Word: creditability
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...looming expiration of two major federal programs - the home-buyer tax-credit initiative and the Federal Reserve's $1.25 trillion mortgage-securities-purchase program - likely won't wipe out the recovery currently under way in the battered housing sector, but it could stall it, experts...
...other expiring program - the federal home-buyer tax-credit program, which offered an $8,000 credit to first-time home buyers - was so successful at luring home shoppers into the decimated market last year that the government extended it into 2010 and expanded it to include a $6,500 credit for non-first-time buyers. About 2 million families used the credit in 2009, and an additional 2.2 million to 2.4 million will take advantage of it this year, according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist with the National Association of Realtors. Approximately 800,000 of the transactions have involved home...
...Analysts expect a surge in home-buying activity in the coming weeks as Americans rush to take advantage of the tax-credit program before its April 30 contract deadline. (Under the program, a contract must be signed by April 30 and the home closed by June 30.) Expect lobbying efforts calling for the credit to be extended a second time to escalate as the expiration date draws closer - similar to what happened in the weeks leading up to the first expiration date. But not all experts are on board. Jay Brinkmann, chief economist with the Mortgage Bankers Association, says...
...Together, the federal programs baited buyers into the market at a time when unemployment exceeded 10% and the credit markets had seized up. Indeed, sales of existing homes have climbed year over year for eight consecutive months, reversing 43 consecutive months of decline. Curran expects housing starts to rise to 620,000 in 2010, from 540,000 in 2009. However, he notes that the 2010 projection is still far short of the 2005 peak of 2.1 million...
...There are already signs of how fragile the rebound truly is. The latest month-over-month data show sales have slowed in recent months despite low mortgage rates and the home-buyer tax-credit program. New and existing home sales fell 2.2% and 0.6% respectively from January to February, and unsold inventory rose 9.5% during the same period. Some of February's sluggishness could be explained by cold, snowy weather that blasted the Eastern seaboard, but the precise impact of this is hard to know...