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Lawrenceville, GA Real Estate News

By Eric Reid
(Renaissance Realty Group of Keller Williams Atlanta Partners)
Thank you Sesame Street.. and Happy 40th Birthday. Oh all the firends that lived on my street when I was growing up, there was Grandpa Mudcat, Grandmama Bear,Hero Guy,Kermit the Frog (to be a freind to all),Wally and Ralph,Baby Bear,Bert and Ernie (best friends for life no matter what) ,Big Bird (alwasy ready to learn),Cookie Monster (who tought me to love life full out),Count von Count (who tought us to have PRIDE in what we could do and show off every chance we got),Elmo,Dorothy,Grover,MS Piggy( who told us to love ourselfs regardless of what other said)  I miss my Friends maybe I go back today for a visit ... Who ways your BFF on Sesame Street ?
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By Eric Reid
(Renaissance Realty Group of Keller Williams Atlanta Partners)
Cash for Clunkers is over, but the opportunity to cash in continues. A new tax credit promises to pay you handsomely for a buying a vehicle some say only sees time on a golf course. Nicknamed "Cash for Clubbers" by critics, the new plan causing protesters and profiteers to move quickly It sits at a golf cart shop on a golf cart lot, but don't call it a golf cart. "This is an LSV," explained Bob Hill, with The Cart Shed. "It is actually an automobile - an electric automobile." LSVs, or low speed vehicles, arrived quietly about 10 years ago. But, 10 months ago the American Relief and Recovery Act put them in the limelight offering a tax credit that was hard to miss. "It's big money...$4,300 and it's someone's ability to claim that $4,300 on this car," said Hill.  To qualify for the progra...
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By Eric Reid
(Renaissance Realty Group of Keller Williams Atlanta Partners)
Cash for Clunkers cost $24,000 per car  An analysis released yesterday by the automotive Web site Edmunds.com has tallied up the taxpayer bill for the Cash for Clunkers program, and it comes in at a whopping $24,ooo per car with very little to show for it.  In fact, only 125,000 of those were vehicles that would not have been sold anyway.  The program gave car buyers rebates of up to $4,500 if they traded in less fuel-efficient vehicles for new vehicles that met certain fuel economy requirements. A total of $3 billion was allotted for the rebates.  The average rebate was $4,000, but if the overwhelming majority of sales would have taken place anyway at some time in the last half of 2009, it means the government ended up spending about $24,000 each for those 125,000 additional vehicle sa...
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By Eric Reid
(Renaissance Realty Group of Keller Williams Atlanta Partners)
YES or I should say a soon to be a YES Here is what USA Today had to say about today's announcements: "Senators agreed to extend the existing tax credit for first-time homebuyers while offering a reduced credit of up to $6,500 to repeat buyers who have owned their current homes for at least five years, said Regan Lachapelle, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. The tax credits would be available to homebuyers who sign sales agreements by the end of April. They would have until the end of June to close on their new homes, according to a summary of the legislation being circulated among lawmakers. Details to follow... HOME BUYER TAX CREDIT -- WATCH -- UPDATE - LOOKS LIKE THE EXTENSION IS
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By Eric Reid
(Renaissance Realty Group of Keller Williams Atlanta Partners)
Now comes a post this morning from the mortgage chatline from someone who apparently has some very detailed information.  I will quote it verbatum, again with the understanding that this has not been confirmed but somewhat reliable: "The Home Buyer tax credit has apparently been extended, and eligibility expanded to include some move-up buyers. Details: Income eligibility for first-time home buyers stays at $75,000 for individuals, and $150,000 for couples. For move-up buyers, income eligibility is $125,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples. There is a minimum 5 year residency requirement - in their current home - for move-up home buyers. The tax credit is the lesser of $7,290 or 10% of the purchase price. The credit runs from Dec. 1, 2009 to April 30, 2010, with an additional 60...
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By Eric Reid
(Renaissance Realty Group of Keller Williams Atlanta Partners)
Senate Close to Deal Replacing Homebuyer Tax Credit Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senate leaders moved closer to an agreement replacing an expiring $8,000 tax credit for first- time homebuyers with a smaller one that would expand access to so-called step-up purchasers, two people familiar with the matter said. The deal would reduce the size of the tax credit to 10 percent of the sale's price, capped at $7,290, the people said. The credit would be available on home purchases that are under contract by April 30, and borrowers would have 60 days more to close the sale. The existing credit is due to end Nov. 30. The new agreement, which is still being negotiated and may change, would grant the credit to borrowers who have lived in their current home for at least five years. Lawmakers want to ...
