Tax Credit Can Be Used as Down Payment

This excerpt was posted by the Kansas Association of Realtors on their website:

Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, on Tuesday said that the Federal Housing Administration is going to permit its lenders to allow home buyers to use the $8,000 tax credit as a down payment. Previously, most buyers wouldn't receive the funds until after they filed their tax return, and that deterred some people from using the credit. The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® has been calling for the change.

"We all want to enable FHA consumers to access the home buyer tax credit funds when they close on their home loans so that the cash can be used as a down payment," Donovan says. His remarks came in an address to several thousand REALTORS® gathered Tuesday morning at "The Real Estate Summit: Advancing the U.S. Economy," at the 2009 REALTORS® Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo in Washington, D.C..

He says FHA's approved lenders will be permitted to "monetize" the tax credit through short-term bridge loans. This will allow eligible home buyers to access the funds immediately at the closing table.

Zillow Home Valuations in New Mexico

Zillow has become a very popular search for home evaluation across the country taking information from the public sites such as county and city property tax registrations. Unfortunately, in the State of New Mexico, Zillow doesn't work.



New Mexico is a Public Non-Disclosure state. This means that public records are limited disclosure in New Mexico. Anyone can call up the county or query the city or county Taxation Dept. or Assessor's website to find how much tax is paid on a property, due, legal description and owners name and mailing address. If you want more information, you can ask a REALTOR if they can find out further information. We have relationships with Escrow Officers at Title companies. Title companies have accessibility to more information than we or the general public does. They are able to find out the name of the MOST CURRENT mortgage company (re-fi or home equity loan but maybe not the original mortgage loan information).



If the property has been sold on an REC (Real Estate Contract), the Title company can find out the purchase price of the property if the REC was recorded with the county.



So, when it comes to home valuation, again, it's best in the State of New Mexico to get it from a knowledgeable, experienced REALTOR.

Green Building

It seems that the Albuquerque Metro Area is becoming more aware of Green building concepts. There have been several high end home builders which have incorporated Green builiding techniques for many years. Artistic Homes, a track home builder, has been incorporating a few concepts such as using a high efficiency boiler to heat homes for several years. Now Artistic is getting into Zero energy homes with solar panels to generate electricity for some of their new homes. There is a new home builder of lower cost homes on the West side of Albuquerque building almost Zero energy homes (without solar panels). They are Paul Allen Homes.

When I was a member of the Northwest Washington Building Inspector Association, we would have vendors come speak at our meetings. One of those meetings, a company who sold and promoted isocyanurate spray on insulation spoke. This past week, while listening to a presentation from paul Allen Homes, I found that they are using the same concept insulating homes. This is the most efficient and cost effective method in insulating homes to date.

If you think about the concept, where is the greatest amount of heat loss in a home? Through the penetrations in the walls and roof. Where is the greatest amount of condensation? On the inside surface of the walls,ceiling and floor insulation (in the Albuquerque Metro area, there are few crawlspaces since most homes are built on concrete slabs). In spraying an expanding foam insulation on the inside surface of sheathings and by insulating the outer perimeters of concrete slabs below frost line, you thereby reduce heat loss/gain and prevent condensation which ruins the R-Factor of fiberglass and cellulose insulations (which have been used primarilly since the changes in codes across the country since the '70's).

I am excited to become involved with this innovative builder in saving customers utility costs as well as selling them homes which may garner tax credits and rebates from the State of NM, the Federal Government as well as Public Service Company of New Mexico. Here are some links for websites to search more information on Going Green.

http://www.cleanenergynm.org/
http://www.usgbc.org/
http://www.buildgreennm.com/
www.pnm.com/rebates
http://www.albuquerquegreen.com/
http://www.housingnm.org/