How would you like getting tax money back? :-)

If you own a home and you live in Chicago then you need to go get your property tax relief funds. The are of course other rules you must meet. Go here check the rules and see if you can get the maximum of $200. All that it requires is filling out a form and copying your state and tax bill. This better than free money...it's money recovered.

http://webapps.cityofchicago.org/PropertyTaxReliefWeb/

The times are a changin!

Read this article about the new changes FHA loans are facing. This will create new hurdles for buyers to clear. That means a tougher time for sellers to close their home sale. According to the article FHA loans make up approximately 40% of the loans written, this from a former HUD official.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/business/20home.html?ref=todayspaper

Top Reasons to List your home Now

Typically the Chicago Spring real estate market starts after Super Bowl Weekend, during this time the amount of inventory and buyer traffic begins its seasonal upswing. However, the last few years have been anything but typical and we are recommending to our clients that the time to list will be sooner than in previous years. We see a few factors that will affect the ability to purchase and sell a home this year.

Our top three concerns for our buyers and sellers in first half 2010 are:

1. Federal Reserve $1.25 trillion mortgage-backed securities purchase program will end at the end of March.

a. How this impact our clients: prior to the financial crisis mortgage-backed securities were an attractive investment option for large scale investment houses which helped keep rates low. Now that the government will stop purchasing mortgages the anticipation is that rates may climb to 6%.

2. The Federal Housing Administration will tighten underwriting standards in April.

a. How this impact our clients: there is discussion that the FHA may require buyers to bring more cash to the closing, raise minimum credit scores for qualification, and reduce seller contributions by half. This will result in fewer buyers qualifying for a loan.

3. The End of the Housing Stimulus Package.

a. Those who qualify for a tax credit will need to be under contract by April 30^th and close by June 30^th in order receive their tax credit.

We think it is wise to take advantage of this opportunity to list sooner than later before some of the changes in policy and rules could limit a buyer’s ability to purchase a home and raise inventory levels of properties on the market.