• Sales by % Change
• Median Price
• Price % Change
• Days on Market
• Price per Square Foot

Top 5 Tax Breaks for Homeowners

Q: We bought a house this year! We put $33,000 down and the bank financed $28,000. Can I write this off on my 2011 taxes? How much of it?

A: First things first: Congratulations! You've become a homeowner, and seem to have done so using an enviable financial arrangement. But now that you own a home, you might need to shift the way you think and look at some things, including your taxes and other financial matters.

Owning a home is one of those landmarks that signify financial adulthood. And one of the things that responsible financial adults do is get professional help when the situation requires it. Taxes are one of those areas that often do warrant calling the pros in. I'm not just shilling for the tax prep industry here, either: The ultimate aim of using a tax professional is to make sure you get every deduction, credit and other tax advantage for which you qualify, without jacking up your chances at triggering the universally dreaded Internal Revenue Service audit by claiming dubious deductions.

Your mortgage debt is fairly small, as was your home's purchase price, though I don't know whether they are large or small in the context of your overall financial picture (i.e., income, assets, investments, etc.). The fact that you saved or somehow came up with such a sizable chunk of change to put down makes me hesitate to assume that your finances are as simple as your mortgage balance might otherwise lead me to believe.

So, it might be the case that you can easily handle your own taxes -- in fact, it's even possible that your real estate-related deductions won't even outweigh the standard deductions, so that filing a simple form without even itemizing your deductions is actually the financially advantageous move. Whether that's the case cannot be determined in a vacuum -- you may have other financial and tax issues going on. But with software and tax preparation services as inexpensive as they are, starting at under $20 for simple returns, I think it behooves you to get some professional advice and ensure you get the deductions you need.

Hiring a tax preparer might be a worthwhile investment to make, even if just this year, so he or she can brief you on what records you should keep and strategies you should do moving forward, like home repair and improvement receipts, or documentation of your use of an area of the home as a home office. Now, let's talk more substantively about the deductions that are available to you, in the event you do decide to itemize your taxes (IRS Publication 530 offers a more nuanced view into Tax Information for Homeowners):

1. Mortgage interest deduction. Assuming this home is your personal residence, 100 percent of the mortgage interest you owe and pay before Dec. 31, 2011, is deductible on your 2011 taxes. In January, your mortgage lender will send you a form documenting the precise amount of interest you paid, although most lenders also now make this form immediately available to borrowers online. Chances are good that you paid some amount of advance interest on your home loan at closing -- expect to see that on your statement from your lender, but you should also be able to find it on the HUD-1 settlement statement you received from your escrow agent at closing.

2. Property tax deductions. Again, assuming that this is the home you live in most of the time, you should be able to deduct 100 percent of the property taxes you've paid to your state and/or local taxing agency this year.

3. Closing-cost deductions. Discount points and origination fees paid to your mortgage lender and/or broker at closing are frequently deductible, but there are rules around this, which tax software and/or professionals can help you make sure you meet. Note that, according to Internal Revenue Service Publication 530, "You cannot deduct transfer taxes and similar taxes and charges on the sale of a personal home."

There are various home improvements (especially those that increase your home's energy efficiency), state and local tax credits for buying a foreclosure, and other tax advantages that might be available to you. My advice is to work with an experienced, local tax preparer or, at the very least, use reputable tax preparation software to ensure that you get the maximum tax advantages available to you as a result of your new role as a homeowner.

Source: Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Inman News

DFW Home Prices to Rise, Forecast says (Dallas Morning News, 1/10/12)

A report by the California-based housing analyst, Clear Capital, has predicted that after almost 5 years of declining home prices, an upward trend is expected in 2012. According to Clear Capital, the Dallas Fort Worth area will be among the top 10 home price gainers this year. The company expects a rise of 5.8% by the end of this year which is higher than the nationwide forecast of a 0.2 % price gain.

Home prices in the DFW area have been falling since mid-2007, down by about 9% since then. However, according to Alex Villacorta, Research Director of Clear Capital, Dallas hasnt fallen very far and has outperformed the nationwide trend where home prices are down more than a third. Because of the tighter supply of homes on the market in North Texas, this will help boost up home prices.

