Federal Tax Deadline Extended To April 17, 2012
February 8, 2012 by · Leave a Comment
Traditionally, federal income taxes must be filed with the IRS on, or before, April 15 each year. The date has become such a part of U.S. culture that many people simply call it “Tax Day”.
This year, however, for the 3rd time in 7 years, your federal income taxes will not be due April 15. Instead, because of a combination of the calendar, a holiday, and tax law, Tax Day 2012 is delayed until Tuesday, April 17.
You will have two extra days to prepare and file your federal income taxes this year.
Here’s why.
First, April 15 is a Sunday and all federal offices are closed on Sundays. This means that that taxes can’t be filed on April 15, as regularly scheduled. Rather, the tax due date should roll over to the first available business day — Monday.
However, Monday, April 16 is Emancipation Day, a holiday in the District of Columbia since 2005.
Emancipation Day honors President Abraham Lincoln’s April 16, 1862 signing of the Compensation Emancipation Act. All of Washington, D.C. is closed for the local holiday — including the offices of the IRS. Taxes can’t be due on this date because there will be nobody at the Internal Revenue Service to receive them.
Therefore, Tax Day rolls over to the next available business day, and that’s Tuesday, April 17. Despite the 2-day change, as a reminder, the deadline to file a federal tax return with extension has not changed. That filing date remains October 15, 2012.
Also, note that most states have chosen to mirror the IRS’ tax deadlines this year even though Emancipation Day is a Washington, D.C-specific. Be sure to check with your accountant to confirm your local filing deadline.
Lock An Instant 13% Savings On Your Monthly Mortgage Payment
February 7, 2012 by · Leave a Comment
Falling mortgage rates make owning a home more affordable. Mortgage rates are directly tied to monthly mortgage payment so as mortgage rates drop, so does the cost of home-ownership.
It’s a money-saving time to buy a home in Chicago — or to refinance one. Mortgage rates have never been this low in history.
According to Freddie Mac, last week, the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage fell to 3.87% nationwide for borrowers willing to pay an accompanying 0.8 discount points plus closing costs. 0.8 discount points is a one-time closing cost equal to 0.8 percent of your loan size, or $800 per $100,000 borrowed.
This represents an incredible value as compared to February of last year.
It was exactly one year ago that mortgage rates begin their long slide lower. On February 11, 2011, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage reached its peak for the year, reading 5.05% in Freddie Mac’s nationwide survey. If you are among the many U.S. households that bought or refinanced a home around that time, you could choose to replace your current home loan with a new one and save close to 13% on your monthly mortgage payment.
13 percent saved on your mortgage is a noteworthy statistic.
Look at this 30-year fixed rate mortgage payment comparison over the last 12 months :
- February 2011 : $539.88 principal + interest per $100,000 borrowed
- February 2012 : $469.95 principal + interest per $100,000 borrowed
Because of falling mortgage rates, a homeowner with a $250,000 30-year fixed rate mortgage would save at least $175 per month just by refinancing into a new loan at today’s mortgage rates. That’s $2,100 in savings per year.
Even after accounting for discount points and closing costs, the “break-even point” on a mortgage like that can come relatively quickly.
We can’t predict mortgage rates so there’s no promise rates will stay like this forever. If you’re planning to buy a home or refinance one, the best way to keep your monthly payments down is to lock your rate while rates are still low.
The market looks ripe for that now.
The 10 Longest Commutes In The United States
February 6, 2012 by · Leave a Comment
According to the Census Bureau, more than 3.2 million U.S. workers spend over 3 hours commuting to and from work each day.
Commutes exceeding 90 minutes in each direction are known as “extreme commutes” in Census Bureau parlance. As compared to typical commute times nationwide, they’re aptly named.
The national, average commute time is just 25.1 minutes.
For home buyers in Chicago or in any U.S. city, make sure to make commute times a consideration before placing an offer on a property. The length of your daily commute will make an impact on your life.
Studies shows that shorter commutes are linked to higher levels of life satisfaction. Long commutes are linked to low levels of life satisfaction.
