I just returned last night from a lobbying trip to Richmond for the Roanoke Valley Association of REALTORS. After hearing the briefings from our state lobbyists and talking with several of our local legislators, it is obvious that Virginia and all the localities are is for a very tough time. The words that were used by the legislators were: “tsunami”, “catastrophe”, “massacre”, etc. Gov. McDonnel issued his proposed cuts to the budget on Wednesday and it was as devastating as expected. There were numbers being thrown around of 25-50,000 teachers being laid off, medicaid cuts (which doesn’t make a lot of sense, since there are matching dollar form the federal government for these funds), furloughing state employees 5 days per year, more cuts to the higher education centers that help the more rural areas without multiple universites (like Richmond), and so on and so on and so on!
There are no proposals for increasing state funding (read that as taxes) since the Govenor and many of the legilators used the “No Tax” pledge in their campaigns. It seems that we can fund re-opening of rest stops(another campaign pledge), but not school breakfasts. If you would like to see a list of all the proposed cuts, you can read them here from an article in the Washington Post.
With the “no tax” pledges that have been used in many campaigns, there is no real and lasting solution to the budget crisis. And, yes, it is a crisis.
The consensus from the Democrats in Richmond that we talked with was that tax increases are the only way to get out of this mess. The Republicans continue to propose cuts in spending and hoping that the economy will improve. I don’t know which group is right, but it would be nice if our legislators would worry more about the citizens of Virginia than just their re-election campaigns and try a little bi-partisanship to look at solutions to this problem. Oh well, maybe the state should just buy more of its own lottery tickets!

Here’s a great article written by Eileen Ambrose from RISMEDIA  today about the changes to the tax laws.
“Fortunately, many of the new tax breaks are credits, which are better than a deduction because they reduce your bottom-line tax bill dollar-for-dollar. So before you fill out your return, here’s a refresher on some of the key tax breaks this season: more “

The Virginia Association of REALTORS just released the year and 4th quarter sales statistics. You can get the full report here.  This is one of the best and easiest to understand compilation of data anywhere.

‘Skinniest House’ Sells for $2.1 million
A property dubbed New York City’s skinniest house sold recently for $2.1 million.The two-story Greenwich Village property is 9.5 feet wide and 42 feet long and has two bedrooms and two baths. The townhouse was listed last August for $2.7 million by Alex Nicholas, senior vice president of the Corcoran Group. It last sold in 2000 for $1.6 million. It is now for rent for $10,000 per month.  Source: The Associated Press (01/13/2010)

For this price you can buy 10 average homes in Roanoke and have money left over for things like food, electricity, etc.  Based on our average home, you could have thirty bedrooms, 20 baths, and probably 30 garage spaces.  I think I would much rather live in Roanoke anyway.   See the post below!

Roanoke (Cave Spring) was named as the #9 best place in the conutry to look for a job. It was also named in the top 100 best places to live in the country. See the full article here.

According to this article by Broderick Perkins on Realty Times, Savvy investors are always the first to jump in a potentially profitable housing market and a new survey indicates things are heating up.
More than 12 percent of homebuyers today plan to purchase a home as an investment, compared to less than half, only 5.6 percent, just seven months ago,…..More

It is with a heavy heart that I let everyone know that Ed Natt has finally lost his battle with cancer. He passed away last night around 9:15pm after a long and ardous fight against cancer. He was a friend, neighbor, and outstanding attorney who always had a smile on his face. There was a great article in the Roanoke Times recently about Ed’s life. Click Here
He will be sadly missed. Please keep his family in your prayers.

Existing-home sales rose again in November as first-time buyers rushed to close sales before the original Nov. 30 deadline for the recently extended and expanded tax credit, according to the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. More…

I found this link to several short videos on our REALTOR.org site that gives some great ideas on how to stage your home, green your kitchen, and makeover several rooms in your house. These are short videos, but give some great advice. Watch them here.

The IRS has recently published clarifications of the Homebuyer Tax Credit. This article explains some of the gray areas in the law. There is also a great Q&A section that goes through some scenarios that help clarify even more.