The Facts: Buyer vs Seller

According to a recent survey by Mass Association of Realtors:

Characteristics of Home Buyers
• The median age of home buyers was 39 years old for the second consecutive year.
• The median income (which is reported from 2007 household data) was up to $88,100 compared to $84,400 in 2006.
• 58% of home buyers were married couples, 18 percent single females, 12 percent single males, and 10 percent unmarried couples.
• 10% of home buyers were born outside of the United States compared to nine percent nationally.
• 53% of first-time home buyers were between 25 and 34 years old.
• First-time home buyers accounted for 48 percent of recent home purchases and had a median income of $80,600 compared to $60,600 among first-time home buyers nationally.

Despite the credit issues in 2008, 90 percent of buyers financed their home purchase (98 percent of first-time buyers compared to 82 percent of repeat buyers). Savings was the chief source of the downpayment for 74 percent of first-time buyers with 44 percent of repeat buyers using proceeds from the sale of their primary residence.

Forty-seven percent of all buyers believe that their home purchase was a better financial investment than stocks, with an additional 30 percent of buyers feeling their home purchase was at least as good an investment as stocks. However, to make their home purchase, 57 percent of home buyers reported that they had made sacrifices, such as reducing spending on luxury items, entertainment or clothing.

Characteristics of Home Sellers/Seller Experience
• The median age of the home seller was 47 years (which is up from 43 years in 2007)
• The median income was $105,500.
• The typical seller owned their home for seven years.
• 69% of home sellers were married and 61 percent had no children under 18 years old living at home.
• 37% of home sellers did not reduce their asking price before the home was sold.
• 33% of sellers did offer incentives to attract buyers, most often that assistance was applied to closing costs and home warranty policies.

Home Buyers will get $15,000 tax credit for buying a house!

Isakson Amendment Passed!!

The Isakson amendment - which provides a tax credit of up to 15,000 to all homebuyers - passed by voice vote in the Senate last night with bi-partisan support; it will now be part of the final Senate bill.
This is an important victory but our work is not done. Other amendments are expected to be offered today which embody parts of the Fix Housing First plan and we need to support those as well. The plan is to have a bill on the President's desk by February 13, so our efforts this week will be concentrated on the Senate and next week on the conference committee process.

Today Senator Ensign (R-NV) will offer what he is calling the “Fix Housing First Act” (amendment #353) which is much broader than our agenda but does include a mortgage rate buy down program which could lower mortgage rates to as low as 4%. While the plan is not exactly what we have been advocating for, it is another step in the right direction.