True story below about not winterizing your property in dead of winter, the risks it runs and sorry about the sun spot for a few seconds in the vid!

Get ready for the Tweetup at the Bulldog Northeast in Minneapolis this coming Thursday starting at 6pm. If you want, make sure to RSVP for the event at MSPTweetup, it’s simple just use your Twitter handle and your in.

Never Been To One Before

It’s basically a meet-up or networking get together bridging your online friends and meeting them in real life. In case you have never been to one before, here are some reasons to attend:

1. Get’s you off the computer and meet friends face to face
2. Connect with like minded people
3. Get to know locals
4. Promote your biz with networking, but don’t over do it
5. There’s more but you get the idea

See ya there and you can follow @msptweetup for more info on local events, @bulldogne for deals and me @jasonsandquist

Network

Currently on the market in the seven county Twin Cities metro area there are 135 properties for sale under $40,000.

Counties included:

• Dakota
• Hennepin
• Ramsey
• Washington
• Scott
• Anoka
• Washington

Click here for the list

Links from the past week:

• In case you missed it, the $8000 tax credit was extended and expanded to move-up buyers for $6500.
• If you are against the tax credit extension like me, the Wall Street Journal put up some good reasons why the tax credit should not be extended.
• Yeah, I’d live in it.
• Fannie Mae just made homeowners out of all of us by announcing the “Lease For Deed” program where struggling homeowners facing foreclosure might be able to stay in their homes leasing the home from the bank once they voluntarily sign the title back to the bank. Oh and also Fannie Mae just claimed a loss of 19.8 billion requesting another $15 billion from the gov’t. Good decisions apparently happening over there.
• Forbes lays out the most toxic metro areas, Minneapolis ranks higher on the list than one would think.
• The New York Times and the decline of the bachelor pad here

Well it has to be somewhat official if Obama sign’s it right? Like it or not, agree or disagree… it’s on again until April 30th 2010 with closing no later than June 30th 2010.

It seems like this ‘tax credit thing’ that will never end. Remember that $7500 tax credit from last year that had to be repaid? It then morphed into the more popular version $8000 housing tax credit that didn’t have to be repaid. So much for the use it or lose it stance if it keeps getting a second or third life

The Expanded/Extension Home Buyer Tax Credit Details

Anyways, some things remained the same others changed a little bit.

• You must have a signed purchase agreement by April 30th 2010 and close no later than June 30th 2010. Armed Forces personnel are given special exemption: Contract executed by April 30th 2011 and closed by  June 30th, also must be deployed outside of the United States for at least 90 days.
• The $8000 remains the same for first time home buyers or up to 10% of the purchase price of the home
• Kicker this time around is that it is also available to ‘move-up’ buyers up to $6500 if they have remained in their homes for the past 5 out of 8 years.
• Income limits have been increased from $75,000 for single and $150,000 for married to $125,000 and $225,000 respectively.
• No go for second home buyers or investors, better luck on the next time.
• Make sure to keep *put* in the house for 36 months or more or the IRS will come calling asking for a payback of 100%
• Hey look, they forgot to add fraud prevention in the last one… but not this time around.

Has The Housing Tax Credit Worked

Some argue it has (mostly industry related professions. cc: realtor’s, loan officers, etc), others say it hasn’t done much but leveraged the future. Sure more people might be swayed into getting out of their existing home, but I can’t believe $6500 is going to do it and if it does, then what come?

A survey conducted by PEW Research claims 85% of home buyers would have bought a house anyways and the stimulus has been unproven so far with mixed results.

Many complaints of the first time home buyer tax credit has been just that, available to only new home buyers. In the Twin Cities area, 2/3’s of all homes that have been sold in 2009 to date have been homes under $200,000. Even though inventory is down and some would argue a seller’s market in some price points, the move-up homes are the ones that are sitting. Luxury homes, is just another story.

The winter is always slow, this might provide a little jolt into the spring season.

I know my opinion doesn’t matter but have been against it since the inception. Let the market it works it way out and now the chance of the tax credit costing an additional $11 billion dollars and subsidies raise prices.

