pt st lucie

PT ST LUCIE - Home of Sharon Kelly Real Estate

Welcome to one of the friendliest places on earth and the BEST place to purchase the home of your dreams, Pt St Lucie, Florida.  Call Sharon today at 772-971-6747 for the best prices on the best homes available in Pt St Lucie.

Port St Lucie Real Estate

Port St Lucie Real Estate by Sharon Kelly

Please call Sharon direct for the best pricing in St Lucie County on Foreclosed Properties, REO’s, and all Port St Lucie Real Estate.

If you have questions or need help please call Sharon at (772) 971 - 6747.

Port St Lucie Commercial Property 1186 Gatlin Blvd

2 Professional Commercial Buildings for sale - Gatlin Blvd. PSL   $500,000

2,604 Square Foot & 2,401 Square Foot
Professional Offices
Port St. Lucie, FL

Call Sharon today for more info 772-971-6747 or Chris Dalfo at  772-528-9956

Homebuyer Tax Credit Update & Information

What you should know about the

Homebuyer Tax Credit

Special Rules for Members of the Military, the Foreign Service and the Intelligence Community

Recognizing their unique circumstances, Congress approved exceptions that give qualified members of the military, Foreign Service and intelligence communities an extra year to buy a home and claim the federal homebuyer tax credit. The exceptions apply to both the $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers and the $6,500 tax credit for existing homeowners who purchase another home.

Extension of Tax Credit Rules

• The homebuyer tax credit extension is available for qualified purchases with a binding sales contract in place on or before April 30, 2011, and closed by June 30, 2011. Qualified service members (and if married, the service members’ spouses) who served on official extended duty outside the U.S. for 90 days or more at any time between Jan. 1, 2009, and April 30, 2010, are eligible.

• A person forced to return to the U.S. for medical reasons before completing an assignment of at least 90 days of qualified official extended duty outside the U.S. may also qualify for the one-year extension.

Exemption from Tax Credit Recapture Rules

Typically, homes that are sold or that cease to be used as a principal residence within three years of the initial purchase are subject to recapture (repayment) of the tax credit. However, qualified service members who sell or move from a tax credit home within three years of the initial purchase due to official extended duty assignments are exempt from the recapture rule.

Definitions: Qualified service member means a member of the uniformed services of the U.S military, a member of the U.S. Foreign Service or an employee of the intelligence community. Official extended duty means any period of extended duty outside the U.S. for at least 90 days during the period between Jan. 1, 2009, and April 30, 2010.

Note: Only one spouse must be overseas on official extended duty for the requisite amount of time for either spouse to be eligible for the 2011 extension to purchase a principal residence and claim the credit.

Port Saint Lucie Short Sales

Port st lucie short sales

Home debt a problem for many in st lucie county

Article Courtesy Lisa Gibbs, senior writerMay 5, 2010: 4:28 AM ET

(Money Magazine) — A transfer in 2005 landed Air Force major Richard Hallbeck, his wife, and two kids in Southern California smack in the middle of the real estate bubble. Home prices in the area had doubled in the past five years and were still climbing. So the Hallbecks swallowed hard and bought an $845,000 four-bedroom in a suburb of Long Beach.

The $3,800 monthly payment was high but affordable on two incomes. (Laurie, now 37, worked as a claims adjuster.) And they figured the market was so strong that when they had to move again, they’d at least break even. “Our house actually appraised over what we paid for it,” Richard, 42, recalls wistfully.

Since then, area sale prices have fallen 26% — when properties sell at all. Meanwhile, the recession cost Laurie her job, and the payment on the couple’s adjustable-rate mortgage will jump $800 in July. Next year Richard will face mandatory retirement from the Air Force, and his pension will be a third of his current $117,000 income.

All that’s got the Hallbecks anxious to move to a more affordable city — like Dayton, where they used to live. But they’re just as anxious about how much they could lose on the sale of their house.

A similar home down the street lists for $655,000, $21,000 less than the Hallbecks’ outstanding mortgage. At that price, the couple would be out $231,000, including their down payment and closing costs. “The stress has really worn on us,” Richard says.

Nationwide, about one in four home mortgages are now underwater, meaning borrowers owe more than their places are worth. No surprise, California and other bubbly states — Nevada, Arizona, and Florida — lead the nation.

While a bevy of new federal programs aim to help, underwater owners who want to move still face uncomfortable choices: Postpone the move and continue sinking money into a pit; sell for a loss, forfeiting the down payment and some savings to close the deal; desperately try to enter into a short sale; or simply walk away and face the consequences of foreclosure. If you (or your kids) are in this situation, here’s how to think about the options.

