The bill to extend the tax credit for homebuyers is now on President Barack Obama's desk. (Photo: Associated Press/J. Scott Applewhite)

The bill to extend the $8,000 tax credit to first-time home buyers and open the program to move-up buyers easily cleared the House of Representatives by a 403-12 vote Thursday. The House vote came a day after the Senate passed the measure 98-0 …Full Story

Many new-home buyers are using government mortgages with low down payments. (Photo: iStockphoto)

I got an interesting press release from my colleague, Lisa Marquis Jackson, who now works at John Burns Real Estate Consulting, a nationally recognized housing consultant. The company just released a survey of home builders about their buyers’ sources of financing. According to the survey, nearly 60 percent of current new home buyers relied on low down-payment mortgages from the government, including the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the Veterans Administration and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which guarantees loans through its Rural Development program.  …Full Story

Home prices in South Florida now match what buyers are willing to pay. (Photo: iStockphoto)

Before relocating to Georgia in 1998, I lived for nearly 20 years in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. South Florida has always been an interesting real estate market, driven in part by its natural, immovable boundaries. It has the Atlantic Ocean on the east, the Everglades on the west and the end of the United States on the south. There really are only two ways for the market to grow – you either tear down something old and replace it with something new, or you go vertical. During the real estate boom, the market saw plenty of both …Full Story

An extension of the tax credit for first-time home buyers is looking more likely. (Photo: Paul Sakuma/Associated Press)

There’s a lot of chatter right now about whether Congress will extend or expand the first-time home buyer tax credit. The National Association of Realtors reported that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Ways and Means Committee Chair Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) both support an extension …Full Story

The $8,000 tax credit has opened the door for a housing market recovery, a new study says. (Photo: iStockphoto)

A new study commissioned by Fix Housing First, a group lobbying Congress for extension and expansion of the first-time homebuyer tax credit, reports that the tax credit has made a significant impact on helping the housing industry recover …Full Story

Wall Street expects a tax credit extension to boost home sales next year. (Photo: iStockphoto)

Real estate industry folks have been doing the happy dance lately with the announcement from Wall Street investment firm Goldman Sachs Group that new U.S. home sales may jump 30 percent next year. They based that forecast on low interest rates and a better than even chance that Congress will extend or amend the first-time home buyer tax credit. A CNNMoney.com article cites even better odds; it quotes Jaret Seiberg, an analyst with Concept Capital’s Washington Research Group, who gives the chances of an extension being approved at 2 to 1 …Full Story

With any luck, first-time hombuyers can still make the $8,000 tax-credit deadline. (Photo: iStockphoto)

I’ve been keeping a close eye on the news out of Washington on the chances of Congress passing an extension of the first-time home buyer tax credit. Washington Post blogger Elizabeth Razzi asked that very question in this post, and said the word on the Hill is that there’s a better than ever chance that it will be extended in some form beyond the current Nov. 30 deadline …Full Story

The City of Fort Myers hired nationally known urban planner Andres Duany to redesign its sagging downtown. (Photo: John Curry for Cyberhomes)

As a teen, I thought my hometown of Fort Myers, Fla., was the most boring place on the planet. I honestly could not get out of there fast enough. I left at 18 to go to college at the University of Florida in Gainesville and haven’t lived in Ft. Myers since. But we have family in the area, so we’ve made quasi-regular trips back home, including a visit the last week of August. On most occasions, I’ve looked around and found little that would make me want to live there again. This time, I was more intrigued.  …Full Story