North Texas Home Resales Rise for 6th Month in a Row (Dallas Morning News 1/10/12)

For 6 months in a row, sales of pre-owned homes in the North Texas area have increased by 5% in December compared to the previous year. The December increase and gains in recent months were enough to eliminate all the home sale declines in the early part of 2011. By the end of 2011, 64,240 homes were sold by real estate agents in North Texas, which is roughly the same as in 2010.

It was the first year since 2005 that home sales in the area didnt decline. In addition, the number of homes on the market was down 23% from 2010. Analysts from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University predict a stronger year in 2012. Although they say the recovery is expected to be slow and erratic, analysts are optimistic that this year will see upward trends in terms of home sales and pricing for Texas and Dallas, in general.

The latest monthly report from the Real Estate Center shows pending purchases of pre-owned homes increased by 4% in more than two dozen North Texas counties. This is further confirmed by recent findings showing that new home sales in the Dallas Fort Worth area for the fourth quarter were up by 4% from the year before.

4 Predictions About the 2012 Real Estate Market

1. Even more foreclosures

While I'd like to claim crystal-ball credit for this one, it doesn't take heightened powers of prediction to foresee an uptick in the rate of home repossessions in 2012. Last fall's robo-signing debacle and the ongoing legal fallout from it created a massive backlog in the foreclosure pipeline, meaning that banks are taking many months, even years, to actually foreclose on mortgages in default. Earlier this year, the New York Times reported that the additional hurdles New York state courts are requiring banks to leap in the wake of the robo-signing revelations, like additional settlement meetings with the homeowner to see if a modification can be brokered, have created a backlog of foreclosures that it would take 62 years to clear, at the current rate of foreclosure.It's pretty clear that in 2012 and beyond, the banks will work through those backlogs. The inevitable result will be an increase in foreclosures.

2. REOs and short sales will become the new normal

If you even know anyone who has house-hunted in the past couple of years, you've likely heard tales of the high-drama high jinks -- super-long escrows, first-time buyers being bested by investors' cash offers, banks resistant to negotiating for repairs -- that take place in the course of a distressed property sale. In the coming year, distressed home sales will continue to represent an increasing share of homes on the market. So, buyers will shift from considering whether to buy a short sale to understanding that they must be educated and prepared to do a deal with a seller, a bank (to buy an REO) or a hybrid of the two (to buy a short sale) to access the full selection of homes on the market. This, in turn, will empower buyers to make smart decisions about what to offer and what to expect on any listing they like, as well as to set smart priorities and make realistic comparisons between listings based on their own personal priorities around timing, certainty and seller flexibility.

3.  So-called 'smart cities' will do well

This year, a number of housing markets saw double- or even triple-dips in home values. In others, pricing stayed relatively flat. However, in areas where technology powers the economy, home values prospered along with the industry. Silicon Valley real estate, for instance, saw fierce competition among buyers as the young employees of companies that went public like used their newly stocked bank accounts to buy their first homes. I recently talked with Jed Kolko, chief economist for real estate search site Trulia, and his 2012 forecast was that so-called "smart cities" will continue to have hot real estate markets next year. But Kolko defined smart cities much more broadly than the California tech hubs. Other tech centers like Austin, Texas, and the Massachusetts suburbs of Cambridge, Newton and Framingham all made Kolko's list, as did Rochester, N.Y. (a town known for its highly educated, highly skilled work force).

4. Consumers will get 'hopeless'

I mean hopeless in the best of all possible ways. For years, buyers and sellers have been waiting for that singular event to occur that would cause a quick market recovery. But 2012 will mark the fifth or sixth year of the real estate recession, depending on who you talk to. I predict that those consumers who have not already done so will drop unrealistic hopes for a fast return to the heady real estate fortunes of the subprime era.  Instead, people will make their real estate plans based on:

    Today's low home prices, rather than the fantasy of what could happen if the market miraculously came back;

    Assumptions of very low, or no, appreciation in home values for years to come; and

    Very conservative estimates of their own finances and how they will grow.

 As a result, buyers won't break their necks to hurry and buy before prices uptick; rather, they'll save and plan to buy when it makes the most sense for their finances. Homeowners will do the same; they will either refi, remodel and be content where they are for the long haul, or decide their homes no longer fit their lifestyles and their finances, divest of them and move on. But the good news is, people will make these decisions based on what is or is not sustainable for their lives and their finances, and not based on inflated hopes about what the market will or will not do.