As ranked by the Census Bureau, here are the 10 cities with the longest average commute times, where commuting is defined as the total time to arrive at work, inclusive of all modes of transportation (i.e. automobile, train, subway, foot, or other) :
- New York / North New Jersey / Long Island : 34.6 minutes
- Washington, DC / Arlington / Alexandria : 33.4 minutes
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Poughkeepsie / Newburgh / Middletown, NY: 32.2 minutesBremerton / Silverdale, WA : 30.8 minutesChicago / Naperville / Joliet, IL : 30.7 minutesWinchester, VA : 30.3 minutesAtlanta / Sandy Springs / Marietta, GA 30.1 minutesRiverside / San Bernardino / Ontario, CA : 30.0 minutesStockton, CA : 29.8 minutesBaltimore / Towson, MD : 29.7 minutes
Poughkeepsie / Newburgh / Middletown, NY: 32.2 minutes
- Bremerton / Silverdale, WA : 30.8 minutes
- Chicago / Naperville / Joliet, IL : 30.7 minutes
- Winchester, VA : 30.3 minutes
- Atlanta / Sandy Springs / Marietta, GA 30.1 minutes
- Riverside / San Bernardino / Ontario, CA : 30.0 minutes
- Stockton, CA : 29.8 minutes
- Baltimore / Towson, MD : 29.7 minutes
By contrast, the shortest commute belongs to residents of Great Falls, Montana. The average commute for the city’s 58,000 residents is 14.2 minutes.
A long commute to work should not deter you from moving to a particular home or neighborhood, but your time-en-route should be a consideration. Before making an offer on a home in Lincoln Park , therefore, practice the rush hour commute from your potential new neighborhood in the morning, and back to it again that evening.
Then, imagine making the commute every day.
Banks Start To Loosen Up In Underwriting
February 3, 2012 by · Leave a Comment
After a half-decade of tightening mortgage guidelines, banks are starting to “loosen up”.
The Federal Reserve conducts a quarterly survey of its member banks and, last quarter, not a single responding bank reported having tightened its mortgage guidelines for prime borrowers.
A “prime borrower” is defined as one with a well-documented credit history, high credit scores, and a low debt-to-income ratio.
53 banks responded to the Fed’s survey and none said that mortgage guidelines “tightened considerably” or “tightened somewhat” between September and December 2011; 50 said that guidelines remained “basicaly unchanged”; 3 said that guidelines “eased somewhat”.
Mortgage applicants sometimes remark that the mortgage approval process can be challenging. Last quarter’s Fed survey hints that looser standards are coming.
Not since before the recession have banks lowered mortgage approval standards like this and it bodes well for this year’s Chicago housing market. Real estate agents report that 1 in 3 home sale contracts fail with “declined mortgage applications” as a leading cause.
Looser mortgage lending standards should mean more home loan approvals for buyers, and fewer contract cancellations. This can spur the housing market forward.
Make note, though. “Looser standards” should not be confused with ”irresponsible standards”. It remains more difficult to meet bank standards as compared to 5 years. Today’s underwriters are more conservative with respect to household income, overall assets and credit scores.
Even as compared to one year ago:
- Minimum credit score requirements are higher
- Downpayment/equity requirements are larger
- Maximum allowable debt-to-income ratios are lower
For buyers and refinancing households gaining approval, though, the reward is the lowest mortgage rates in a lifetime. Mortgage rates in Illinois continue to fall, helping home affordability reach new highs.
If you’re in the market to buy a new home or refinance one, your timing is excellent.
Home Affordability Threatened By Friday’s Jobs Report
February 2, 2012 by · Leave a Comment
This week, once more, we find mortgage rates are on a downward trajectory. Conforming mortgage rates have returned to near all-time lows. After Friday morning’s Non-Farm Payrolls report, however, those low rates may come to an end.
It’s a risky time for Illinois home buyers and would-be refinancers to be without a locked rate.
Each month, on the first Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its Non-Farm Payrolls report for the month prior. More commonly called the “jobs report”, Non-Farm Payrolls provides a sector-by-sector employment breakdown, and the nation’s Unemployment Rate.
In December 2011, the government reported 200,000 net new jobs created, and an Unemployment Rate of 8.5%.
For January 2012, economists project 135,000 net new jobs with no change in the Unemployment Rate and, depending on how accurate those predictions are proved, FHA and conforming mortgage rates for homes in North Center are subject to change. The monthly jobs reports tends to have an out-sized influence on the direction of daily mortgage rates.
The connection between jobs and mortgage rates is fairly direct.
Job growth is a key cog in the economic growth engine and mortgage rates change daily based on short- and long-term economic expectation. As more people join the workforce, economic expectations change; the economy tends to expand, breeding optimism among investment. When this occurs, it often spurs investment in the stock market, which tends to leads mortgage rates up.
In short, in a recovering economy, when job growth is strong, all things equal, mortgage rates rise. Home affordability suffers.
So, for today’s rate shoppers, Friday’s job report represents a risk. The economy has added jobs over 15 straight months, a streak that’s added 2.1 million people to the workforce. Although the jobs market remains weak and well off its peaks from last decade, a 15-month streak is worth watching. More jobs means more more income earned nationwide, more money spent by households, and more taxes collected by governments.
This items build a foundation for economic growth and Wall Street is watching.
