As it sits right now the tax credit for 1st time and move-up home buyers expires today. (There’s always the possibility that congress could extend the credit, or move forward with another incentive but it doesn’t appear anything is in the works.) For those eligiable home buyers with a binding contract to purchase a qualifying home, you have until June 30 to close in order to claim the credit. The past 2 months has seen much higher demand for homes in the under $300,000 market segment boosted at least in part by the tax credit. How much? There’s currently 77 homes with a pending purchase contract in the Clatsop MLS, or about 15% of the total inventory. Of the 77 pending sales, about 64% of the homes are listed for under $300,000. That’s not much of a change from the past several months but it is a welcomed increase in activity for homes in the $250,000-$300,000 price range. That market segment has been soft for the past several months, but does appear to be improving if the current trend continues.
A look back: First Quarter- 2010
There were 76 closed home sales in the MLS for January-March 2010, compared with just 40 for the same period last year. Of those sales, 9 closed for more than $500,000 and 42 closed for less than $250,000.
