Yesterday I saw a for-sale sign in front of an upcoming REO listing. It made me wonder, “How many REO and short-sale listings of detached-homes have we had this year around NSDCC? Here are the counts:
REO: 5
Short Sales: 43
Non-distressed: 3,516
There’s not much chance of finding a deal these days!
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Here is the update on the Mortgage-Debt Tax Relief:
California finally caught up with the feds and extended the mortgage debt tax relief through 2013:
https://www.ftb.ca.gov/aboutFTB/press/2014/25_09022014.shtml
Here’s the update on the attempt by the U.S. Congress to extend the tax relief through 2015 – from NAR:
On April 3, 2014, the United States Senate Finance Committee approved a bipartisan bill that, if enacted, would reinstate more than 50 tax provisions that expired at the end of 2013. Among the real estate provisions included in the “extenders” package are tax relief for mortgage debt forgiveness, 15-year cost recovery for qualified leasehold improvements, election to expense certain qualified real property, and the deduction for energy efficient commercial buildings. Under the bill, all of these provisions would be retroactively extended to cover a period from January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2015.
In May, the tax extenders bill moved to the floor of the Senate where, unfortunately, it became bogged down over partisan election-year politics. Essentially, the Republicans and Democrats in the Senate came to a standoff regarding whether or not certain amendments should be allowed to be offered to the legislation. When the Democratic Majority Leader of the Senate refused to allow an open amendment process, Republicans exercised their rights to prevent the bill from moving to a vote. After almost two weeks of this wrangling, the Leader indicated that there is almost no hope of this bill being passed until after this fall’s elections.
NAR has been working on enactment of an extension of these important provisions since the previous temporary extension was passed on New Years’ Day 2013. The approval of the tax extenders bill by the Finance Committee demonstrated that these provisions have lots of support on both sides of the political aisle. However, the impasse on the Senate floor also shows that even bipartisan legislation can be held hostage to election year politics.
The lack of action on this issue in the House of Representatives is just as frustrating as the stand-off in the Senate. The House Ways and Means Committee, led by Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI), has decided to take a different approach than the Senate towards dealing with the expired tax provisions. Camp and his Republican colleagues have decided to concentrate on passing permanent extensions of only a few expired tax provisions that they believe are worthy of being made a perpetual part of the tax law. Unfortunately, the mortgage debt cancellation tax relief provision is seen by most as a temporary measure, which should be allowed to expire once the housing crisis has fully worked itself out.
http://www.realtor.org/articles/nar-issue-brief-mortgage-debt-cancellation-tax-relief
