Mortgage protection in case times get tough

Mortgage protection in case times get tough

Melissa Sparks is a bit nervous about making the biggest investment of her life during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. So she plans to pay a one-time fee of $525 for a security blanket when she buys her first house.

A program offered by her lender, Service First Mortgage, promises to pay up to $1,800 in mortgage payments for six months if Sparks is laid off from her surgical-coordinator job within the first 24 months of the mortgage.

“It’s a small price to pay if something should happen to my job,” said Sparks, 30, of Garland, Texas. “It’s one less thing to worry about.”

Other companies are using innovative marketing to reduce the risk for cash-strapped consumers while boosting sales as customers worry about the recession

Understanding the ’08 and ’09 Home Buyer’s Credits

Understanding the ’08 and ’09 Home Buyer’s Credits

Does the tax credit for first-time home buyers need to be repaid? I have heard different stories and need to have this clarified. My son recently bought his first home. Will he receive a check for the credit, and, if so, when will he get the money?

The repayment rules depend on whether he bought his home in 2008 or 2009. If you bought a first home between April 9, 2008, and December 31, 2008, you are eligible for a tax credit of 10% of the home’s purchase price, up to $7,500. But you must repay that credit over 15 years, starting two years after the year you claim the credit. Sell the home before you finish paying back the loan, and the balance is due in full the year of the sale. For more information about the first-time home buyer credit for 2008, see the IRS First-Time Homebuyer Credit Information Center.

But if you buy a house between January 1, 2009, and December 1, 2009, you could receive a credit for 10% of the home’s purchase price, up to $8,000. This credit does not have to be repaid as long as you remain in the new home for at least three years.

For home buyers, rock bottom prices tough to pinpoint

For home buyers, rock bottom prices tough to pinpoint

The explanation for a surge in sales of South Florida homes last month can be found in a one-bedroom condo on the 29th floor of a Brickell Avenue condo tower.

The Club at Brickell Bay unit sold in 2006 for $410,000. Five days after real estate agent Doug DeWitt listed the foreclosed unit earlier this month for $114,000, 12 bidders swarmed, offering cash. The sale — above the asking price — is set to close next week.

”I am standing on the bottom,” DeWitt said. The agent says eight of his 15 foreclosure listings now have contracts with buyers. “Prices do not go lower than this.”

Bargains like the Brickell Bay unit continue to draw buyers back into the market at a quickening pace, February numbers showed. Analysts have said that increasing sales, along with steep declines in home prices, would signal the beginning of a long-awaited recovery in the region’s ailing housing market.

Spotlight – Seeking a Monaco on Biscayne Bay [South Florida]

Spotlight – Seeking a Monaco on Biscayne Bay [South Florida]

All across Miami, images of the real estate bust are on display — in the empty condominium towers, the for-sale signs and the posted foreclosure notices. But on Watson Island, a diamond-shaped piece of land between downtown Miami and South Beach, there are big plans in the works.

Since November, workers have been dredging the waters and building a sea wall to prepare for a deepwater marina that will be the focal point of Island Gardens, a $640 million mixed-use project being developed by the Flagstone Property Group. The development will include two luxury hotels, private residences, a botanical garden and dozens of restaurants and boutiques.

The ambitious project is the rare exception these days in Miami, where rampant building and speculation combined to make the city a vivid example of the real estate crisis. While the downturn has stymied many developments, the Island Gardens project seems to hark back to a sunnier time with its promise of luxury living.

Real estate: Market ripe for those looking for investment properties [Colorado]

Real estate: Market ripe for those looking for investment properties

Today’s real estate market represents a tremendous opportunity for buyers who would buy a home, condo, or duplex as an investment. Interest rates are low, values are excellent, and demand for rentals in strong.
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It is an excellent way to fund a college education for kids, retirement, or the purchase of a second home.

There has been an unrealistic expectation that you can buy and sell real estate every three to five years and make a killing. Any successful real estate investor will tell you that real wealth comes from the combination of loan payoff and appreciation.

With good credit you can buy a rental home with 25 percent down. The interest rate for non-owner occupied investment real estate is about 1 percent higher than financing of owner occupied homes. The rent the tenant pays will pay off the mortgage and if your time is right the home would be paid off when your child starts college. You can then sell the home, borrow against it, or best yet use the cash flow to pay for tuition, books, room and board.

Screws tighten on Kelly and Sarasota Bayside

Screws tighten on Kelly and Sarasota Bayside

Beset by bank debt and eroding property values here and abroad, Irish developer and Sarasota Quay owner Patrick Kelly is contemplating filing for bankruptcy protection.

Kelly’s dilemma marks the largest example to date of how the global economic crisis is seeping into Southwest Florida.

While such a move would be a personal blow, it is too early to tell how a bankruptcy filing would affect Sarasota Bayside, the $1 billion collection of condominium towers, office space, hotel rooms, retail and restaurants that a Kelly-led partnership unveiled in early 2004 but was unable to start.