Chance Gates' Blog

Summary
– “As anticipated, we saw an increase in the volume of closed sales during the month of June, many by buyers who were
attempting to get in under the June 30 deadline to close deals in order to qualify for the tax credit. It wasn’t until the midnight
hour that Congress extended the deadline to those buyers who, through no fault of their own, were unable to meet the
deadline. As a result of that extension, buyers who qualified for the tax credit and were under contract by April 30th, now have
until September 30, 2010 to close the transaction,” said Ken Amundson, 2010 president of Reno/Sparks Association of
REALTORS “Although we are remaining
cautiously optimistic about the number of transactions in the pipeline and some price stabilization, we need to continue to
closely watch the year-over-year numbers and see continuing trends in leveling median sales prices before we can truly say
we have reached the bottom.”

Median Sales Price
– June 2010 median price was down 3% to $170,000 compared to $175,308 in May 2010.
– The median sales price continues to “trade in a narrow range” to borrow a term from the stock market.
– Median price is defined as the mid-point, half of the sales for the time frame are below and half are above.

Number of Units Sold
– June ended the month with 581 sold transactions up 29.7% from the prior month.
– This is a new high since the market peaked in the summer of 2005.
– Sales were up 8.4% over the same period last year.
– This can be primarily attributed to the volume of buyers who came into the market to take advantage of the tax credit and met
the initial deadline of June 30 set by Congress. That deadline was subsequently extended to September 30, 2010.

Average Days on Market
– The average days on market increased by 6.3% from the prior month to 146 days.

Sold-to-asking-price Ratio
– June reported sales received an average of 98.1% of the seller’s asking price.

Conclusions
– June median is holding year over year. The median price has remained stable for the past thirteen months.
– Unit sales level remains strong with some softening in the numbers expected as buyers adjust to a non-incentivized home
buying world.
– The fact that Congress granted an extension for those transactions that were in contract by April 30, but that were unable to
close by June 30th , should help sustain the number of closed transactions through the new deadline of September 30.

Data obtain from the Reno/Sparks Association of Realtors for Area 100, Greater Reno/Sparks

As a Reno/Sparks real estate professional, I encourage all questions and comments on the Reno/Sparks real estate market or any of the articles posted in this blog.  You can email me @  chance at ballard-company.com or http://www.myspace.com/chancegates

RISMEDIA, January 28, 2010—The Home Buyer Tax Credit is a great program providing a tremendous stimulus for the real estate industry, but the impact of the tax credit is going to be undermined by the restrictive way that the IRS is interpreting the credit for married couples, according to Joseph Rand, one of the founders of Homebuyertaxcredit.com.

In the guidelines of the Home Buyer Tax Credit, the IRS has inadvertently created a “marriage penalty” by requiring that both spouses must have the same exact ownership history in order to claim the credit, which treats married couples differently from unmarried couples. Joseph Rand and the co-founders of Homebuyertaxcredit.com, Greg Rand and Matt Rand, have launched a campaign urging members of Congress to amend the legislation and eliminate this penalty.

“The Home Buyer Tax Credit is designed to incentivize home purchases this year, and it should have a significant impact,” said Joseph Rand. “But the impact is going to be undermined because thousands of married couples will not be eligible due to a very restrictive reading of the legislation by the IRS. The IRS will only allow married couples to claim the credit if both spouses qualify for the same type of credit in their own right, even if the couple would get a tax credit if they were unmarried. Married couples are tested together, and must both be eligible. This is not the case for unmarried couples, who are tested individually such that if one does not qualify, the other can still get a credit.”

Essentially, the only types of married couples who would be eligible to claim the credit would be married couples in which both spouses are qualifying first-time home buyers, or married couples in which both spouses have owned and lived in the same home for at least five consecutive years out of the last eight.

Greg Rand said that this issue was likely an oversight, and the IRS probably did not intend to exact a marriage penalty that undermines such an important economic recovery program. “Clearly, Congress did not intend to render millions of American married couples ineligible for any type of tax credit, even in cases where both spouses would qualify on their own and in cases where unmarried couples are eligible to claim tax credits,” said Greg Rand. “Marriage is the cornerstone of our society.”

Matt Rand suggested that Congress needs to take immediate action steps to correct this unintentional penalty. “To fix this, either Congress needs to revise the legislation or the IRS has to revise its treatment of married couples to allow for eligibility for a tax credit where both spouses would qualify for a tax credit in their own right if they were single or unmarried partners buying together,” said Matt Rand. “If the IRS is not able to revise its interpretation of the law, Congress should explicitly amend the law to fix the marriage penalty by allowing for equitable treatment of married and unmarried couples.”

The Rands are hoping to draw enough attention to the cause so that Congress will be prompted to act quickly. In addition to the campaign on Homebuyertaxcredit.com, a Facebook cause has also been created to bring awareness to the public and urge them to take action. The Rands encourage any married couples who are being affected by the Home Buyer Tax Credit’s restrictive marriage guidelines to go to www.homebuyertaxcredit.com and submit their story.

As a Reno/Sparks real estate professional, I encourage all questions or comments on the Reno/Sparks real estate market or any of the articles posted on this blog.  I can be reached by email at:   chance at ballard-company.com or http://www.myspace.com/chancegates