Now May Be The Time For First Time Buyers

The federal government stopped their generous tax break of $8000 at the end of April of 2010 but in California at least, first time home buyers have an alternative choice. The state of California, under an initiative from glad-handers and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger have extended and expanded the California first time home buyers ‘ tax credit to $10,000 at least through 2011. This is good news for many Californians and actually covers more than first time house purchasers but to all who purchase brand new or pre-existing homes this coming year. This superb motivation should help to renew a home purchasing market that has dropped precipitously in the last 2 – 3 years because of the bursting of the real estate market bubble.

For first time house buyers there has never been a better time to buy though they need to manage their expectations. Home values have dropped in California and rates are at all time lows. The key problem remains the availability of credit and the undeniable fact that banks have made it really troublesome for borrowers to qualify. This was a reaction to the too loose lending practices of the last 10 years which led on to the wave of repossessions that have endangered our economy. Lenders have money to loan, but they have placed super tight limitations on giving loan approvals. Most banks need very high credit scores and steady, rock-solid work as well as seasoned assets.

There are a lot of first time house purchasers down payment assistance programs available, especially in California that are well worth looking into. In the San Francisco Bay Area plenty of the counties and cities have cooperated on bringing these great programs to customers. In the City of Alameda for example, first time home purchasers who have got a combined household salary of less than 80% of the median income for the county may qualify for a loan amount maximum of $80,000. The payments are deferred for 15 years at which time there is a balloon payment due. No interest is calculated for the 1st 5 years and after the town takes a proportion of shared appreciation. This is a second position loan.

In the city of Antioch, where you can get a massive house for very little money, first time home buyers may qualify for down-payment help of nearly $30,000. Once again there's a shared appreciation clause that permits the purchaser to sell the house at a future date and pay a little of the accrued appreciation equity back to the city.

Besides the city programs, the State of California under the CalHFA department offers great help programs like CHDAP which should give up to $15,000 in assistance for first time house buyers. You can stack all of these programs including MCCs or Mortgage Credit Certificates which are credits of 15% of the interest charges made on home loans. This helps many borrowers to qualify by effectively raising their take home pay.

To find out more about new homes sales incentives visit the online property and real-estate resource at Which Property Mentor

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