtime advocate of the tax credit, praised passage of the bill in his chamber but said the extension would be the last one. “Tax credits like this only work by creating the sense of urgency to take advantage of them”.  So if you are considering buying a home and are eligible for the tax credit, you better get a move on.

But will this extension of the tax credit really stimulate more home sales? Stephen Ohlemacher of the Associated Press reported that there are those like Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) who question its effectiveness. “For the vast majority of cases, the homebuyer tax credit amounted to a free gift since it did not affect their decision to purchase a home,” Bond said. “And for the small minority of buyers whose decision was directly caused by the credit, this raises the question of whether we are subsidizing buyers who may not have been able to afford buying a home in the first place”.  Though there may be plenty of truth to that statement, it seems that at this point there is nothing else that can be done to at least try and stimulate home buying. And the 98-0 vote in favor of the bill confirms that our Senators don’t think there is anything else that can be done either.

It is understandable that as a first-time home buyer you may not be aware of the intricacies that go with buying a new home.  Imagine the pressure that you’ll feel having to go through this process without any prior knowledge and with a deadline to beat too!  Usually, it takes 12 weeks to search for a home (you really have to be thorough especially when pickings are thin) and an additional 6o days to get the documents in order to close the sale.  With the November 30 deadline looming on the horizon, you only have 12 weeks to search for a home and close the sale and beat all the other first time home buyers who are rushing to take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit.

What can you do to get a jump on the process?  The best thing that you can do for yourself is to get an online account with your preferred realtor.  With an online account, you can specify which type of house you’re looking for, which location you prefer, what your budget is, whether you’re looking for a furnished or unfurnished and many other details.  Whenever your conditions are, you’ll most likely going to receive an email (usually), or phone call to notify you of any updates so that you can schedule a look-see. 

The next step is to prepare for negotiation.  What better way to get the upper hand than to arm yourself with updated information on prices, market sales, features and property values?  If you come prepared then the lender knows you mean business and aren’t likely to be fooled by smooth words.

Appraisals take time so you should make sure that the lender can satisfactorily deliver their appraisal on time.  Ask for a desk price if the property doesn’t appraise for the bid price.

Financing all boils down to the documents that serve as proof of income so you should start compiling your pay stubs, income tax statements and all that can help your cause.  The more complete your documents, the faster the approval rate.

The last thing that you can probably too is ask your insurance company to forward a cost estimate to your escrow company early.  The earlier they can accomplish this, the faster the escrow company can estimate your closing costs which you have to pay come closing time.

As you all may know, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that authorizes qualified first-time home buyers a tax credit of up to $8,000 provided they purchase their residence between January 1, 2009 and November 30, 2009.

This was a move that was welcomed by would-be homeowners as well as members of the housing industry. Would-be homeowners are now more inclined to purchase their homes because they know that they’ll be getting a savings of $8,000 in the short term. And what’s great about this tax credit is that, unlike the 2008 tax credit, this doesn’t need to be repaid. So, it’s really like getting $8,000 in windfall money. You also have plenty of choices as to which type of home you would like to purchase – whether you want a bungalow, a condominium, a mobile home or even a houseboat. All of these are eligible for purchase.

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Early last month, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) laid out the details of a new policy that will tweak the First Time Home Buyer Credit guidelines, allowing first time home buyers to apply the $8000 federal tax credit toward the purchase costs of an FHA-insured home.

As reported  by Carrie Bay of DSNews.com, “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, enacted under President Obama, offers homebuyers a tax credit of up to $8000 for purchasing their first home before December 1, 2009, but the credit can only be accessed after filling an amended tax return with the IRS. However, the new FHA rules allow first-time homebuyers using FHA-backed financing to obtain a short term loan from state housing financing agencies and certain non-profits for 10 percent of the home’s price, up to the full amount of the tax credit.” So what exactly does that mean? Well, it means that as nice as it sounds to be able to use that tax credit towards a down payment, quite a few factors have to work out in your favor in order for you to take advantage of such an offer.

For one, you have to qualify for an FHA loan. (See guidelines at http://www.fha.com/important_facts.cfm) Second, you obviously have to be a first time homebuyer (although this may change soon; see previous blog). And finally, and much more difficult to come by depending on where you live, you need to have a state housing finance agencies or a non-profit group that will allow you to obtain a short term loan for this credit to go towards your down payment and/or closing costs. While there is a push by home builders and Realtors to urge more states to institute programs to provide down payments loans for the federal tax credits, so far, according to Bay, only Colorado, New Jersey, New Mexico, Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have them. However, don’t take my word for it. Before you dismiss this as a possibility, ask your lender if this might be an option.

