Housing appears to have stabilized, with both single-family home sales and production activity heading for higher ground, they said, with the multifamily sector trailing behind. The severity of the downturn from which the nation is now emerging, however, has made it more difficult to know exactly what to expect in the period ahead.

As a result, housing could improve faster than is generally expected, or it could hobble along without reaching healthy levels until far into 2011. What happens to housing prices is crucial in determining the strength of industry performance, the analysts said. While prices have shown signs of stabilizing in recent months, they could suffer a relapse in the face of rising unemployment, which in turn is increasing the number of home owners who can no longer afford to make their mortgage payments. (continued)

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At the end of last month when severe flooding brought an estimated $250 million in damages to homes and businesses in 17 counties around the metro Atlanta area, the local home builders associations in the most severely-affected counties immediately stepped in to help their communities recover and rebuild.

With the help of the NAHB staff, the HBAs — the Greater Atlanta HBA (GAHBA), the Westside HBA in Douglasville and the Paulding County BA in Dallas — quickly organized consumer and contractor workshops, posted flood recovery information on their Web sites and reached out to the media with information for home owners. (continued)

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Looks promising, but we have to wait until next week at the earliest for an update on the extension of the tax credit.

Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Senate won’t vote until next week at the earliest on proposals to extend both an $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers and unemployment benefits for the nation’s jobless. The administration endorses an extension.

Senate action was delayed by a Republican demand that a vote be allowed on an amendment to end the Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program at the end of this year.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, balked yesterday at the demand by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican. Reid also took procedural steps to end debate and schedule Senate action on extending the homebuyer tax credit and the unemployment benefits.

“I think the first-time home-buyer credit is a great example of funding that’s helped to stabilize the housing market and should be extended,” Jared Bernstein, chief economist to Vice President Joe Biden, said on Bloomberg television. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner gave his support yesterday.

Lawmakers announced plans earlier this week to attach the tax-credit proposal to a pending bill on the unemployment benefits. The $8,000 tax credit, enacted earlier this year as part of the $787 billion economic stimulus package, is set to expire at the end of November.

April 30

The lawmakers want to extend the credit until April 30. Their proposal would also expand it to allow higher-income Americans and some who already own homes to qualify for the break.

Homebuyers who have lived in their prior residences for at least five years may receive a credit of $6,500 under the plan, said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus. Also, couples earning as much as $225,000 and individuals as much as $125,000 would qualify for the extended break, Baucus said. That’s up from a $75,000 limit for individuals and $150,000 for couples.

“The success of the American economy is closely tied to the success of the housing market; by helping to stabilize the housing market, the homebuyer tax credit has helped to shore up the economy as it begins to recover,” said Baucus, a Montana Democrat. “This would enable an even greater number of potential homebuyers to take the credit.”

Drop in Prices

Lawmakers said they want to prevent home sales from slipping as the economy struggles to recover from the worst drop in home prices since the Great Depression.

More than 1.2 million borrowers have claimed $8.5 billion of the $13.6 billion set aside for the homebuyer tax credits this year, according to the Treasury Department. The Obama administration, in endorsing the extension yesterday, said the credit has helped stabilize the nation’s housing market.

The tax break “brought new families into the housing market and contributed to three consecutive months of rising home prices,” Geithner said in a statement.

The measure would require those receiving the tax break to remain in their new homes for three years and they would have to repay the credit if they don’t.

Those buying homes worth more than $800,000 wouldn’t be eligible for the credit, said Baucus. Lawmakers also said they won’t extend the break beyond the new April 30 deadline.

‘Last Extension’

“The American people should understand this — and the affected industries — this is the last extension,” said Senator Johnny Isakson, a Georgia Republican who cosponsored the plan. “Tax credits like this only work by creating the sense of urgency to take advantage of them.”

Isakson estimated the new plan would cost $10.2 billion. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said the plan wouldn’t add to the government’s budget deficit because lawmakers plan to finance it by delaying a tax break for multinational companies scheduled to take effect next year.