If tomorrow’s Non-Farm Payrolls shows more jobs created than the estimated 135,000, mortgage rates are expected to rise. If the jobs figures falls short, mortgage rates should fall.
The Non-Farm Payrolls report is released at 8:30 AM ET.
Case-Shiller Index Says Detroit And Washington DC Lead The Market
February 1, 2012 by · Leave a Comment
Standard & Poors released its November 2011 Case-Shiller Index this week. The index measures the change in home prices from month-to-month, and year-to-year, in select U.S. cities.
According to the data, for the second straight month, home values fell in 19 of the Case-Shiller Index’s 20 tracked markets. In addition, also for the second straight month, Phoenix, Arizona was the lone Case-Shiller-tracked city in which home values rose.
Overall, November’s Case-Shiller Index showed a 1 percent decrease in home values between October and November 2011, and a near-4 percent decrease between November 2010 and 2011, putting home values at roughly the same levels as 8 years ago. Don’t read too far into it, however.
The Case-Shiller Index, though widely-cited, remains widely-flawed.
As a buyer or seller in Lakeview, for example, , relying on the Case-Shiller Index for market research can lead you to improper conclusions. To understand the Case Shiller Index’s methodology is to understand why.
First, the Case-Shiller Index draws its data from a very limited geography.
There are more than 3,100 municipalities nationwide. The Case-Shiller Index tracks just 20 of them. And they’re not the 20 largest, either. Four of the Top 10 Most Populous U.S. Cities are excluded (Houston, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Jose) whereas Minneapolis and Tampa are not.
Minneapolis is the 48th largest city in the United States. Tampa is #55.
Next, when Case-Shiller Index gathers its data from its 20 cities, it only includes the home sale data of single-family, detached homes. This means that sales of condominiums and multi-unit homes are specifically excluded from the index. There are some cities — Chicago and New York, for example — where condominium sales represent a large percentage of the overall market.
The Case-Shiller Index ignores that.
And, lastly, when the Case-Shiller Index is published, it’s published on a 60-day delay. Its data is not “current”, therefore, and does little to tell buyers and sellers of Chicago and the country what’s happening in their home markets right this minute. Instead, the Case-Shiller Index tells us how the housing market looked two months ago.
If you’re active in the real estate market, either as a buyer or a seller, the Case-Shiller Index does you little good. For real-time data that actionable, speak to a real estate professional instead. It’s where you’ll find your best, most reliable and relevant information.
Supply Of New Homes At 6.1 Months Nationwide
January 31, 2012 by · Leave a Comment
New Home Sales slowed into the New Year but the market for newly-built homes remains strong. For home buyers in Illinois and nationwide, December’s New Home Sales report is yet one more signal that the housing market recovery may be underway.
According to the Census Bureau, the number of new homes sold in December 2011 slipped 2 percent to 307,000 units on a seasonally-adjusted, annualized basis nationwide.
A “new home” is a home that is considered new construction; a home for which the buyer will be the first owner and tenant.
As compared to December 2010, last months’ sales volume fell seven percent. It’s a statistic that suggests housing market weakness. However, in looking at a different component of the New Home Sales report — the supply of homes for sale — we’re forced to reconsider.
At the current pace of sales, every new home for sale nationwide would be “sold” in a matter of 6.1 months.
Economists believe that a 6.0-month supply defines a market in balance — anything quicker is termed a “seller’s market”. Statistics like that are enough to create urgency among today’s Chicago home buyers.
Unfortunately, the Census Bureau’s data may be wrong.
Although December’s New Home Sales report shows sales down 2 percent, the government’s data was published with a ±13.2% margin of error. This means that the actual New Home Sales figure may have been as low as -15.2 percent, or as high as +11.2 percent. And, because the range of possible values includes both positive and negative numbers, the Census Bureau had no choice but to assign its December data “Zero Confidence”.
It will be a few months before final revisions are made to December New Home Sales data. Until then, therefore, buyers should take cues from the market-at-large and the market-at-large hints at recovery. One example of this is homebuilders showing more confidence in their product than at any time in the last 5 years.
If your plans for 2012 call for buying new construction, therefore, consider using this lull to “make a deal”. As the year progresses, the great values in housing may be gone.
5 Simple Ways To Declutter Your Home
January 30, 2012 by · Leave a Comment
When a home is listed for sale, its “clutter” can be the difference between a rapid sale and no sale at all.
Clutter, in its strictest sense, is defined as anything untidy; or in a disorderly state. In real estate, the term is broadened to include unnecessary furniture pieces; unwieldy artwork or collections; stacks of papers and/or magazines; and anything that otherwise restricts the open flow of a home’s floor plan.
