$8000 Tax Credit for First Time Home Buyers- Beware of Closing Time

Posted Sep 2, 2009 @ 1:33 pm, Viewed by 334 Visitors, Read 347 Times.

     We are now looking back on a wonderful but hot summer. If you have been using that time to look for your new home and are a first time buyer, I want to put some urgency into that search for you. Move quickly and move now on your decision to buy. Why?

   I don’t know what it has been like in other parts of the country but in Douglas County, OR. closing times have gotten a little hinky.  Thirty days used to be a normal time for escrow to close. Now it seems that the “new normal” is about sixty days. Loan processing has really become painstaking, even for people with high credit scores. I have heard jokes in the past that if you were a “warm body that could still breathe on a mirror” that’s all you needed to qualify for a loan. To qualify for a loan in today’s market, you have to bring in proof from Ancestry.com that you are related to Adam and Eve.

     Seriously, though, let’s look at the timeline to purchase for the rest of the year in order to get your $8000 tax credit. The deadline for purchasing a new home is December 1, 2009. If you are prudent and tack two months allowance time for escrow and loan processing, that means that you need to have your purchase in escrow before September 30th. I know some banks are now guaranteeing a 30 day closing. That’s great and comforting. But I would still not take the chance if I didn’t have to.
     Add to that all of the buyers out there who are procrastinators like somebody else I know. There will be a rush in the fall to grab up the $8000 tax credit. This will flood the market with many last minute loans to process and cause further delays.
    The prudent thing to do is to not let yourself get caught up in that last minute quagmire. Do it now. There is plenty of inventory to select from.  Don’t miss out.
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mybrokerdiana

mybrokerdiana  Diana Peterson is a licensed Oregon Broker with Prudential Real Estate Professionals in Roseburg, Oregon.  Douglas County living is the best kept secret in Oregon. Read More

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