The bill that would include the tax-credit plan calls for extending unemployment benefits by 14 weeks in all states and by an additional six weeks in states with the highest jobless rates. That bill has been stalled for weeks because of an ongoing dispute between Reid and McConnell over amendments to the measure.

McConnell yesterday dropped his demands for votes on amendments related to immigration and the community activist group ACORN. He held firm on his push for the TARP-related amendment.

The proposal would remove Geithner’s ability to unilaterally extend the TARP program beyond its Dec. 31 expiration date to October 2010.

“It seems to me there should be a better time to have this debate,” Reid said.

Any legislation the Senate passed would have to be reconciled with a House-passed bill last month that didn’t include the tax-credit provisions and provides more limited unemployment benefits.

Reid said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, assured him that “they will accept what we’ve talked about with first-time homebuyers.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Dawn Kopecki in Washington at dkopecki@bloomberg.com; Brian Faler in Washington at bfaler@bloomberg.net

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The decline in national home prices should hit a bottom next year, but many markets could still experience huge volatility as the housing industry seeks to emerge from its worst downturn since the Great Depression, according to economists appearing last week at the NAHB Fall Construction Forecast Conference.

Consensus expectations from the Wall Street Journal Economic Forecasting Survey are for home prices to reach their trough by mid-2010, said Richard Brown, chief economist at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Citing data from the S&P/Case-Shiller Composite 10-City Index and its Futures Prices Index, Brown said home prices have declined 31.6% from their peak and are expected to fall another 4.1% through May 2011 followed by a price rebound of 7.8% over the next two years. (continued)

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Scare on the Square will offer something for kids of all ages October 31 including trick or treating, ghost tours, cemetery tours, karaoke, a costume contest and a movie.

Schedule of events

• Trick-or-treating, Merchants on the Square, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
• Ghosts of Marietta Walking Tour, 6 p.m.
• Ghosts of Marietta Walking Tour, 7 p.m.
• Scary-etta Trolley Tour, 7 p.m.
• Scary-aoke, Glover Park, 7-10 p.m.
• Ghosts of Marietta Walking Tour, 8 p.m.
• “Dracula,” Earl Smith Strand Theatre, 8 p.m. (tentative)
• “The Woman in Black,” Theatre in the Square, 8 p.m.
• Ghosts of Marietta Walking Tour, 9 p.m
• Scary-etta Trolley Tour, 9 p.m.
• Ghosts of Marietta Walking Tour, 10 p.m.

All events will take place on or around the Square.

The event, sponsored by the Merchants of the Marietta Square and the Downtown Marietta Development Authority, is part of Marietta’s 175th anniversary.

For more information, call the Marietta Welcome Center & Visitors Bureau at 770-429-1115 or visit mariettasquare.com.

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Uproar Over Appraisals: Property Owners Chafe at Change in System Designed to End Fraud

Appraisers, mortgage brokers and others blame new appraisal rules, which change how appraisers are assigned, for lost revenues, delayed and faulty appraisals, collapsed deals and other problems, even in some of Atlanta’s toniest neighborhoods.

Atlanta mortgage broker Steven Alexander of National Guaranty Mortgage Corp. said an out-of-town appraiser hired to evaluate a Buckhead mansion he handled recently came up with a value $500,000 below the $2.1 million he thought the house deserved.

Alexander said the appraiser ignored the fact that the home was designed by a well-known architect, was located in a more desirable school district than comparison homes and included luxurious features such as copper gutters, a patio fireplace and a basement entertainment center. As a result, the owners, who were refinancing, ended up having to get a loan with a higher interest rate because the lower appraisal made the loan appear riskier. (www.ajc.com)
Atlanta Journal Constitution (10/18/09); Russell Grantham

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Facing mounting concerns over the bleak outlook for jobs, more lawmakers on Capitol Hill last week showed interest in extending and possibly expanding the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit that is set to expire on Nov. 30.