In other words, clutter is anything that distracts from your home’s natural footprint.
As a home seller in Chicago , understanding how your home’s clutter can affect a buyer is paramount to helping your home sell faster, and at a higher contract price.
First, there’s the psychological angle. A potential home buyer may see clutter and think “mess”. Few people want to buy a house they find messy or otherwise disorganized.
Second, there’s the practical angle. A home that appears full of “things” also appears as if its lacking in storage space. This, too, can turn off buyers.
When you list your home for sale, here are basic tips to de-clutter your home. Some of this advice may not be practical with respect to your home, in particular, so make sure to ask your real estate agent for follow-up help.
- In each room, remove photos, trophies, plaques and other personal items on display.
- Remove large collections such as dolls, cars, miniature cans, and the like.
- Remove worn throw rugs
- Remove items from kitchen countertops, including small appliances
- Remove items from bathroom countertops
You should also consider removing distinctive artwork from your walls, or replacing pieces with items that are more bland.
The over-reaching goal of de-cluttering is to depersonalize and neutralize your home so a buyer can visualize himself/herself living there. De-cluttering your home can also make your home appear larger, accentuating the features of each room.
It’s no wonder that minimally-cluttered homes tend to have a wider appeal among buyers.
Pending Home Sales Index Posts Second Best Month Since April 2010
January 27, 2012 by · Leave a Comment
After 3 consecutive months of growth, the housing market appears to have eased a bit in December.
According to the National Association of REALTORS®, December’s Pending Home Sales Index slipped 4 percent from the month prior. The index measures the number of homes under contract to sell nationwide, but not yet sold.
Despite falling below its benchmark “100 value”, December’s Pending Home Sales Index is the reading’s second-highest value since April 2010 — the last month of last year’s home buyer tax credit program.
In other words, the housing market continues to show signs of improvement, propelled by low home prices and the cheapest mortgage rates of all-time.
Freddie Mac’s mortgage rate survey put the 30-year fixed rate mortgage at an average of 3.96% in December — a 75-basis point improvement from December 2010. This helps to make homes more affordable nationwide.
On a regional basis, December’s Pending Home Sales Index varied :
- Northeast Region: -3.1 percent from November 2011
- Midwest Region : +4.0 percent from November 2011
- South Region : -2.6 percent from November 2011
- West Region : -11.0 percent from November 2011
But even regional data is only so helpful. Like everything in real estate, data must be local to be relevant.
Throughout the West Region, for example, the U.S. region in which pending home sales fell the most, several states must have performed better than the regional average. And, undoubtedly, there were cities, towns, and neighborhoods that experienced marked market growth.
Unfortunately, the Pending Home Sales Index can’t capture that data. Nor can it identify the markets in which home sales suffered.
For today’s Chicago home buyers and sellers, therefore, it’s important to understand your local market and the drivers of local activity. Reports like the Pending Home Sales Index can paint a broad picture U.S. housing but for data that matters to you, you’ll want to look local.
For local real estate data, talk to an experienced real estate professional.
A Simple Explanation Of The Federal Reserve Statement (January 25, 2012)
January 25, 2012 by · Leave a Comment
Wednesday, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee voted to leave the Fed Funds Rate unchanged within its current target range of 0.000-0.250 percent.
The Fed Funds Rate has been near zero percent since December 2008.
For the third consecutive month, the Fed Funds Rate vote was nearly unanimous. Just one FOMC member dissented in the 9-1 vote, objecting only to the language used in the Fed’s official statement.
In its press release, the Federal Reserve noted that the the U.S. economy has “expanding moderately” since its last meeting in December 2011, adding that the growth is occurring despite “slowing in global growth” — a reference to ongoing economic uncertainty within the Eurozone.
The Federal Reserve expects moderate economic expansion through the next few quarters but is wary of “strains” from global financial markets, and these three threats to the U.S. economy :
- The housing sector remains “depressed”
- The unemployment rate remains “elevated”
- Fixed business investment has “slowed”
On the positive side, the FOMC said that household spending is rising and inflation remains in-check. The group also believes that employment will gradually improve nationwide going forward.
The Federal Reserve neither introduced new economic stimulus, nor discontinued existing market programs.
Immediately following the FOMC’s statement, mortgage markets rallied, pressuring mortgage rates to fall in and around Chicago.
Mortgage rates remain near all-time lows and, for homeowners willing to pay points plus closing costs, conventional, 30-year fixed rate mortgages can be locked at below 4 percent. If you’re in the process of buying or refinancing a home in Illinois , it’s a good time to lock a mortgage rate with your lender.
The FOMC’s next scheduled meeting is a one-day event slated for March 13, 2012.
