As Florida prepares to vote next week – perhaps making a key decision in the Republican nominating race – one of the top issues driving voters will be housing. Florida is one of the hardest-hit states in the nation when it comes to foreclosures and unemployment. Stuart Miller, CEO of Lennar, says “if we want the economy to stabilize and recover, we need to see housing come back.” Miller believes stabilization is – ever so slightly – coming into the equation. “Demand is just starting to come back.” [Click here to see the video]

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There are two things you can count on when you become a homeowner: You get more tax breaks, and your taxes get more complicated. Whether you’ve purchased a single-family home, town house, or condominium, there are tax breaks available to you. It’s time to get familiar with the Form 1040 and Schedule A because that’s where you will have to provide all the details about your new tax-deductible expenses. To take advantage of these tax breaks, you have to itemize your deductions. If this is the best choice for you,  here some of the expenses you can deduct. [Read this article]

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In the three years since the credit crisis ushered in an era of household budget austerity, a gold-plated credit score has become a source of comfort, even a status symbol for many people. Consumers with elevated scores typically get the lowest rates on mortgages and car loans, along with elite credit card offers. “Given the importance of credit scores in borrowing, job searches, and even insurance premiums, it’s no surprise that some consumers look at their credit scores as a way to keep score against the Joneses,” said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com. The model most commonly used to gauge a consumer’s financial health was established by FICO, which ranks a borrower’s default risk on a scale ranging from 300 to 850 based on debt levels, payment timeliness, the length of credit history, and other factors. The score that’s considered the cutoff to qualify for the best rates, however, has changed. Before the recession, it was generally 720; now it’s at least 750, says Ben Woolsey, director of marketing and consumer research at CreditCards.com. [Read this article]

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The majority of Americans, 58%, prefer that the government act to prevent foreclosures, whereas 34% prefer the housing market resolve its problems on its own. A sharp partisan divide exists, with 76% of Democrats and 61% of independents favoring government action and 64% of Republicans opposing it. President Obama noted in his State of the Union address that he is sending Congress a plan that “gives every responsible homeowner the chance to save about $3,000 a year on their mortgage.” The idea is that banks will make low-interest-rate mortgage loans available for homeowners interested in refinancing. This new program would be funded by a “small fee” on the nation’s largest financial institutions. The real long-term solution to the housing market crisis is an improvement in the job market and the overall U.S. economy. To buy a home – the largest financial investment most Americans will ever make – potential buyers need to be fairly optimistic not only about the overall economy but also about their individual job prospects. [Read this article]

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Lennar’s New Jersey Division recently announced the results of an aggressive acquisition and development plan that has strengthened its position among the largest developers in the state, and established the national homebuilder as one of the most active purchasers of residential properties in the New Jersey marketplace today. Encouraged by a successful 2011 in which a record number of prospective buyers visited its existing communities and 40 percent of its sales stemmed from homeowner referrals, Lennar implemented its ambition plan that included an expansion of its non-age-restricted portfolio. “Lennar has the resources and planning and developmental expertise to acquire multiple mid-to-large scale developments and take them from paper to product,” said Don Bompensa, president of Lennar’s New Jersey Division. “We’re thrilled to have secured a number of well-located properties and look forward to rolling out several new developments in 2012 that will provide homebuyers with quality new housing alternatives at attractive price points.” [Read this article]

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Experts say recent home sales figures show the Coachella Valley’s housing market has busted out of a funk, and that a modest recovery will continue. Economists, analysts, real estate brokers and agents who attended California Desert Association of Realtors’ annual real estate market update and forecast Thursday agreed that a two-year analysis of home transactions shows the housing market is finally showing signs of life. Valley home prices rose 1.8 percent over the past year, and 3.4 percent over two years, said Patrick Veling, a keynote speaker and president of the real estate information firm Real Data Strategies. The average valley home sales price rose to $271,000 in the fourth quarter of 2011. That was up from $266,000 in the same quarter of 2010 and $262,000 at the end of 2009. “What that means is, we’ve clearly bottomed here and we’re on our way back up,” Veling said. [Read this article]

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Rates for fixed mortgages moved higher over the past week amid positive signals from the long-suffering U.S. housing market, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of mortgage rates. “Fixed mortgage rates ticked up this week as the housing market ended 2011 on a high note,” said Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft, noting encouraging data like a report that existing home sales rose 5% at the end of the year to 4.61 million houses, the largest amount since May 2010. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.98% for the week ended Thursday, up from 3.88% the previous week, though below 4.8% a year ago. Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 3.24%, up from 3.17% last week and below 4.09% a year earlier. [Read this article]

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Where are the best markets to build and sell new homes these days? Metrostudy has analyzed the strongest markets for home builders. They include: San Diego; Southern California; Texas’s Rio Grande Valley; St. George, Utah; and Orlando. The research is by Brad Hunter, chief economist at Metrostudy, a company that, among other things, sends observers out each month to hundreds of new-home communities to count how many single-family homes are under construction, occupied or vacant. Metrostudy’s work is a complement to the U.S. Census’s monthly housing starts numbers and vacancy survey. San Diego, which showed some signs of recovery in home prices earlier this year, showed “significant strength” towards the end of the year. Construction began on 440 new homes there in the fourth quarter of 2011, a 46.7% increase over the previous quarter. [Read this article]

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The Villages, an active adult community in the Orlando area with 2,307 sales, was 2011’s top-selling U.S. Master Planned Community (MPC) according to John Burns Real Estate Consulting. Other MPC’s in the top five for 2011 included two in the Houston area (Cinco Ranch and The Woodlands), Irvine Ranch in Southern California, and Alamo Ranch in San Antonio. The Sunbelt states are still the dominant location for the top U.S. master plans, particularly Texas. The Houston MSA, with 12 different MPC’s in the top 50 U.S. master plans, represented the largest number of projects. There were also top-sellers in the Austin, Dallas and San Antonio markets. At the same time, it is encouraging to see that the top-selling master planned communities also included projects in some of the nation’s hardest hit housing markets, including Florida, Phoenix and Las Vegas. Sales increased at many U.S. master plans in 2011 as a result of strategic re-positioning, which included change of ownership, new product or marketing direction, new builders, etc. [Read this article]

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Capital Economics expects the housing crisis to end this year, according to a report. One of the reasons: loosening credit. The analytics firm notes the average credit score required to attain a mortgage loan is 700. While this is higher than scores required prior to the crisis, it is constant with requirements one year ago. Additionally, a Fed Senior Loan Officer Survey found credit requirements in the fourth quarter were consistent with the past three quarters. However, other market indicators point not just to a stabilization of mortgage lending standards, but also a loosening of credit availability. Banks are now lending amounts up to 3.5 times borrower earnings. This is up from a low during the crisis of 3.2 times borrower earnings. Banks are also loosening loan-to-value ratios (LTV), which Capital Economics denotes “the clearest sign yet of an improvement in mortgage credit conditions.” [Read this article]

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