Just What Does the Stimulus Bill Mean for Buyers and Sellers....

So here's what we Realtors have achieved with regard to the Stimulus Bill:

1) Loan limits will be raised to $727,000 in high cost areas,
2) The tax credit will be raised to $8,000 with NO payback (a true credit!)
3) Interest rates have come down 125-150 basis points
4) The Stimulus bill has over $50 billion in it for foreclosure mitigation, with Geitners Treasury plan signaling that the second half of TARP and TALF will be used to mitigate foreclosures through a government guarantee, drive down interest rates by buying another $200-300 billion of mortgage paper from the GSES's thereby freeing them up to do the same with new mortgages, and Fannie has just agreed to lift the cap of 4 investment properties eligible for loans and raise it to 10.

In addition, we preserved what we already have - which some tend to forget is always on the table when these negotiations start up again - mortgage interest deductability, real estate tax deductability, and the $250,000/$500,000 cap gains exclusion (an overall package worth more than $100 billion and for some a very attractive funding source for their pet projects).

So hopefully this will be a great start for our housing market turnaround.