the buzz log

Uncle Sam will give you the credit, but you'll have to pack your own moving boxes.

Hopeful renters longing for their own roof have been tracking the progress of the "8000 tax credit housing" (up 312% in Yahoo! searches on the Web) and "tax credit extension" (+50%). The "tax man" is feeling generous these days — Congress seems set on extending the credit beyond the Nov. 30 deadline and expanding the pool of qualified applicants.

That's not the only gimme. Homeowners who have been stuck in their digs for at least five years are being dangled a so-called "move-up" credit. Searches on Yahoo! for "6500 tax credit" have been busting out since the news broke.

Of course, not everyone is sold on those credits for first-time homebuyers (or people purchasing for the first time in three years). Some argue that the free money just subsidizes the real estate industry, since it keeps home prices inflated. Others say the 1.4 million households who cashed in probably would have bought their homes anyway. A Goldman Sachs analyst crunched numbers and said the first-time credit extension would probably only up sales by a miserly one percent.

During the first-time rush to own, observers complained that those move-up buyers—usually 80% of home-shoppers — were missing in action. 

Filed under: Real Estate, Taxes, Housing

If you are among the privileged, impacted few where homes—even in this stalled market—average around a half-million dollars and you want to buy one, then you may have a loan application deadline coming up...if you haven't missed it already.

Looks like some may already know, given the late Search surge for "jumbo loan," "jumbo mortgage, and "conforming loan limits". Before getting into deadlines, it's time for a look back to when the federal government took its first baby steps in economic stimulations...

Traditionally, to borrow for homes worth more than $417,000, people had to either take out jumbo loans—normally charged a higher interest rate than so-called conforming loans—or succumb to those oh-so-alluring adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs). Once the initial interest rates expired on those pesky ARMs, of course, all sorts of agony was unleashed.

Then Congress raised the limits on regular fixed-rate loans so that homebuyers could escape those grasping ARMs. But raising the limit apparently didn't mean lowering the interest rates for a while and, as Bankrate reported back in March, the restrictions were about as tough as the first-child clause at the Bank of Rumpelstiltskin.

Now back to the deadlines: Bankrate reports that by January 1, buyers or existing homeowners who want a loan somewhere in the neighborhood of $625,500 to $729,750 need to apply before Dec. 31, if their lender hasn't already locked in rates. That means people in about 25 states will be scrambling to gather together paperwork to get approvals done before the new year rolls in.

However, just to make things exciting, the Boston Globe reminds people that the Housing and Economic Recovery Act will kick in "permanent jumbo size limits" which—as in all things in life—will help some, but not others. The article gives some complicated but detailed advice on how to sift through the different qualifications and rate disparities.

With an ever-changing mortgage landscape, it's good to keep up-to-date on who's loaning what, jumbo or not. For those searching for details on "fha loan limits" and "fha loan rates," NPR takes a look at Federal Housing Administration loans (FHA). The News Observer examines the impossible dream of no down payment (often for rural residents or those in the military) via the United States Department of Agriculture and the Veteran Administration. Bankrate compares conventional, VA, and FHA loans.

Filed under: Finance, Housing, Economics

In a week of untempered remarks and a freefalling economy, the Buzz took time to coo over secret weddings and July babies.

I'm Sorry, Were You Listening to Me Speak?
Once in a great while, the desire to speak freely takes over a politician—it's just the timing isn't always right. That impulse hit former aspiring presidential candidate Jesse Jackson when he threatened Barack Obama's machismo during a Fox News interview break. The reverend, whose searches catapulted more than 35,000%, issued multiple mea culpas. And while Obama accepted the apology, Jackson's own son wasn't so forgiving. Meanwhile, contender John McCain put a 10-foot pole between himself and remarks made by former senator (and current adviser) Phil Gramm, who described America as a "nation of whiners." McCain apparently learned from the jab wife Cindy gave him after his Iran cigarette wisecrack, something President George Bush could have benefited from before his G8 Summit joke, "goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."

In Case You Didn't Notice the Recession
In another sign that the recession gods are miffed, the Dow dropped to a new two-year low after worries over new oil price highs and the precarious positions of mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. More good news/bad news hit with a report that foreclosures this June were up 53% over June of 2007. As Congress inched closer this week to approving bailouts for homeowners, those trying to buy are finding lending practices far too onerous.

First Comes the Carriage...
OK! Magazine had a cover story with Jamie Lynn Spears revealing why motherhood is all worthwhile, without once mentioning the reported $1 million payoff for first pics of her baby. In new baby news, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban (this week's sole wedded parents) sprayed their girl with whipped cream, sprinkled nuts, and plopped down a maraschino cherry. Well, OK, they just named her Sunday (as in the day) after she was born on Monday. Camila Alves and Matthew McConaughey named their Monday child Levi. Meanwhile, please stop bothering Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.

...Then the Celebrity Marriage (and Divorce)
DeAnna Pappas ended this season of "The Bachelorette" with her choice, but she doesn't have to stick with him—as 2003 "Bachelor" Andrew Firestone showed in marrying Ivana "no-I'm-not-Jen-Schefft" Bozilovic. Among higher ranking celebrities, secret weddings were in, as in singer Olivia Newton-John's two ceremonies on the sly and Ethan Hawke's June wedding to his kids' former nanny. Hawke's ex-wife, Uma Thurman, celebrated her recent engagement and retracted her "I'll never get married" vow, now taken up by newly divorced Christie Brinkley.

Filed under: Weddings, Politics, Celebrities, Recaps, Housing, Babies, Week in Review, Economics