Charlotte Information - Living in North Carolina

Regulators for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac cut these companies' surplus capital requirement to help expand their combined $1.5 trillion in mortgage investments and to boast the U.S. home-loan market.

The requirement was lowered to 20% from 30%, states the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. The government-chartered companies, the largest sources of monies for home loans, also agreed to raise a ``significant'' amount of new capital.

The initiative may immediately add $200 billion into the mortgage-backed securities market. Combined with a lifting of portfolio caps on March 1 and the companies' existing capabilities, this should allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy or guarantee about $2 trillion in mortgages a year going forward. This will go a long way to stabilizing the home loan markets.

The highest increases in Union County median home values ranged from Marvin village to Marshville township, according to the county's latest revaluation figures.

Unincorporated Vance and Jackson townships were at the top of  the list of areas with the greatest jumps in median home values, at 64% and 37% respectively. The village of Marvin had a 36% increase. Three unincorporated townships also saw jumps: Goose Creek, 32%; Sandy Ridge, 31%; and Marshville, 31%.

While still respectable, Hemby Bridge at 8% was the only town that didn't see a double-digit increase in its median home values. The towns of Monroe, Wingate and Marshville each saw a 13% increase and Lake Park a 14% increase.

Most homeowners across the county will see the percentage of their home values climb by double digits.

The size of loans that can be guaranteed by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae has been raised by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. The new, higher loan limits will stay in effect through the end of 2008, allowing these government sponsored enterprises to purchase much higher-priced mortgages in some areas of the country. In Charlotte, the FHA mortgage loan limit that this agency can now purchase is up to $303,750.

Conforming loan limits remain unchanged for now in Charlotte. The fact that the conforming loan limit size did not change speaks more to a market in the Charlotte-metro area that appreciated in an orderly fashion and did not experience the froth and speculation that went on in areas of California and Florida, among others.

Before we all curse the ups and downs of housing market, we should take solace in our federal tax code, which makes buying a home a good deal for almost everyone.

Mortgage interest deductions, including in some cases mortgage insurance premiums, reduce a home owners’ tax liability by reducing their taxable income. The deduction includes interest paid on both a first and a second home. Also, interest on home equity loans is deductible with no stipulations on its use.

Profits from selling a home are potentially quite beneficial. When a home owner sells a primary residence, profit on the sale of the property is tax free up to $250,000 for owners filing single returns and $500,000 for owners filing joint returns. Any profit above that is nearly always a long-term capital gain taxed at 15% or less if the seller’s tax rate is less than 20%.

Home owners can also itemize, which opens up opportunities to deduct many other items that wouldn’t be deductible if the taxpayer took the standard deduction.

Mint Hill Commissioners voted for a new land use plan for the town, which would guide planning decisions for at least the next twenty years in residential and business developments.

After a 3-2 vote, the aging town hall will be torn down and a new building with more office space will take its place. Commissioners also discussed instituting business licenses and giving more force to the ordinance that addresses town code violations.

The town's last land use plan was created in 2000 and has remained largely untouched. The changes are needed because of the growth Mint Hill has experienced -- in the residential and business sectors -- and new growth on the horizon.

North Carolina existing home sales remained consistent with the preceding months with an 18% decrease in percentage of units sold compared to the previous year.

According to statistics compiled by the North Carolina Association of REALTORS®, 8,247 units were sold in December 2007.  Total sales dollars for the month were $1,793,479,674 and the average existing home sales price was down 1% to $217,471 compared to December 2006.

The national housing downturn and resulting chance of recession have raised interest in housing industry reports. However, how those numbers play out in the Charlotte market can be hard to judge.

The national permitting and construction numbers are not directly comparable to local information. Neither are home sales figures, which reported a decline for the Charlotte market last month. Experts have said the region has maintained better than most as house prices have continued appreciating, based on national indexes.

Is this the right time to buy a house? There are many available, often discounted. Interest rates remain low. As always, your specific needs are the best guide. Do you need a bigger or smaller home? Can you afford a house and the upkeep? Moves based on lifestyle changes should still be considered in this market. Over time, a home is still likely to be a wise expenditure.

More than half of mortgage holders who have missed payments are still not aware of ways to avoid foreclosure, but the percentage is falling. Research from Freddie Mac concludes that 57percent of delinquent borrowers fall into this category, down from 61 percent just a couple of years agao

"Efforts to get mortgage holders to call their lenders and counselors are starting to have an effect. Too many borrowers are still not aware their mortgage servicers provide alternatives," states a Freddie Mac spokesperson.

Both the percentage of delinquent borrowers who contacted their mortgage lenders and the percentage who say their lenders contacted them have increased since 2005. While 59 percent said the lender communication was helpful, nearly 25 percent said the contact was "intimidating" or "confusing."

The winners in the economic stimulus plan that passed the Congress this week and awaits the President's signature are middle- and upper-income Americans who can refinance their jumbo home loans at more attractive rates.

The plan temporarily raises the maximum size of mortgages that Fannie and Freddie can purchase and market as securities from $417,000 to as high as $729,750 in many parts of the country. The plan makes a similar change for loans backed by FHA, which insures loans to borrowers with weaker credit.

Now, borrowers in many parts of the country are "really stuck between a rock and a hard place," says Mark Vitner, senior economist with Wachovia Corp. Raising the dollar, Vitner says, will result in an acceleration in refinancing activity for those properties.

The closing sale price of existing single-family homes in Charlotte-Metro recorded the biggest growth rate in the U.S. in November, 2007. Charlotte recorded a 2.9% increase year-over-year while most of the rest of the country suffered closing price declines, according to the leading home-price index. Charlotte, Seattle and Portland, Oregon, were the only housing markets to show positive returns from twenty major metropolitan areas.

Charlotte has dodged most of the rapid price inflation seen in other major home markets nationwide. The region is one of nine markets out of forty-one where housing prices have not radically outpaced incomes

Residential housing development in the Charlotte region was driven by employment growth, instead of real estate propping up a local economy with temporary construction and development jobs.

Charlotte-Metro statistics are in contrast to a composite of the 20 regions, which recorded an annual drop of 7.7% in the closing sales price of existing single-family homes in November, 2007.