DID YOU KNOW??????????

Here are some fun rankings that our city has received recently. I thought They would be fun to share.

1. Colorado Springs was named “DogTown USA 2008” by Dog Fancy Magazine. The criteria used to select the winning city included plenty of dog-friendly open spaces and dog parks, events celebrating dogs and their owners, high vet-to-dog ratios, abundant pet supply and other services, and municipal laws that support and protect all pets. (07/08)

2. Colorado ranked as the slimmest state for the 18th year in a row. MedMD Health News reports that Colorado cuts the leanest figure, with 18.7% of its adults in the obese range. (07/08)

3. Colorado Springs ranked 7th in the nation in the percentage of its work force employed in high-technology industries during 2006, according to a report by the American Electronics Association. (07/08)

4. Colorado Springs ranked 9th “Best Place to Raise a Family” by BestLife Magazine. Criteria for the study included a safe location, good schools with favorable student-teacher ratios, above-average test scores, plenty of museums, parks and pediatricians also contributed. (06/08)

5. Colorado ranked 3rd in the Milken Institute’s survey of how well states are nurturing a high-tech economy. (06/08)

To help clarify

This information can be found at:
http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/

It will help clarify the details on the new $7,500 tax credit that the president signed off on early this week.




Who is Eligible

The $7,500 tax credit is available for first-time home buyers only.

• The law defines a first-time home buyer as a buyer who has not owned a home during the past three years.

• All U.S. citizens who file taxes are eligible to participate in the program.
Income Limits
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Home buyers who file as single or head-of-household taxpayers can claim the full $7,500 credit if their adjusted gross income (AGI) is less than $75,000.

• For married couples filing a joint return, the income limit doubles to $150,000.

• Single or head-of-household taxpayers who earn between $75,000 and $95,000 are eligible to receive a partial first-time home buyer tax credit.

• Married couples who earn between $150,000 and $170,000 are eligible to receive a partial first-time home buyer tax credit.

• The credit is not available for single taxpayers whose AGI is greater than $95,000 and married couples with an AGI that exceeds $170,000.
Effective Dates for the Tax Credit
•
First-time home buyers would receive a $7,500 tax credit for the purchase of any home on or after April 9, 2008 and before July 1, 2009. To qualify, you must actually close on the sale of the home during this period.
Tax Credit is Refundable
•
A refundable credit means that if you pay less than $7,500 in federal income taxes, then the government will write you a check for the difference.

• For example, if you owe $5,000 in federal income taxes, you would pay nothing to the IRS and receive a $2,500 payment from the government.

• If you are due to receive a $1,000 tax refund from the government, your refund would grow to $8,750 ($1,000 plus $7,500 from the home buyer tax credit).

• Buyers can take the tax credit in their 2008 or 2009 tax return.

• If you purchased the home in 2008, the tax credit is taken on your 2008 tax return. If you buy in 2009, you have the option of taking the credit on your 2008 or 2009 tax returns.
Types of Homes that Qualify for the Tax Credit
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All homes, whether single-family, townhomes or condominium apartments will qualify, provided that the home will be used as a principal residence and the buyer has not owned a home in the prior three years. This also includes newly-constructed homes.
Payback Provisions
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The tax credit essentially serves as an interest-free loan to be repaid over 15 years.

• For example, a home buyer claiming a $7,500 credit would repay the credit at $500 per year. However, the buyer doesn’t have to start repaying the credit until two years after the tax year in which the credit is claimed.

• If the home owner sold the home, then the remaining credit would be due from the profit of the home sale.

• If there was insufficient profit, then the remaining credit payback would be forgiven.

Housing Bill awaits Predident Bush

I think that its great that congress has been working so hard to get these measures passed (click on title.) The tax incentives to buy property are going to bring more buyers out of the woodwork and the re-structuring of bad loans headed into foreclosure will help keep these properties from saturating the market. I can't wait to start seeing the effects of this and hopefully this will mean that we will start heading more upstream in the housing industry.

Rates go Up

Interest rates have now gone up to 6.68 percent on 30 year fixed loans and up to 6.18on 15 year fixed loans. The Fed is obviously getting very cautious about flirting with a rise in inflation. Hopefully some of this mess will start to balance itself out because the last thing we want is less and less people being able to qualify for a loan because of a over correction in the terms one must pass to qualify with underwriting.

A story to make you think

I came across this story today and I just had to comment on it (Click on title for link.) Here we have a gentlemen who openly admits making 25/hr by..........pan handling. The sign he holds says " OLD-TIRED-SICK-HUNGRY CREATIVE BROKE. "
Now I'm no financial genius but making 25/hr hardly characterizes somebody as "broke." Nor is he sick or hungry. This guy makes his money by deceiving us. Now I will give him credit for being brutally honest but this proves the problems with our welfare system. This guy isn't paying taxes, is receiving free health care and is able to eat for free via churches, shelters and food stamps. I would even wager that if this guy wanted to get a university education he would probably qualify to have a full ride grant. All of this while making 25 dollars and hour. WOW! I bring all of this up because (in my humble opinion) the government obviously can't control our welfare system so why would they be able to control our housing crisis. I'm curious to hear opinions on this.

Buyers emerging..... More and more

Data is starting to show that home buyers are starting to jump off of the fence and beginning to put in loan applications to buy property. While I think it's fair to say that this doesn't mean that the market is going to be experiencing an immediate rebound it is great to hear of some positive activity. With interest rates rising slightly, many buyers are wanting to get in on the current low rate while there still is time! More and more economists are saying that the market bottomed out (8) weeks ago and now the bar is starting to rise. GOOD NEWS!!!

City to raise property tax???

Here is a clarification from the mayor followed by my thoughts.
Lionel Rivera says:
As a point of clarification, when I used the term “shift” I mean just that. As an example; We could ask our citizens at a City election to replace the 0.4% Public Safety Sales Tax with a 5.32 mill levy. It would be the same dollar amount, but a more stable funding source.
Lionel Rivera-Mayor


Hmmmmm. I must admit that the property tax in Colorado Springs is low for the national average. One could also argue that it's a well known fact that we pay the second lowest amount in Taxes (just ahead of Fort Collins) even though we are the second largest city in the state. The problem with tax hikes here is that most businesses are considered "small" (82%.) These employers can rarely afford to give consistent raises and the employees who work for them have limited means. Are they going to be able to afford the hike? Maybe we could find a way to pay city council members a competitive salary. This would not only make the positions more competitive but we could vote people in who have experience in dealing with such huge community issues and they would work full time to boot! Right now we have the rich and/or retired folks on the council because they can actually afford to get paid the peanuts that we give them for the position. Don't get me wrong, there are some excellent leaders on the council (Jan Martin) but unfortunately, I don't see how we can grow and evolve without a full time and deservingly paid council. Let’s bring in efficiency experts that will go through our city and find any slack that is tying up (or wasting) funds. Tabor passed because the citizens were concerned that the city wasn't managing our money and taxes properly. Now the city is countering with the fact that they are now in the hole. Where is the middle ground and as citizens do we feel that our money has been managed properly?