New home sales hit record low in January - Yahoo! Finance

New home sales plummet 11.2 percent in January to annual rate of 309,000, lowest on record. The extra distressed property inventory will continue to be an issue for new homes sales for well into the future.

The AP story is here.

Current Stats for 85018 - 02/12/2010

Current Stats for 85018

All Property Types

	ALL	Distressed	Distressed PPSF	Not Distressed	Not Distressed PPSF	% Distressed
Active	416	117	146.26	299	308.72	28.13
In Escrow	108	78	147.25	30	224.16	72.22
Closed - MTD	13	3	112.99	10	206.14	23.08
Closed - 01/2010	36	22	141.54	14	167.80	61.11

Months of inventory for Not Distressed properties = 21.4
Months of inventory for Distressed properties = 5.3

via homezon.dyndns.biz

LBPOST.com: Foreclosure Up-Tick May Signal Impending Flood

January foreclosure numbers are exhibiting a pattern very similar to a year ago: a double-digit percentage jump in December foreclosure activity followed by a 10% drop in January,” James J. Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac, said in a statement. “If history repeats itself we will see a surge in the numbers over the next few months as lenders foreclose on delinquent loans where neither the existing loan modification programs or the new short sale and deed-in-lieu of foreclosure alternatives works.

via lbpost.com

Interesting article. I am not sure why the coming influx of foreclosures is not getting more attention.

New program to make short sales easier

The federal government is launching a program April 5th to increase and streamline short sales. It's called Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA). The program aims to standardize short sale regulations and paperwork. All servicers participating in HAMP, the federal Home Affordable Modification Program, are contractually obligated to consider those ineligible for modifications for a foreclosure alternative. Read the whole article at azcentral.com

via azcentral.com

As an agent, I hope that this makes things better, however, I do not hold out too much hope because of the huge volume of short sales still to come.

Are you ready to pay more taxes in 2011??

In the 2010 budget tabled by President Barack Obama on Monday, the White House wants to let billions of dollars in tax breaks expire by the end of the year -- effectively a tax hike by stealth.

While the administration is focusing its proposal on eliminating tax breaks for individuals who earn $250,000 a year or more, middle-class families will face a slew of these backdoor increases.

....If President Bush's tax cuts are allowed to expire at the end of this year, the top-tier personal income tax rate will rise to 39.6 percent from 35 percent. Lower-income families will pay more too: the 25 percent tax bracket will revert back to 28 percent; the 28 percent bracket will increase to 31 percent; and the 33 percent bracket will increase to 36 percent.

This is not what is needed to keep the economy going. Right when things may be turning around the bulk of tax payers will be hit with less income thanks to taxes.

Investors will pay more on their earnings next year, the tax on dividends will jump to 39.6 percent from 15 percent and the capital-gains tax increases to 20 percent from 15 percent.

Also, the death tax may be back as early as this year, and there is talk of making it retroactive!

Does this make sense to anyone?

To read the who article go to Yahoo! News