Keep on keeping on

If you don’t have to move and can afford the payments, it probably makes sense to soldier on and wait for housing prices to recover, says Denver financial planner Ross Schmidt. Moody’s Economy.com projects that prices in 61% of metro areas will return to recent peak levels by 2015.

If you live in one of the harder-hit cities — which may take 20 years to rebound — and you’re more than 25% underwater, your house won’t be a financial asset anytime soon. But as long as you’re happy to stay in it for many years, that may not matter.

In the meantime, you may be able to cut your loan balance — and lower your payments — through a new federal program that refinances existing loans into smaller FHA loans. To qualify, you must be current on payments — but it’s up to the lender to agree to it.

The Hallbecks might have been eligible for some of this aid, but Laurie is eager to move with the kids by this fall, rather than waiting until Richard retires — which will be in the middle of the school year.

Beg the bank for a break

What if you need to get out of the house? The Hallbecks initially considered renting their place out. But they’d probably lose money, given the spread between their mortgage payment and rental prices. Becoming a landlord is a risk even in areas where you can cover carrying costs, as you’re still on the hook in between tenants, says Maryland financial planner Timothy Maurer.

A cleaner option may be to ask your lender for a short sale, in which it would accept less than the loan amount. To convince the bank, homeowners must show they’re at risk of default because they can’t make payments or are so deep underwater that they’re likely to bail. (With $155,000 in savings outside of retirement accounts, it’s unlikely the Hallbecks will qualify.)

It can take months to arrange a short sale, if you’re successful at all. So for best results, work with a “distressed-property specialist,” a real estate agent who has experience negotiating with lenders. At realtor.com, select “SFR” under Find a Realtor to search for this type of specialist.

Also seek free advice from a certified mortgage consultant, whom you can find via makinghomeaffordable.gov, suggests Melinda Opperman, of Springboard Nonprofit Consumer Credit Management. Such an adviser can help you determine whether your loan type allows the bank to come after you for money later. He or she can also help ensure the loan is reported as “settled” to the credit bureaus. A mortgage listed as “settled for less than agreed” can damage your score the way a foreclosure would.

Speaking of foreclosure, University of Arizona law professor Brent White says walking away may make sense financially if you’re more than 40% underwater and could rent a similar house for less than your mortgage bill. But doing so has consequences, not the least of which may be a guilty conscience. Foreclosure stays on your credit report seven years — and can cut a 780 score an average of 150 points, per Fair Isaac. That can affect everything from your insurance premiums to your employment potential to your future ability to buy a house.

Eat the loss yourself

For the Hallbecks, the best — and fastest — option may be simply selling the house and paying any difference between the sale price and the mortgage out of pocket, says Maurer. That is a good, if not particularly palatable, choice for homeowners who have significant savings and aren’t deeply underwater. Selling this way eliminates any credit risks.

Florida Given Only Weeks to Plan 1.5 Billion Federal Foreclosure Funding

Five states including Florida rush plans for $1.5B in housing funds

PHOENIX—The five states hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis have been given only weeks to plan how to spend $1.5 billion in federal funding announced by the Obama administration last month.Guidelines issued under the U.S. Treasury Department’s Fund for Hardest Hit Housing Markets on March 5 gave housing finance agencies in California, Arizona, Florida, Nevada and Michigan just six weeks to come up with plans on how to spend their share of the money.

The rush could be problematic for the states, especially because Treasury is seeking “innovative” measures to help families facing foreclosure. But some experts have been urging the administration to try the approach, believing it will be helpful and that it can be done quickly.

“This is long overdue, allowing the use of more innovative techniques,” said Ken Rosen, a real estate professor at University of California at Berkeley’s Hass School of Business.

The guidelines give wide leeway to the state Housing Finance Agencies charged with doling out the money to design programs tailored to their region’s circumstance. The money can be spent, for example, to help families who can’t pay their mortgages because of job losses, unable to refinance because plunging home values have left them “underwater,” or to give relief from second mortgage payments.

California’s Housing Finance Agency, for example, is looking at areas of the state that have been hardest hit, like the Central Valley and Inland

Empire area southeast of Los Angeles, spokesman Ken Giebel said. The agency is getting the most cash, $700 million.It will have to start from scratch with plans on how to help unemployed homeowners, for instance, and how to get the money from the federal government to the state government to the actual underwriter.