However, political observers at NAHB cautioned that renewing the popular credit is still far from a done deal, with a number of lawmakers reluctant to act unless Congress imposes offsetting tax increases or spending cuts.

Sens. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) were planning to offer an amendment extending and expanding the credit to a House-passed bill that would extend unemployment insurance benefits. Though it is unclear if the Senate will act on this proposal, NAHB will be urging senators to approve the amendment if it comes up for a vote.

The Isakson-Dodd proposal would extend the credit to June 30, 2010 and expand it to a wider circle of principal home buyers. It would also double the current income eligibility phase-outs to $150,000 for single taxpayers and $300,000 for married taxpayers filing a joint return.

Reporting on the Isakson-Dodd plan, the Associated Press cited NAHB statistics that extending the credit for one year and expanding it to all buyers of a principal residence would spur 383,000 additional home sales, create more than 347,000 jobs and generate $16.1 billion in wages and salaries and $12.1 billion in business income. Continue reading…

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The Marietta Housing Authority (MHA) and Columbia Residential October 6 celebrated the grand opening of The Retreat at Dorsey Manor, a 72-unit housing facility located at the corner of Haynes and Lemon streets for residents ages 62 and over.

The high-quality development includes a theater, library, and exercise facilities, all characteristic of other acclaimed developments MHA development partner Atlanta-based Columbia Residential has built around metro Atlanta. (continue reading)

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Our state witnessed a series of severe storms that resulted in flooding across much of north Georgia and the metro Atlanta area. As a result, Gov. Sonny Perdue requested a federal disaster declaration from President Obama to assist the affected areas.

On September 24, 2009, President Obama issued a Major Disaster Declaration for the state of Georgia, triggering the release of federal funds to help individuals recover from the severe storms and flooding that began September 18, 2009, and continuing. Currently, the counties of Bartow, Carroll, Catoosa, Chattooga, Cherokee, Cobb, Coweta, DeKalb, Douglas, Fulton, Gwinnett, Heard, Newton, Paulding, Rockdale, Stephens and Walker have been designated for Individual Assistance, and all counties are eligible to apply for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.

Individual Assistance can include temporary housing assistance for eligible applicants such as rental assistance and repair assistance. If you sustained damage during these storms and live in one of the designated counties, I encourage you to register with FEMA by calling 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) or TTY (800) 462-7585 for individuals with speech or hearing disabilities. If you have Internet access, you may apply for disaster assistance online.

In addition, Carroll, Catoosa, Chattooga, Cobb, Douglas, Gwinnett, Paulding, Stephens and Walker counties are also now eligible for Public Assistance. This assistance provides funding on a cost-sharing basis to local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations for the repair or replacement of damaged roads, dams, bridges, water treatment facilities, publicly-owned utilities and other types of infrastructure.

I have been in communication with state emergency officials as well as local government officials in counties affected by this severe weather and flooding. Last week, I toured some of the damaged areas with Vice President Biden, Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano and FEMA Administrator Fugate. I believe it was very important for the administration to see firsthand the destruction that has taken place, and I hope it helps them understand the urgency of getting help to all of Georgia’s affected communities.

I have compiled the latest information on disaster response and recovery activities on my website , including a list of local disaster relief centers.

Sincerely,
Johnny Isakson
United States Senator

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Storm Debris Pick Up Information
Cobb County’s Department of Transportation will coordinate pick up of flood debris from properties in unincorporated Cobb County.

For a 30 day period between September 29 and October 26 residents can request and be provided a container/dumpster which can be filled by the resident with flood damaged materials such as furniture, carpeting and sheet rock. The cut off for such requests will be October 26 allowing seven days for those residents to complete their debris removal.

Vegetative debris and concrete are not to be placed in the container.

Dumpsters will be automatically removed after seven days. Requesting residents must agree that the container be placed on private property so as not to impact traffic in the roadway.

Dumpster requests should be directed to 770-528-3666.

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