Can you really look at a buyer today and tell them that they are buying their home at a good price?\u00a0 Sure, you can tell them how the price they are paying compares to what folks have been paying the last few months, or few years.\u00a0 But that doesn’t mean that what you are seeing is the true market price!\u00a0 The actual market price can’t be determined without a free market.\u00a0 Right now, we have anything but a free and stable market in real estate.<\/p>\n
Take the government’s free ice cream housing promotion<\/a>, also known as the Homebuyer Tax Credit.\u00a0 The issue I’m concerned about isn’t that it is going to cost taxpayers about 15 billion dollars if it is allowed to expire on November 30.\u00a0 Nor is the issue that it has cost $43,500 that we, our children and grandchildren will somehow have to pay for each new buyer attracted into the program according to the NAR numbers.\u00a0 The issue is it has artificially increased the value of homes in the market by $8000<\/a> and that will end on November 30th<\/sup>, or sometime.<\/p>\n So, that $250,000 home your client just bought and put a mortgage on is really only worth $242,000 when that market distortion is removed.\u00a0 With an FHA loan, and a program to use the tax credit for a down payment, guess who is already upside down in their purchase?\u00a0 Does this sound anything like the too recent past?<\/p>\n Our tax code is already heavily skewed towards home ownership.\u00a0 With our government’s current spending spree and their desire to raise taxes, could the sacred mortgage interest tax deduction eventually be reduced?<\/a><\/p>\n While that is probably not the immediate threat, the current rulers prefer government solutions to allowing the private market to function.\u00a0 Be it FHA<\/a> or State Housing Programs for low income borrowers<\/a>, a monetary policy of rock bottom interest rates and the mortgage interest deduction the programs and the proposals coming forth further distort the market.<\/p>\n This makes the biggest risk in a real estate investment strategy<\/a> or even a home purchase predicting the future changes in artificial supports to the market Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Can you really look at a buyer today and tell them that they are buying their home at a good price?\u00a0 Sure, you can tell them how the price they are paying compares to what folks have been paying the last few months, or few years.\u00a0 But that doesn’t mean that what you are seeing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[62,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-dirty-laundry","7":"category-real-estate","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":976,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/976\/overcharging-a-dedicated-realtor-is-a-bargain\/","url_meta":{"origin":9901,"position":0},"title":"Overcharging? A dedicated Realtor is a bargain . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Attorney Craig Blackmon issues a testy remark in a comment today, but the truth is, I could not be happier to discuss the underlying issue. Sez Craig:Well, it appears that even the \u201cfull service\u201d agents are overcharging just a wee bit. It turns out that a successful agent must rebate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":312,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/312\/the-fsbo-and-bubba-variety-hour-how-to-make-the-buyers-agents-dance\/","url_meta":{"origin":9901,"position":1},"title":"The FSBO and BUBBA variety hour: How to make the buyer’s agents dance . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 9, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Our friend, colleague and personal marketing god, Richard Riccelli is getting ready to FSBO his Boston townhouse. He's spent a year planning this down to the last detail, including condo-izing his property into two apartments so that they can be sold separately -- or together if someone wants a residence\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2198,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2198\/a-consumers-guide-to-the-divorced-real-estate-commission-were-just-sitting-here-at-the-closing-table-watching-the-money-flow\/","url_meta":{"origin":9901,"position":2},"title":"A consumer’s guide to the divorced real estate commission: We’re just sitting here at the closing table, watching the money flow","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Part III: The who-pays-whom of real estate is not as simple as you might have thought... All right, let's go buy a house. I want to talk about the flow of money in a real estate transaction, and there is no better way of understanding that flow than wading right\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":550,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/550\/smashing-the-idols-understanding-market-value-in-full-context\/","url_meta":{"origin":9901,"position":3},"title":"Smashing the idols: Understanding market value in full context . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Nominate me Ikonoklastes, for I am come to raze this temple of half-baked ideas. I want to come back to the MLS later in the week, and I have a deep need to expose the motivations of brokers, as these are distinguished from the motivations of lesser licensees. But for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1999,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1999\/ask-the-broker-how-can-the-seller-paying-the-buyers-brokers-commission-be-fair-to-the-seller\/","url_meta":{"origin":9901,"position":4},"title":"Ask the Broker: How can the seller paying the buyer’s broker’s commission be fair to the seller?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a truly fascinating question from an agent working in Nassau County, Long Island, New York. The idea of buyer brokerage is just being introduced there, and our interlocutor is understandably mystified:I am a bit confused, to say the very least. If I write up a listing contract with a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ask the Broker"","block_context":{"text":"Ask the Broker","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/ask-the-broker\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":301,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/301\/who-pays-when-seller-pays-closing-costs-the-buyer\/","url_meta":{"origin":9901,"position":5},"title":"Who pays when “seller pays closing costs”? The buyer . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 8, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"This is me in today's Arizona Republic (permanent link):Who pays when \"seller pays closing costs\"? The buyer... Not all of the phone calls I get in response to these columns are from angry Realtors. I like the calls I get from real people, rather than Realtors or brokers. Even so,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9901"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9904,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9901\/revisions\/9904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}