Chicago Housing Bubble

More on the credit extension

On the normal set of "This Month In Real Estate"... here's more information on the homebuyer tax credit.

*Yawn*

Give me boring (or: Homebuyer tax credit renewed)

Realtors and homebuyers rejoice! The 1st-time homebuyer tax credit has passed the Senate and House and awaits the president's signature to be put into law. I try to avoid ranting as much as possible (and am usually unsuccessful), but I'm going to rant for a second...

This is a bad idea. While I'm happy for buyers who will get a "free" $8,000, all this does is continue to artificially prop up a market that needs to take it's medicine. Homeownership rates are still above historical averages. And when we make it easier for people to be homeowners, we disrupt the natural market balance that led to a boring but predictable 5.5% return average (in the US) since 1955. A boring, but stable market is better than a hot market that eventually goes very cold, then very hot, then very cold, etc. Give me boring - it makes it easier for people to build wealth.

Here's a handy little chart that does a side/side comparison between the "old" credit (that expires 11/30) versus the "new' credit (on/after 12/01). Post if you have questions.

Illinois Realtors make sense of the housing credit

I've been out of town at a convention and super-busy selling real estate here in Chicago. So I'm going to rapid-fire some information...

First on the list is the last thing I'm going to say (for now) about the Federal Housing Tax Credit: the Illinois Association of Realtors put out an information flyer that does a good job of explaining the same things that I explained last week. But I thought it was worth sharing.

Here's the flyer. Enjoy.