“None of this stuff is in writing, it’s all up in the air right now,” Giebel said.

Rosen suggested allowing the value of a home that is worth less than the homeowner owed to be written off, replacing that amount with a second mortgage that wouldn’t have to be paid off unless the home rose enough in value.

The homeowner would then share in the profits, providing an incentive to stay in the home. He also said programs to allow the unemployed to forgo payments for a year, with those payments wrapped into a second mortgage, would be helpful.

“There’s a lot of innovative ideas and I’m hoping we have a lot of smart people in each state who know them; I know we do in California,” Rosen said. “So I think there’s plenty of time.”

Florida is getting the second-largest share at $418 million.

Cecka Rose Green, communications director for the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, said her agency is just starting to review the Treasury requirements, but has put a team together and is reviewing programs other agencies are using. They’re looking at plans that have helped in other states and will likely cherry-pick the best.

“I think we’re taking those important first steps but we’re not close to getting any details of a plan out,” she said Friday.

Michigan is getting $154.5 million, Nevada $103 million and Arizona $125 million.

Arizona’s housing agency is also just getting started on a proposal and hasn’t identified how it might spend the money.

“I know we have a compressed time frame, but we are still looking at a number of ideas and I don’t know what we’ll be focusing on yet,” said state Department of Housing spokeswoman Kristina Fretwell.

Like other states’ officials interviewed for this story, Fretwell said there was no doubt that Arizona would get an application in by the April 16 deadline. Treasury will then spend several weeks reviewing the proposals, with a goal of getting the first cash to homeowners by summer.

The Obama administration’s plans to aid homeowners who fall behind on their payments have been problematic. The biggest effort, the Making Home Affordable program, has helped only about 16 percent of the borrowers who signed up since its launch last year. Figures released by the Treasury Department on Friday showed that as of last month, about 170,000 homeowners had had their payments reduced permanently, of which nearly 77,000 were in the five hardest hit states. About 1.1 million have enrolled in the plan overall.

Not all academics who have studied the real estate crisis agree that spending more money trying to keep people in their homes is a smart idea.

“The solution we all know that has to be done—and this sounds harsh—the borrowers have to be allowed to move through foreclosure and the houses have to be put on the market so we can get to the bottom of this mess,” said Anthony Sanders, a real estate professor at George Mason University who has testified before Congress on the foreclosure crisis.

Sanders called the $1.5 billion both too little and too much—too little, because the housing crisis has hit so many homeowners that $1.5 billion is tiny compared to the need, and too much because it targets homeowners who really can’t afford to be in their home anyway.

He pointed to the more that 70 percent of homeowners who went back into default after government mortgage relief efforts.

He also criticized letting state housing finance agencies, which are designed to help low- and middle-income borrowers, decide how to spend the money.

“To think that state agencies, who are not very good at this, are going to come up with an innovation is just kind of wishful thinking.”

The new program announced by President Barack Obama in February is meant to get more help to states where housing prices have declined by at least 20 percent.

“The biggest reason and rationale for the timeline is the urgency of the issue,” Treasury spokeswoman Andrea Risotto said. “We want to try to get relief out to these homeowners as quickly as we can.”

Sharon J Kelly agrees that now is the time to buy 2010 Real Estate in Port St Lucie

What is the Obama loan modification plan all about?

Even if you are not delinquent on your payments, you can still file for an Obama loan modification help if you are facing a financial hardship. Fannie Mae offers early loan workouts to borrowers who face financial difficulties. Even if these borrowers have never been late on their payments, Fannie Mae will offer early loan workouts to help those in need. If you are a qualified homeowner, it is unnecessary for you to have damaged credit scores due to late payments to get the help that you need.

With today’s economy, thousands of people face lay offs and struggle to make their monthly payments on their mortgages. In the past, it was a general requirement that a homeowner had to be 60 to 90 days late on their mortgage payments in order to be considered for a loan modification. This strict policy caused many borrowers to have backed up bills which caused an additional financial hardship. In turn, this huge balance that has been racked up was unaffordable by most homeowners.

If a buyer is able to show his lender that he/she is in danger of defaulting on his/her payments, then their lender will offer them a period of reduced payment for about 3 to 4 weeks. If these new lower payments are all made on time then this reduced payment plan could turn into a more permanent basis. Another thing a buyer can do is prepare for the future if they know that there will be a financial issue. If this is the case, the buyer can contact their lender and apply for a Obama loan modification which will help them out when this financial issue takes place. For example, if a borrower takes a pay cut and will no longer be able to afford their current payment plan, their lender could take this pay cut into consideration and give the borrower a new lower monthly payment plan.

