Twin Cities Housing Market

The Monthly Skinny is a summary of the Twin Cities housing market activity. Good news is that the market is actually on a slight uptick. The video below highlights the latest numbers.

Thanks to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have issued a notice to its loan servicing organizations and retained foreclosure attorneys directing them to suspend foreclosure sales on occupied single-family properties as well as the completion of evictions from occupied single-family properties scheduled to occur from November 26, 2008 until January 9, 2009.

Not only will this give homeowners a break for the holidays, the suspension will help mortgagers to implement the Streamlined Modification Program and hoepfully to give servicers more time to help borrowers avoid foreclosure.

Fannie’s streamlined modification program is aimed at the highest risk borrower who has missed three payments or more, owns and occupies the primary residence, and has not filed for bankruptcy. The program creates a fast-track method for getting troubled borrowers into an affordable monthly payment through a mix of reducing the mortgage interest rate, extending the life of the loan or even deferring payments on part of the principal.

Freddie Mac servicers and foreclosure attorneys were told to contact as quickly as possible an estimated 6,000 borrowers with foreclosure sales scheduled between November 26, 2008 and January 9, 2009. If the property is occupied, the servicers and foreclosure attorneys will halt the sale. This temporary suspension of foreclosure sales will not apply to vacant single family properties.

Hope for Homeowners

Yesterday, the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Steve Preston announced that the HOPE for Homeowners approved changes to the program to help more distressed borrowers refinance into affordable, government-back mortgages. The changes will reduce the program costs for consumers and lenders alike while also expanding eligibility by driving down the borrower's monthly mortgage payments.

Modifications to HOPE for Homeowners include:

• Increasing the loan to value ratio (LTV) to 96.5 percent for some H4H loans;
• Simplifying the process to remove subordinate liens by permitting upfront payments to lienholders; and
• Allowing lenders to extend mortgage terms from 30 to 40 years.

HOPE for Homeowners will continue to only offer affordable, government-insured fixed rate mortgages. Further, this program will maintain FHA's long-standing requirement that new loans be based on a family's long-term ability to repay the mortgage. Only owner-occupants are eligible for FHA-insured mortgages.

You can learn more on the HUD web site.

Good and Green Showhouse at the Mall of America

Looking for an excuse to go to the Mall of America these days? The Good & Green Showhouse is a 3,000-square-foot craftsman-style showhouse built in the mall that features stylish eco-friendly ideas that are easy on the environment and perfect for any home.

HOME Magazine is launching The 2008 Good & Green Showhouse at Mall of America this holiday season. The house will spotlight building materials, products and appliances that create a low environmental impact while maintaining high style. It will exemplify green living that is simple and attainable without sacrificing good design or state-of-the-art products.

Tours of the Good & Green Showhouse will run from November 28 to January 1 and are free and open to the public, with a $3 suggested donation. All proceeds from tour donations will benefit Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, which is building the Twin Cities's first LEED-certified Habitat for Humanity home in Crystal.

The Good & Green Showhouse Grand Opening Event will be on Friday, November 28 at 6:00 a.m. Gift bags will be given out to the first 250 guests in line to tour the house. You must be 18 years or older to receive a gift bag. There is a limit of one bag per person. You will also have the chance to win the following prizes that will be placed in select gift bags: 2009 People 150 Scooter provided by Scooterville Minnesota ($3,300 value), American Girl Doll and American Girl-themed Celebration ($540 value), Mall of America Attraction Gift Basket ($350 value), Columbia Gift Card ($300 value). Guests may start lining up in the Best Buy® Rotunda at 4:00 a.m. for the grand opening event.

View live footage fo the Good & Green Showhouse construction.

Personal Archive Tips

RISMedia recently sent out some great tips for saving newspaper articles. We though the tips were good enough to share. For some of us we’ll be using it to save historic headlines from recent Elections – for others this is a great way to preserve school reports and holiday projects that some home over the next month or two. Here are the tips:

• Keep papers in a cool, dry place.
• Keep it in a dark place
• Never put sticky notes or tape on the papers.
• Don’t place in a plastic bag – not even a zip-lock

First Time Buyer $7,500 IRS Tax Credit

Are you a first time homebuyer? Well, we may have some good news for you -- the $7,500 First-Time Buyer IRS Tax Credit included in the Housing and Recovery Act of 2008
Here’s the scoop:

Available for a limited time only, the credit:

• Applies to home purchases after April 8, 2008, and before July 1, 2009.
• Reduces a taxpayer’s tax bill or increases his or her refund, dollar for dollar.
• Is fully refundable, meaning that the credit will be paid out to eligible taxpayers, even if they owe no tax or the credit is more than the tax that they owe.

However, the credit operates much like an interest-free loan, because it must be repaid over a 15-year period. So, for example, an eligible taxpayer who buys a home today and properly claims the maximum available credit of $7,500 on his or her 2008 federal income tax return must begin repaying the credit by including one-fifteenth of this amount, or $500, as an additional tax on his or her 2010 return.

Learn more on the IRS site.

Find your Polls

New to the neighborhood? There are a couple of good places to find your voting polls:

• Google
• Minnesota Secretary of State

And remember in Minnesota you can register to vote on site!