Consumer post for
SV lawyer in Obama
Administration
by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com
Unauthorized use of this story is a copyright violation -- a federal crime
Deadline Newsroom - If I only had a car…a job…a home.
The Yellow Brick Road is paved with good intentions, but Emerald City just ain't what it used to be.
First-time home buyers are optimistic, but many homeowners who fear foreclosure and unemployment appear more pessimistic and are cutting back on the fun and frivolity to remain homeowners.
The housing market just isn't, well, in Kansas anymore.
Only one in five Americans say they plan to buy a home in the next five years, while most, 52 percent, are concerned they or someone they know will face foreclosure in the next six to 12 months, according to the National Homeownership Survey commissioned earlier this year by Move, Inc., the operator of Realtor.com.
The Move survey also indicates, in hindsight, it probably would have been a good idea to pay attention to "the man behind the curtain."
• Nearly one in five homeowners (19 percent) plan to take advantage of the Obama Administration's Making Home Affordable program to help prevent foreclosures.
The program was just upgraded with additional loan modifications and short sale options.
• More than one in five homeowners (21 percent) said they contacted a lender to modify their mortgage. Half were successful, 5 percent still awaited an answer. For some time lenders foreclosed rather than modified.
• More than one in five adults (27 percent) feel they or someone they know may default on their mortgage due to recent unemployment (27 percent), future unemployment (29 percent), or because they owe more on their home than it's worth (26 percent). One out of eight (15 percent) is having a hard time making mortgage payments because they've recently increased debt or have too much debt (19 percent).
• To keep afloat with what's often an upside down mortgage, 72 percent of adults reduced spending in the past year in order to make monthly mortgage or rent payments. Most, 75 percent, cut discretionary spending on vacations, entertainment and eating out; 72 percent cut down on clothing, personal care and personal luxuries; and 72 percent reduced their gasoline and utility costs.
Optimism behind the curtain?
"It's not all doom and gloom. We found Americans are optimistic about homeownership despite concerns. Even more impactful are numbers that show interest in home ownership is strong as nearly a quarter of all adults plan to buy a home in the next five years," said Move, Inc., CEO Steve Berkowitz.
• While nearly 6 percent plan to purchase a home in the next 12 months, nearly 13 percent of Americans say they plan to buy a home in the next two years, and 11 percent plan to purchase a home in two to five years.
• More than 53 percent of those planning to buy in 2009 are first-time homebuyers. The National Association of Realtors says 41 percent of homebuyers were first-timers in 2008.
• The survey also revealed more than 18 percent of adults plan to buy a home this year in order to take advantage of a $8,000 federal tax credit.
Some Californian home buyers hit the mother lode of home buyer tax credits with an additional, though less liberal, state tax credit of up to $10,000 for first-time home buyers.
• Unfortunately, while more than 18 percent of first-time home buyers do plan to buy this year because of the tax credit, half said they weren't aware of the credit and more than 29 percent said it wasn't large enough to encourage them to buy.
• If only they'd subscribed to the Deadline Newsroom, they'd know.
• Click on the keywords below for more stories on this subject.
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com
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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist, parlayed 30 years of old-school journalism into a digital real estate news service, the San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group, including DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service and Web site, and the Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's news back shop. Perkins is also a National Real Estate Examiner. All the news that really hits home from three locations -- that's location, location, location!
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