Would much rather have a low interest rate.

The bad part about this is that people might be buying homes based on getting the tax credit when they really should be doing something else. It’s creating a false market and only delaying the inevitable.

Also, it provides no real incentive to buy a home until April 30th. Why? Just stick around and watch the market for a couple of months to see what happens. If prices start to fall again, you made the right choice. If not, you guessed wrong but any ‘expert’ will tell you it’s pretty hard to time the market.

Just my 4 cents.

Oh well, let’s go find a house!

Just rememba, I’m no tax pro. If you need tax advice consult a live person, stay away from the box.

Minneapolis real estate is surging again, so says Business Insider as Minneapolis claims the top spot for rebounding prices.

This is happening all over the Twin Cities with new construction developments, this just happens to be in Rosemount called in a development called Harmony Village.

Builders pull this sneaky trick were they put a price on the sign and it looks good to the average person with not a lot of knowledge about the development. They drive by and figure the price on the sign is a good thing, it gets you in the door. They did their job.

The sign used to say attached homes in the $180’s, one level homes in the mid $200’s and single family homes in the high $200’s. It now reads attached attached homes in from the $150’s, one level homes from the $190’s and single family homes from the $250’s.

What does this mean?

Just by looking at it, the builder slashed the prices by close to $40k on each.

This is a situation were a good buyer’s agent comes into play and is knowledgeable about the local price trends and familiar with the area. They can advise you on price declines or increases (wishful thinking), but if you go straight to the builder they are less likely to help you fully understand trends.

Remember if you go to the builder’s salesperson, ask them to explain pricing and trends in the local market. If they can’t then find yourself a local buyer’s agent that can help you make the right decision.

Here are some links that I collected from the past week:

• There have been lots of articles regarding the possible extension of the homebuyer tax credit, be careful of what you read because of as this posting… IT’S NOT A DONE DEAL.
• Major media outlets always distort information in a wicked way, it’s hard to find out what’s true. Jeff Nielsen at Seeking Alpha writes “How Bloomberg Fabricates US Housing Numbers“.
• It appears that a couple in LA decided on taking some vigilante justice by torturing two loan modification agents as they lured them to their office and beat them for hours. Let’s keep it civil people!
• Pending home sales contracts rose for the 8th straight month, surely spurred by low interest rates and home buyer tax credit.
• Real estate prices aren’t the only thing declining, rents are also falling hard. It seems like vacancies are up because after a short sale or foreclosure nobody has decent credit.

Easily put, it’s in the works.

It appears that legislators have come to terms to expand the housing home buyer tax credit until the end of April and make it available to ‘move-up’ buyers or repeat buyers.

The income limits would also expanded to $125k for single buyers and $250k for married couple.

Nothing set in stone yet, I’m not even sure if it is a bill yet and it hasn’t even been voted on yet so be careful of what you hear. The legislators have come to terms only.VERY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THAT IT IS NOT A DONE DEAL! It’s just being discussed at this point.

As of now, the tax credit still expires on November 30th at 11:59 but lets hope no one pushes their closing that late

But if it does…

Looks like Realtors everywhere will rejoice and NAR will win their lobbying efforts or Twin Cities home buyers have a little more time to use the housing tax credit.

More deets to follow

Another reason to live in Minneapolis-St. Paul: the safest city in the United States

From Forbes:

Minneapolis tops our list of America’s safest cities, and not just for its crime rate. In ranking the cities on our list, we looked at workplace fatalities, traffic-related deaths and natural disaster risk; the City of Lakes ranked in the top 10 of all four categories. It’s also one of America’s best places to live cheaply and offers easy access to some of the most scenic drives in the country.

Top 10:

1. Minneapolis/St. Paul
2. Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis
3. Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton
4. Boston-Cambridge-Quincy
5. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue
6. Providence-New Bedford-Fall River
7. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara
8. New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island
9. Cincinnati-Middletown, Ohio
10. Denver-Aurora