Best Realty's Lake Oroville Real Estate Blog

The United States Senate failed to pass a bill yesterday that, among other things, would have extended the home buyer tax credit until September 30, 2010.
The bill, H.R. 4123, included an amendment allowing home buyers the three-month extension on the tax credit. The extension, though, only applied to buyers who signed purchasing contracts before the original April 30 deadline.
With a backlog of transactions waiting to be processed, and in danger of not closing by the required deadline of June 30, 2010,  the National Association of REALTORS®, as well a mortgage lender groups, had urged Congress to extend the time for escrow closings to the proposed September time frame.
Unfortunately for those of you in the Lake Oroville real estate market and the Paradise real estate market in danger of not closing your transaction on time, the provision for the extension was added as an aside to an unemployment bill that had become a political hot potato.
Why Congress can’t do the common sense thing, (oh wait, my English teacher told me never to use the words Congress and common sense in the same sentence), and vote on these unrelated issue separately is beyond me.
If you are in danger of missing this deadline you might want to turn up the heat on your loan officer, as loan processors and underwriters could really care less about your time frame
There is still an outside chance that this extension amendment and be added to another bill or simply be voted on on its own merits. My advise though is don’t assume anything.
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Tax Credit Extension is Dead in the Water  zillow.com)
Tax Credit Paperwork Extension Denied  rerockstar.com)
200,000 could lose out on homebuyer tax credit  money.cnn.com)

Today’s news that new homes sales are at their worst level in recorded history comes on the heels of yesterday’s report that existing home sales we down more than 2% while the “experts” were expecting an increase of almost 6%, is great example of what I am afraid is going to be another 6 months to a year of pain for sellers and homeowners.  I hope I am wrong , but I fear that I am not.
But, wait!! I thought the government’ s tax credit program was supposed to stabilize the market. If you listened to, and believed what,  the National Association of REALTORS® and the California Association of REALTORS® have had to say about the credits, you should be seeing a recovery by now. But, what we are beginning to see, on a National basis, (which is what most of us read and hear about) is a rapid move of the market toward the place it would have already gone,if  the people who should know better would have been honest about the ultimate impact of these credits they were supporting.
Instead these groups landed on the side of  getting a quick “fix” instead of thinking long term. Now we have to look even longer term because the inevitable has been prolonged.
Now let’s be honest here. I and my office associates, here in the Lake Oroville and Paradise real estate markets,  no doubt benefited from the temporary increase in sales that resulted from the credits. Our sales numbers increased like everyone else’s.  I would, however, have gladly sacrificed the short term benefits in order to re-establish a viable, vibrant and free real estate market. One that has staying power.
As it is we are saddled with the hangover from the housing version of  Cash For Clunkers, or as I prefer to call it:  “Funds For Foreclosures”
If you think that I am all gloomy and doomy about this market you are wrong. I think that expiration of these tax credits now allow us to come back to reality and now focus on the real cause of this market today. UNEMPLOYMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe a softer real estate market going into election season will be one more reason to finally get us the changes we need in order to get  our country’s, and our state’s, economic engine restarted.
As they say, Everything Happens for A Reason.
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Existing Home Sales Drop 2.2%  online.wsj.com)
Housing: How Bad Will It Get?  blogs.wsj.com)
May New-Home Sales Plunge 32.7%  dailyfinance.com)
Calif.’s first-time buyer tax credit almost gone  lansner.ocregister.com)
American Land Title Association Urges Congress to Extend Closing Deadline for Homebuyer Tax Credit  eon.businesswire.com)

Senate OKs new tax credit closing deadline
Congress is riding to the rescue for all of you in the Lake Oroville and Paradise California real estate markets who have qualified for the first time home buyer tax credit  by having a home purchase contract in place before the April 30, 2010 deadline, and are in danger of not being able to get the purchase closed by the deadline of June 30, 2010 because your lender is overwhelmed by the backlog of paperwork created by the frenzy.
With just two weeks before the expiration of the tax credit program ,an amendment to HR 4213 was added which, if signed by the President, will  extend the closing deadline to September 30, 2010. The extension was requested by the mortgage industry will allow a backlog of over 180,000 purchase transactions that were begun before the April 30th deadline to be completed. While this is a wise, and fair move on the part of Congress to agree to extend this deadline, it is important to understand that it THE EXTENSION IS NOT YET OFFICIAL.
With only 2 weeks to go before the original expiration date of the program, it is important for you, if you are one of these 180,000 transactions that has not closed, to keep pressure on your lender to get your loan done.  In this political environment it would be foolish to think that the proposed deadline extension of September 30th is a done deal. 
I will keep you updated as new information becomes available.
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Senate approves home tax credit extension  seattletimes.nwsource.com)
Home-Buyer Tax Credit Update: Senate Moves to Extend Closing Deadline  blogs.wsj.com)