Source: BY TARA-NICHOLLE NELSON, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2011. Inman News

Plano, a city of 278,000 thats just outside Dallas, boasts the lowest violent crime rate of the cities we looked at and the sixth-lowest traffic fatality rate, putting it tops on our list for the second year in a row. The Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, Nev., and Honolulu come in second and third, respectively.

So what makes these metropolises oases of relative tranquility? Wealth is one key factor.

One of the underlying things, in terms of a citys safety, would be a very strong tax base, as there are a number of services that are reliant on it, notes Scott B. Clark, president of the New York-based Risk and Insurance Management Society. That includes an effective, well-staffed police department, fire department and school system.

The median household income in Plano is $79,234, according to the U.S. Census Bureau,  nearly 60% above the national average, and 8.1% of residents are below the poverty line, compared to a national rate of 15.1%. The city is also home to a number of Fortune 500 companies.

Plano is a very clean, affluent suburb with no inner city per se, says John Worrall, head of the criminology program at the University of Texas at Dallas. Plus it has one of the few police departments in the U.S. that require four-year degrees. I dont know that there is research to back up its making things safer, but it makes Plano unique.

Plano boasts strong citizen involvement in public safety: the U.S. Department of Justice honored the city last year with a National Award for Excellence in Neighborhood Watch.  Plano Police Chief Greg Rushin says his department works with 194 volunteers who help with tasks from patrolling neighborhoods to manning observation towers in public places and monitoring security camera feeds.

Henderson, Nev., takes the No. 2 spot despite its location within the Metropolitan Statistical Area of Las Vegas-Paradise, which ranked ninth this year on Forbes list of Americas Most Dangerous Cities. That may be because Henderson has a relatively high median income of $61,861, a low poverty rate (7%) and higher median home prices than Las Vegas, points out Tamara Madensen, a criminology professor at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. Also of help, she adds, is that casinos in Henderson cater mainly to local residents, which reduces traffic and the number of tourists moving about in the city.

Thats an important point compared to Vegas: Since crime rates are calculated based on Census populations, violent crimes involving tourists inflate the numbers. The number of people who visit the Strip and downtown Las Vegas each year, over 35 million, make it difficult to estimate the real risk of crime for individuals living in Las Vegas. Tourist numbers are rarely factored into risk analyses, Madensen says.

To find Americas 10 safest cities, we looked at metropolises with populations above 250,000. We ranked them by violent crime ratesthe number of violent crimes (murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault) per 100,000 residents in 2010, as reported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Because the FBI only compiles data from municipalities that submit complete reports, we were only able to look at 72 cities; Chicago was not included in our ranking.

We also ranked each city on the traffic-fatality rate per 100,000 residents based on 2009 data, the most recent available, from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. We then averaged the ranking for each city to arrive at final scores. In the event of ties, the city with the lower crime rate got the higher ranking.

In third place on our list is Honolulu, which ranks fourth lowest for violent crime and seventh lowest for traffic fatalities. The city is relatively well off, with a median household income of $54,828, above the national average of $50,046, and a below average poverty rate of 10.5%. Hawaii has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, and that famous relaxed aloha spirit may play a role in keeping accident and violence rates low. Honolulu is kind of like a big small town where everyone seems connected, says Dave Kahaulelio, president of the Honolulu chapter of the Risk and Insurance Management Society.

Kahaulelio also notes a key factor behind Honolulus low traffic-fatality rate4.27 per 100,000 is gridlock. Our roads are often congested because we have two main arteries, he says.

Russ Rader, vice president of communications for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, concurs that congestion is a good thing when it comes to traffic safety. If traffic is often gridlocked, no one can drive fast enough to kill themselves or others, he says. Cities, by their nature, tend to have low fatality rates because speeds are low and traffic is dense, while rural roads tend to be more dangerous.

That certainly rings true in the biggest cityand perhaps biggest surpriseon our list: New York City at No. 10. Major arteries are frequently backed up there, which may well explain why Gotham ranked No. 3 for lowest traffic-fatality rates, with just 3.17 per 100,000. Good public transportation and a relatively low car ownership rate also help.

Click here to read the complete article and all the cities that made the list http://www.forbes.com/sites/bethgreenfield/2011/12/15/americas-safest-cities/

Texas Leads in Projected Job Growth

When it comes to which states will add the highest percentage of jobs over the next few years, Forbes reports Texas will lead the way.

