The Real Estate Bloggers

1,295 Prisoners Get Home Buyer Tax Credit Check
New Home Sales Hit ALL TIME LOW
Kelo – 5 Year Anniversary – Eminent Domain Failure
New Jersey Seeks To Limit Property Tax Increases

1,295 Prisoners Get Home Buyer Tax Credit Check

Posted: 23 Jun 2010 09:11 AM PDT

Thief2 Nearly 1,300 prison inmates applied and received the Homebuyer Tax Credit while sitting in a jail cell. 241 of the prisoners are serving a life sentence.

That check will buy a lot of cigarettes.

The irony is, what is the IRS going to do? Threaten them with a trial?

Nevertheless, 1,295 prison inmates were able to get $9.1 million in credits, in part because the IRS does not keep up-to-date records of who is in prison, the IG’s report said. None of the inmates filed joint returns, so the claims could not have been for purchases by spouses.

The IRS said that while many prisons voluntarily provide information about inmates, they are not required to do so.

“When IRS has reliable data, we do a very effective job of using it to ensure compliance,” IRS spokesman Frank Keith said. “When IRS does not have reliable data, it is a much more difficult process for us.” via CNBC

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1,295 Prisoners Get Home Buyer Tax Credit Check

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New Home Sales Hit ALL TIME LOW

Posted: 23 Jun 2010 08:10 AM PDT

Newhousingprebuilt This is the kind of report that must be making developers sweat.

This is the slowest sales pace since the Commerce Department began tracking data in 1963. The prior record was set in September 1981, when new homes sold at an annual rate of 338,000.

A consensus of economists surveyed by Briefing.com had expected May sales to slide to an annual rate of 430,000.

Home sales had surged in March and April as homebuyers scrambled to sign contracts ahead of the April 30 deadline for the tax credit. First-time homebuyers qualified for a tax credit up to $8,000, while repeat buyers could get as much as a $6,500 break. via CNN Money

New home sales were expected to head south when the new home buyer tax credit expired, but not the month right after, and not when all these homes need to close. The 32.7% seasonal decline to 300,000 is a level inconceivable to the industry.

This is a drop of 18 percent from last year, one of the weakest on record.

Update from NAHB:“

Sales of new hoes declined across every region in May. The Northeast registered a 33.3 percent decline, the Midwest a 23.9 percent decline, the South a 25.4 percent decline, and the West a 53.2 percent decline.

The nationwide inventory of new homes on the market declined by half a percent to just 213,000 units in May; this was the lowest level in nearly four decades. However, because of the slower sales pace, the months’ supply of homes rose from 5.8 in April to 8.5 in May.

Thanks for reading this post. If you would like to see more articles like this, please come visit The Real Estate Bloggers. where it was originally published.

New Home Sales Hit ALL TIME LOW

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Kelo – 5 Year Anniversary – Eminent Domain Failure

Posted: 23 Jun 2010 07:14 AM PDT

Watch this video on the Kelo decision, giving developers and governments the ability to take peoples property. And the reaction by the states to protect homeowners.

Thanks for reading this post. If you would like to see more articles like this, please come visit The Real Estate Bloggers. where it was originally published.

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New Jersey Seeks To Limit Property Tax Increases

Posted: 23 Jun 2010 05:29 AM PDT

Chris-christie New Jersey’s new Governor Chris Christie is asking for a new constitutional limit on real estate taxes in this overtaxed state. And the people are loving it.

One of the biggest costs in home ownership is the yearly property tax bill. It is where local governments typically get their piece of the pie, and state and federal (unfunded) mandates get paid for.

But for homeowners the tax increases can be very painful. Those on fixed incomes seeing higher utility costs can be overwhelmed when the tax bill comes in and it has a large bump from the year before.

So the effort by Christie to limit these tax increases, which have been growing in the state at an astounding rate, is welcome news not just to the residents.

On Tuesday, more than 200 New Jersey mayors — Republicans, Democrats and Independents — signed on to support Governor Christie’s push for a constitutional amendment capping real estate tax increases at 2.5 percent.

More than 50 of them attended a Trenton news conference where Christie urged legislators to act on a plan to put the question on the November ballot.

There’s a two-week window of opportunity to get the process moving and Christie urged legislators to start holding hearings first thing on Monday morning: “I’ve heard those who oppose it and advocate other plans say if you did it by constitutional amendment, you wouldn’t be able to change it. And my response is, exactly. That is the whole point.”

Assembly Democrats are pushing a 2.9 percent cap, imposed by statute, which could be changed.

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New Jersey Seeks To Limit Property Tax Increases