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By Eric Reid
(Renaissance Realty Group of Keller Williams Atlanta Partners)
Reverse mortgages have hidden dangers  Panelists at the Information Management Networks 15th annual ABS East gathering in Miami Beach conference said that in the last two years reverse mortgages have moved beyond the needs-based senior and now see a significant mix of borrowers tapping into the market.  This year alone, the percentage of owners with homes valued at above $400,000 is increasing to up to 39% of the reverse mortgage claims in some markets.  The panel also said the market is set to grow dramatically, with predictions that the next leg of growth in structured finance will come by way of reverse mortgage resecuritizations, despite warnings that the product is particularly vulnerable to misuse and even fraud.   Annual reverse mortgage volume has topped 110,000 units and $17bn...
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By Eric Reid
(Renaissance Realty Group of Keller Williams Atlanta Partners)
Fannie Mae announces relief for investors  Fannie Mae announced that its new Payment Reduction Plan (PRP) will provide forbearance for borrowers who are ineligible for the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).  The mortgage principal and interest payments will be reduced by up to 30% for borrowers qualified for PRP, which replaces Fannies HomeSaver Forbearance program. PRP reduces the payments by 30% rather than the previous 50% under HomeSaver Forbearance, because permanent solutions are closer to 30%, Faith said.  Faith added that non-owner-occupied properties became eligible under PRP, and owners will receive new options and support for their investment properties and second homes  even though they do not fit under the HAMP umbrella.  The US Treasury Department provides cappe...
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By Eric Reid
(Renaissance Realty Group of Keller Williams Atlanta Partners)
Home prices rise - Case-Shiller  The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 major cities climbed 1 percent from July to a seasonally adjusted reading of 144.5. While prices are down 11.4 percent from August a year ago, the annual declines have slowed since February.  It shows a widespread turnaround with prices rising month-over-month in 15 metro areas since June.  "If the increases are consistent across the markets, this is key," said Susan Wachter, Wharton School real estate professor, before the index was released. "Then we're seeing the formation of a bottom." However, rising unemployment and more foreclosures could stifle the rebound. Another unknown is whether a temporary federal tax credit for first-time buyers will be extended to help boost sales. The real estate...
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By Eric Reid
(Renaissance Realty Group of Keller Williams Atlanta Partners)
Freddie Mac announced today that its mortgage investment portfolio grew by an annualized 7.3 percent rate in September, while delinquencies on loans it guarantees accelerated.  The portfolio increased to $784.2 billion, for an annualized 3.4 percent decrease year to date, and delinquencies, which increase stress on the company's capital, jumped to 3.33 percent of its book of business in September from 3.13 percent in August and 1.22 percent in September 2008. The multifamily delinquency rate accelerated slightly in September to 0.11 percent from 0.10 percent in August. A year earlier it was 0.01 percent.
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By Eric Reid
(Renaissance Realty Group of Keller Williams Atlanta Partners)
2010 is shaping up for a weak recovery The Federal Reserve is in no rush to pull back its extensive economic life support measures.  Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans said: We have to think about our exit policy and are looking at it very carefully, but at the moment, that's not our first order concern, at the moment, its policy accommodation.  I think that the recovery is going to be very unsatisfactory in 2010.  Evans, who will vote on the Fed's policy-setting panel in 2010, said he expects unemployment to rise above ten percent.  The Fed has cut rates to near zero and pledged to hold rates there for an extended period.  Its next policy-setting meeting is Nov. 3-4 and it is not expected to signal any movement toward an exit then.  High unemployment and low inflation rate...
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By Eric Reid
(Renaissance Realty Group of Keller Williams Atlanta Partners)
If theres another real estate collapse on the way, its in commercial real estate, and the FDIC closing Chicago's Corus Bank last month may have signaled the beginning of it.  Corus, whose balance sheet full of bad construction loans, was just one of many banks that have this type of debt on their books, and refinancing the $2 trillion in commercial mortgages is going to be tough as property values decline.  In this new age of cautious lending, few banks are willing to refinance loans.  Michael Haas, a real estate attorney at Jones Day, says, "There is a hesitancy to extend credit when there is a real possibility that the real estate may be worth less than it was a few years ago." In a situation similar to the subprime crisis, we may be looking for a wave of foreclosures and loan default...
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By Jim Crawford, Jim Crawford Broker Associate Fredericksburg VA
(Long & Foster)
American United Bank of Lawrenceville, GA was closed this evening making it the 101st US bank failure of 2009 and the 20th in GA bank to fail this year.  Georgia leads the nation in Bank failures, and 2009 marks the most bank failures seen in the US since 1992.  American United Bank of Lawrenceville, GA - was taken over by Ameris Bank of Moultrie, GA which under a loss-share agreement with the FDIC assumed its $111 million in assets and $102 million in deposits. The loss share covers approximately $92 million of the failed bank's assets. The FDIC expects a loss of to its Deposit Insurance Fund of $44 million.