What you must remember is that all lenders will carefully review each borrower’s application and case to make sure that they are in need of a loan modification.  As a homeowner, you will have to submit the correct paperwork, as well as give proof of your current income. This information will help the lender give you your own personalized loan modification. To assure that you have the best possible chances of approval, it is recommended that you learn how to properly complete all the necessary forms.

If you are a homeowner who knows that you will face future payment issues, now is the time to act and apply for a Obama loan modification.  If you think you need to have missed payments to be qualified for a Obama loan modification you are wrong. If you are interested, it is recommended that you begin to research, learn and prepare so that obtaining your end goal is easier for you.

For more information on your current situation and viable alternatives to foreclosure, call 1-800-778-8335.

Difference in a Forbearance Agreement and a Loan Modification

Many individuals confuse a mortgage modification with a forbearance agreement. A forbearance agreement is when a financial institution lets a homeowner not make monthly payments or apply an adjusted mortgage payment for a specific time period. Any interest or late fees that remain unpaid at this point in time will be attached to the loan principal. The financial institution will stop the foreclosure process while in this time frame. This lets the homeowner try to get back on track from their financial problem and allowing them to stay in their home. Many mortgage companies will need homeowners to fill out a forbearance document. This forbearance document is sometimes a bit difficult to complete.

Forbearance agreements can differ greatly from one institution to another. Some financial institutions need the homeowner to supply a tiny monthly installment to help make up the missed payments on top of the regular mortgage payment amount. Let’s say that your regular mortgage payment is $2200.00 a month and you did not make a total of three payments. Your financial institution may ask you to submit an extra amount of $200.00 a month on top of your regular payment of $2200.00. This extra amount is then used towards the payments you did not make. This will continue until your account is paid up to date.
Some forbearance agreements will have the homeowner not make any payments at all for a certain amount of time. This will give the homeowner more time to get back on track. The missed payments and all applicable interest will be tacked on the the principal amount of the loan. The regular terms of the loan will be back in place upon the start of the regular monthly payments.

Other forbearance agreements let the homeowner to stop making monthly mortgage payments all together for a fixed period of time. This allows the homeowner to get back on his/her feet. Any missed mortgage payments and interest are added to the loan principal. The normal terms of the mortgage are back in effect once the monthly mortgage payments start again.

 

Considering Home Loan Modification? Read Through These Basic Facts

Mortgage Modification really means a permanent change in one or more of the terms of your home loan allowing it to be changed so that you have a lower payment.

Read through the following to determine whether home loan modification is right for you:

• This service is a viable option when the rate or terms of your current home loan make it impossible for you to continue making the payments, thus risking losing your home.
• Mortgage modification is not synonymous with debt consolidation, refinancing loans, or even forbearance. Your lender is agreeing to change the terms of your mortgage originally agreed to when you closed on your home or refinanced.
• Mortgage modifications stop foreclosure proceedings and put you back in good standing with your lender. There are some other facts that explain why lenders actually want to work with you to negotiate a loan modification.

The good thing about loan modification is that you can roll the principal and interest, past due escrow, and late fees into the mortgage modification and thus will not be lost revenue to the lender. Loan modifications may use a step rate approach or an extended term methodology to allow you to repay and get up to speed on your mortgage. It’s a win win situation - as you get more time to pay, and your lender gets more overall interest!

Steer Clear of Foreclosure with a Home Loan Modification

Mortgage lenders don’t want to foreclose on you any more than you want it to happen. Face it - they’re not in the real estate business - they are in the banking business. They’d much rather work with you to modify your home loan. Loan modification lets you spare your credit score the major damage it would take from a foreclosure. And, if you don’t know it yet, let me tell you: Your credit score is your key to the kingdom, so to speak - so keeping it in good shape should always be your goal.

Here are the requirements you must meet in order to be considered a good candidate for a loan modification process to be started on your behalf:

• Your monthly mortgage must be impacted by a verifiable reduction in income
• You must be currently employed or have another source of verifiable, stable and predictable monthly income
• The home loan you wish to modify must be for your primary residence

If your current mortgage payments are too much for you to handle, don’t panic. If you have the ability to pay your mortgage at a lower rate, loan modification may very well be a viable way for you to stay out of foreclosure.

 

For more loan modification information and other foreclosure options, call 1-800-778-8335.

 

 

Article source:  Ezine

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