Brevard County FL Market Watch Issue 14

The Federal Tax Credit of up to $8000 increased the number of home sales to 47% by first time homebuyers.  This is the highest number of these buyers since 1981.

A tax credit was also offered to owners of existing properties. They were offered up to $6500 for selling their home and moving into another one.

Others felt that they should jump in and get a piece of the action.  Over 2550 recent buyers illegally applied for the tax credit, on homes they purchased before the program even became available.  And, they erroneously received over $17.6 million.  206 of these owners filed on multiple properties receiving over $1.4 million on ineligible properties!

So, why not let prison inmates in on a piece of the action?  Over 1200 filed for the up to $8000 tax credit and received it!  Unbelievable!  Did I mention that over 200 of these inmates were sentenced to life in prison?  Many filed multiple claims with the help of paid employees that prepared their taxes. In total $9.1 million in tax credit money was awarded to these inmates!

And, let’s not forget about those 34 IRS employees that fraudulently filed for the credit.

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25.5% of the population have FICO scores of 599 or below.   These are the consumers that are considered poor risks to lenders.  About 2.4% million Americans have been added to this group in the past 2 years.

11.9% of the population have scores of 650-699. The ideal scores for an FHA, government insured loan are at least 660 to 680 and up.

And, approximately 17.9% of the population have FICO scores of 800 or above.  These are the people that have cut back, paid down their credit card debt and stopped spending.  A score of 800-850 is considered a perfect score.  A buyer with a score of 720 or above is an ideal candidate for a low interest mortgage.

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Today, approximately 31% of residential sales across the nation, nearly 233,000, at the beginning of 2010 were on foreclosed properties.  This is down from 37% in early 2009.  Prices on these properties were about 27% below those on regular sales. 

The states with the highest number of foreclosure sales at the beginning of 2010 were Nevada, California and Arizona.   Over 64% of Nevada’s sales were foreclosures!  51% of California sales were foreclosures.  Florida foreclosure sales accounted for about one third of all sales.