Total employment here is forecast to expand 2.9 percent annually through 2015, according to research firm Moodys Analytics. That represents 1.6 million new net jobs for the state over five years.

Forbes points to Texas' "low tax, business-friendly climate with a surging population that offers a nearly unlimited supply of young labor" as reasons for the growth. However, it also acknowledges that the state's rapid population growth has pushed its unemployment rate to 8.5 percent, the highest in 24 years.

Source: NEW YORK (Forbes.com)

TEXAS OUTPERFORMS NATION IN OCTOBER HOME SALES

Sales of existing single-family Texas homes in October were up 8 percent from a year ago, according to the most recent Multiple Listing Services (MLS) data compiled by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

More than 15,600 existing single-family homes were sold, data showed. The median home price was $147,500, up 2 percent from a year ago, and the state's overall inventory was at 6.9 months.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported yesterday that, nationally, existing home sales rose 1.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million in October from a downwardly revised 4.9 million in September, and are 13.5 percent above the 4.38 million unit level in October 2010.

The national median price for existing homes was $162,500, which was 4.7 percent below October 2010.

Talking about the national numbers, Center Research Economist Dr. Jim Gaines said homebuyers continue to be frustrated by stiff mortgage underwriting and appraisals despite favorable buying factors such as low interest rates, sluggish but positive job creation and lower home prices.

"NAR reported contract cancellations at 33 percent in October, meaning that one in three sales contracts failed to close," Gaines said. "Sales agents should be very circumspect when qualifying buyers for mortgages, rather than being frustrated later because the deal does not close." 

October 2011 MLS data for many Texas cities are available on the Center's website. Here is a sampling (data current as of Nov. 21, 2011):


Source: College Station (Real Estate Center)

Top Reasons to Sell Your Home in the Winter

We're getting close to the end of the year, which begs the question of whether it's worthwhile trying to sell your home now. waste of time? Will it sit on the market and become shopworn? Should I take my house off the market for the holidays? Will the home-sale market be better for sellers in 2012?

The first question you need to ask yourself is: Are you emotionally prepared to sell? Selling is a challenge for most sellers, although some markets are better than others. Unless you bought more than eight to 10 years ago and preserved your equity, you may not be able to sell for enough to pay off the mortgages secured against the property and the other costs of selling.

For sellers who have no additional assets, a short sale or foreclosure may be the only option. If so, first look into government programs that might help you out financially. Also, talk to your attorney and tax adviser.

Sellers who have the resources to make up the difference between the sale price and the amount they owe need to ask themselves if they are willing to pay the additional cash in order to sell and move on.

There are two reasons why you might prefer bringing cash to closing. One is that your credit will not be negatively impacted, as would be the case with a short sale or foreclosure. The second is that many buyers shy away from short sales because of the lengthy and uncertain process involved.

The next thing to consider is the condition of your home. Is it ready for the market? The most salable homes are those that are in move-in condition.

Before racing to the hardware store, ask your REALTOR® about how much competition there would be for your home if you put it on the market before the holidays. Some areas are shy on inventory of good homes on the market. If so, now could be a good time to sell.

HOUSE HUNTING TIP: The supply/demand ratio plays a significant role in the health of a local real estate market. No matter what is said about the housing market nationally, it's the local picture that tells the tale in terms of the possibility of selling your home at any given time.

Most sellers don't put their homes on the market during the last or first couple of months of the year. The inventory of homes for sale tends to dwindle during the winter months. Interest rates are low. So, if there are buyers in your local market, you may be at an advantage selling when most sellers are waiting.

Some sellers feel that if they've waited this long to sell, they should put the process on hold until spring and get the house ready in the meantime. Certainly, it's not a good idea to put your house on the market until it looks great. But if you and your house are ready to sell, move ahead.

The market in general tends to slow down over the holidays. But rather than pull your house off the market and miss a likely prospect, change the showing procedure to require advance notice. And enjoy your holidays. A sale before year end could be a great holiday gift.

There is a lot of pent-up demand, on both the buyer and seller sides. Sellers have been waiting for a better time to sell. Buyers have been waiting for more quality inventory and a sense that prices have bottomed or are close to it.

THE CLOSING: Recent projections call for another five or so years of bouncing along close to the bottom of this market cycle. Many experts believe that the big price declines are behind us.

Source: Dian Hymer, Inman News