(AKA, Real Estate Insider Info that’s rolled across my desk this week.)
- Are mortgage rates still cheap? I’d say so. This week’s 30-year fixed mortgage rate: 4.875%.
- Care to know how many Picocuries per liter of Radon you have wafting up from the earth into your lovely home? Greg Pohlman of Complete Home Inspection Services offers $25 off radon testing (and any other Home Inspection Service; ie. thermal imaging for energy loss) by ordering online at www.completehomeus.com. He’s also rolled back his price for a Single Family Home Inspection by $25 to $50, if you need one of those too. H
e’s a good guy. - Need more income to get a mortgage? I don’t have a job for you but there is a new statewide twist at making ownership more affordable. Heard of CHFA? They’re the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority and they’ve created a Mortgage Credit Certificate (CHFA MCC).This is how it works: With one of these babies, 20% of y
our annual mortgage interest is treated as a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit. The remaining 80% still qualifies as an itemized deduction. For example, let’s say you have a 30-year $140,000 mortgage at a 6% fixed interest rate. You would have paid $8,353 in interest for the year. 20% of that is $1,671. So $1,671 gets taken right off the amount of tax you owe. And this is an annual credit for the life of the loan. Sounds good, huh? But of course they’re not just giving these things away. You have to qualify.
So who qualifies? Someone that meets all of the following requirements:
- You either, a) can’t have owned a home as a primary residence for the past three years (i.e. first-time homebuyer), b) must be a veteran, or c) be refinancing an adjustable rate mortgage on a single family home made between Jan. 1, 2002 and Dec. 31st, 2007.
- Must use the home as your principle residence.
- Must have a FICO score of 580 or more.
- In Routt County the purchase price can’t be greater than $417,000, and the income for a 1-2 person household can’t be greater than $80,600 ($92,600 for 3+ person household).
Anyone still with me? Congratulations! You win!
Okay, but there can be a catch (of course).
If you sell your home in the first nine years (that’s right – nine) you may be subject to the Federal Recapture Tax if your income goes up substantially and you make a lot of money on the home sale. Then you’d owe a portion of the tax credit back off your profits upon the sale of your home.
Read the fine print, talk to your accountant, and hey every little bit counts!