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By Eric Reid
(Renaissance Realty Group of Keller Williams Atlanta Partners)
This report lead one to think it is more real than o=anyine want to let out of the bag. RBS says 2.7 million more distressed sales in pipeline  Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) economists say that recent months of nascent housing recovery remain overshadowed by the delinquency pipeline that threatens to put as many as 2.7m distressed sales on the market in the US.  Given the lag time between a start and a completion, homebuilders and new home buyers probably had to act by July in order to feel confident that they would be able to claim the credit, said RBS chief economist Stephen Stanley, explaining the surge in sales earlier this year.  So, a portion of the increase in both starts and sales in recent months likely reflected activity being pulled forward into the summer.  According to the r...
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By Eric Reid
(Renaissance Realty Group of Keller Williams Atlanta Partners)
The Obama administration announced another initiative to aid state and local housing finance agencies in providing mortgages to first-time and lower-income homebuyers and to assist in the development or rehabilitation of rental properties.  Officials declined to put a price tag on the program, but said there would be no cost to taxpayers. Under the initiative, the Treasury Department, along with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will purchase housing bonds issued by the finance agencies.  This will give the groups the funding needed to make new loans.  The government will also provide a temporary credit program to allow the agencies to refinance their existing bonds to more favorable terms.  Agencies will pay fees to participate in the program, which officials say will cover its cost. They are...
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By Eric Reid
(Renaissance Realty Group of Keller Williams Atlanta Partners)
Housing starts lower than expected  The Commerce Department announced today that Housing starts increased to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 590,000 last month, up 0.5% above a revised 587,000 in October, but down 28.2% from September 2008, and less than the 610,000 forecast by Briefing.com.  New construction of single-family homes, the key sector of the housing market, increased 3.9% to an annual rate of 501,000 versus 482,000 in August. Starts fell by 1.7% in both the South and the West, and new home construction was flat in the Northeast at 62,000 units, and in the Midwest at 100,000 units. Multi-family homes increased despite the overall housing starts drop, and new construction of buildings with 5 or more units increased to an annual rate of 104,000, up 7.2% from 97,000 in Aug...
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By Eric Reid
(Renaissance Realty Group of Keller Williams Atlanta Partners)
Housing: How Strong a Recovery?   The U.S. housing slump is levelling off, but whether it grows into a lasting recovery will depend on how heavily the housing market is leaning on the government's crutches, and how long Washington is willing to keep those supports in place.  Barclays Capital economist Michelle Meyer puts it this way:  The debate has shifted from 'Is the housing market recovering?' to "How strong will the recovery be?"  Despite the recent reassuring signs, Barclays still expects the S&P Case-Shiller home price gauge to drop another 8 percent through the first quarter of 2010, bringing the total decline to 36 percent since the housing market peaked.  Between the quasi-nationalization of housing finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Federal Reserve's $1.45 tril...
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By Eric Reid
(Renaissance Realty Group of Keller Williams Atlanta Partners)
$8000 Tax Credit extension likely? CNBC insider reports maybe YES  Diana Olick, CNBCs Real Estate Reporter, thinks the administration is going to extend the $8000 Home Buyers Credit.  I was on the fence for a while as to whether Congress would extend the $8000 first time home buyer tax credit and whether the Administration would stand behind that, but I'm getting some clues that have pushed me over the side, Olick says.  I think it may happen.  She names a couple of insiders who deflected her questions about an extension, but cites Secretary Geithner as saying, We're not going to make the mistake many countries made in the past of putting the brakes on too early and creating risk that we have a, you know, weaker recovery with even higher levels of unemployment going forward.  And Geithn...
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By Eric Reid
(Renaissance Realty Group of Keller Williams Atlanta Partners)
No to Interest-Only Mods  The Mortgage Investors Coalition, a trade group of asset managers holding more than $100bn in residential mortgage-backed securitizations (RMBS) on behalf of pension funds, college endowments, and other investors, is calling on the Treasury Department to reject a proposal to offer distressed borrowers interest-only payments for a certain length of time as part of the terms of a Making Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) workout.  The coalition said the proposal fails to address the issue of negative equity, and that it is not in the best interest of the housing industry and consumers.  Modifying homeowners into mortgages that have future payment increases and adjustable interest rates will not improve a homeowners situation, said Micah Green, a partner ...
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By Eric Reid
(Renaissance Realty Group of Keller Williams Atlanta Partners)
Municipal general election to be held at the Lawrenceville City Hall, 70 South Clayton Street, Lawrenceville, Georgia, on Tuesday, November 3, 2009, to elect two members of the City Council. The poll will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The posts for this election are currently occupied by Councilmembers Robert Clark and Peter "P.K." Martin, IV. Those residents desiring to vote in the election who are not now registered as a qualified voter must register to vote no later than the close of business on October 5, 2009. JUST VOTE JUST VOTE JUST VOTE JUST VOTE
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