To answer a couple more questions and to help consumers better understand how this expanded First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit work and how to take advantage of it, the National Association of Home Builders has released the following “FAQ on Monetization:”

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The $8000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit offer is due to expire on December 1, 2009 and to qualify, your home purchase must close on or before November 30^th.  So if you are a first time home buyer, GET ON THIS ASAP. If, however, you absolutely positively, will not be ready to buy a home by November, then there is still hope out there. There are currently five, count em FIVE, bills on the table in Washington that propose to extend and tweak the current tax credit bill.

The most publicized proposal, has been introduced by Johnny Isakson (R-GA) who is responsible for getting the current tax credit bill passed. This new bill, The Home Buyer Tax Credit Act of 2009, proposes a non-refundable tax credit up to $15,000 for ALL primary residence purchases-not just by first time home buyers. The bill would also remove income limits that had prevented individuals making more than $75,000 a year from claiming the credit. This bill would expire one year after it was enacted.

According to Luke Mullins of USNews.com, Isakson argues that the current tax incentive is insufficient because it misses a second set of buyers who are essential to a housing recovery. “We don’t have a recession in first time home-buyers,” a statement from the senator said. “We have a recession in the move-up market.” The legislation aims to convince these “move-up” buyers that, despite falling real estate prices and mounting job losses, now is the time to buy that larger house.

The second bill floating around the capital, introduced by one Kenny Marchant (R-TX) proposes to extend the existing $8000 tax credit to June 2010 and expand it to all primary resident home buyers. It also adds provisions for a tax credit of up to $3,000 for homeowners who refinance.

The other three bills are all virtually identical to each other, each one proposing an extension of the $8000 tax credit to June 2010 and expanding it to all primary resident homebuyers. I suppose that in Washington, it’s just a matter of getting your name on a bill and trying to be the one that gets the bill actually pushed through.

Isakson’s bill is easily the most aggressive of the lot, and it is not going to be easy to get a bill like that passed. But as Mark Zandi, Chief Economist at Moody’s Economy.com says, “My guess is that if the economy does continue to struggle…if these rates stay higher and the scenario that the recession will end this year is wrong, then there will be another stimulus package early next year, and [the expanded tax credit] could be a part of it.”

So we shall see what happens. But whatever  you do, don’t sit back and wait for one of these bills to get passed. Like I said, if you have the means to qualify now for the $8000 tax credit, do so.

By Andrew Brentan

Wooohooo! The first time home buyer tax credit has been passed. And what, you might ask, does that mean for you? Well, let’s go through some of the basic guidelines for what is required to qualify for this tax credit (from www.realtor.org):

Who Qualifies?

First-time home buyers who purchase homes between January 1, 2009 and December 1, 2009. To qualify as a “first-time home buyer” the purchaser or his/her spouse may not have owned a residence during the three years prior to the purchase.

Which Properties Are Eligible?

The 2009 First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit may be applied to primary residences, including: single-family homes, condos, townhomes, and co-ops.

How Much Will the Credit Be?

The maximum allowable credit for home buyers is $8,000. Each home buyer’s tax credit is determined by two factors:The price of the home-the credit is equal to 10% of the purchase price of the home, up to $8,000.  The buyer’s income-single buyers with incomes up to $75,000 and married couples with incomes up to $150,000-may receive the maximum tax credit.

If the Buyer(s)’ Income Exceeds These Limits, Can He/She Still Get a Credit?

Yes, some buyers may still be eligible for the credit.
The credit decreases for buyers who earn between $75,000 and $95,000 for single buyers and between $150,000 and $170,000 for home buyers filing jointly. The amount of the tax credit decreases as his/her income approaches the maximum limit. Home buyers earning more than the maximum qualifying income-over $95,000 for singles and over $170,000 for couples are not eligible for the credit.

Will the Tax Credit Need to Be Repaid?

No. The buyer does not need to repay the tax credit, if he/she occupies the home for three years or more. However, if the property is sold during the three-year period, the credit will be recouped