SECOND IN A SERIES
New homeowner Laura Weir of Minneapolis has been saving up for the day she could move into her own house since her college graduation.
Weir, 23, lived with her parents after graduation and managed to set aside enough money to recently purchase a foreclosed home off Lake Nokomis for $150,000.
The three-bedroom, two-bathroom home required $6,000 up front and $3,000 in repairs. But as a first-time homeowner, she also qualified for an $8,000 tax credit to make it more affordable.
Weir said there couldn’t be a better time to buy.
McKenna Ewen is a student journalist at the University of Minnesota. His entire project is available at TimesOfRecession.com.
I am a real estate professional and this story is playing out all over the Twin Cities at a feverish pitch. Home for sale under $200,000, in decent condition, is becoming a sellers market. Multiple offers are an ever increasing phenomenon. Many homes, that are new on the market are being sold within days if not hours of being put on the market. An agent in my office submitted an offer on a home for his buyer with out even going into it, for fear that it would be gone by the time the buyer saw it. They did have info on the condition and the offer was contingent on an inspection, but that is the extent some buyers are going through to secure a home. This frenzy is being caused by the convergence of three things; historically low interest rates, home price declines and $8,000 tax credit. It will be interesting to see what happens to the real estate market when the $8,000 credit expires on December 1st, 2009.