Home sales in Dane county went up 14% in June

Home sales in Dane county went up 14% in June compared to a year ago, the Wisconsin state journal reported today. The increase is due to the expired federal government’s home buyer tax credit which expired for new contracts on April 30.
The MLS reports that 805 house and condominium sales for Dane county in June up 14% from 711 in June 2009, the median home sales price in the county was up 3% from last year, at 207,000 compared to 201,000 in 2009. At the same time year to date home prices went down by 1% compared to last year’s.
Condo sales went up 28% while house sales went up 9.2% in June, the MLS predicts that sales will be lower in the coming months of July and August, as the sales that took place in May and June will close down, many buyers have chosen to close earlier than they wanted, to take advantage of the Tax credit. This is great news for the city of Madison and the county as they both stand a chance to see their tax revenues go up.
Local agents have noticed that there is a drop in home buyers activities “showing activity and web activity are lower now” said agent Dan Miller of Keller Williams Realty, other counties in Wisconsin have had mixed results, as some counties have seen increased home sales and while other counties did not.
The home buyer tax credit helped push the increase even though it expired April, homebuyers had until June 30 to close the sale. “There is no question, the tax credit has had a significant impact on this market” said Re/Max CEO Margaret Kelly, “no one can predict the future and we may still see a slight pull pack, but for now it appears that housing is holding on its own, hopefully on the road to recovery”.
The house and the senate passed separate bills in late June to extend the June 30 deadline until September 30, due to backlogs in mortgage applications, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) says that as many as 180,000 buyers who signed valid contracts by April 30 may not be able to close by June 30, because their lenders are unable to process the loans on time.
The Washington post reports that the bill sponsors are hoping to attach the measure to a separate measure that would extend other tax breaks and the emergency unemployment funds, at this time it is not clear if the new extension will be passed, in order for home buyers that were unable to take advantage of the June 30 deadline get one more extension.