By MATT OLBERDING / Lincoln Journal Star

A real estate Web site says Lincoln has one of the most affordable ZIP codes in the country for first-time homebuyers.

Cyberhomes.com ranked Lincoln’s 68507 third, after ZIP codes in Memphis and Phoenix, among places where homes are affordable for first-time buyers.

Cyberhomes.com examined nearly 7,000 ZIP codes across the country, calculating median income for each, and then looking at the median home price in the ZIP code.

The Web site then calculated how much buyers earning the median income for the ZIP code could afford to spend on a home – assuming a 20 percent down payment, 5 percent rate on a 30-year mortgage and a house payment of no more than one-third of monthly income.

A baseline score of 100 indicated that a person earning the median income could afford the median-priced home. Any score above 100 is considered affordable.

The 68507 ZIP code, which covers much of northeast Lincoln including Havelock and part of University Place, scored 313, meaning someone with the median income of $57,900 could afford a home more than three times the median price of $108,000 in that ZIP code.

For more of this story from Matt Olberding at the Lincoln Journal-Star, click here.

 Posted by Woods Bros Realty

Lincoln Journal Star – The Nebraska Investment Finance Authority announced a new loan program Friday to help first-time homebuyers use a $8,000 federal tax credit to help with down payments and closing costs.

The program, called the Advance Buyer Credit Loan Program ABC mortgage, offers a second mortgage based on the expectation of the credit.

Buyers eligible for the tax credit typically file for a tax refund after completing the purchase of a home – a process that takes around three months, according to NIFA.

But many of these first-time purchasers need the dollars provided by the tax credit to pay a down payments and to pay closing costs.

The ABC mortgage allows them to do that by providing a second mortgage loan that advances a portion of the federal tax credit to the buyer at the time the regular NIFA first mortgage loan is closed. When the buyer receives the tax credit refund and uses the refund to repay the ABC mortgage within 120 days of home purchase, the buyer receives a one-half point rate reduction on the regular first mortgage loan.

If the borrower does not repay the ABC mortgage within 120 days, the ABC mortgage will be payable over 10 years, and both the first mortgage loan and the ABC mortgage will will continue to bear interest at their original rates.

“Our team has worked very hard to develop a product to help the borrower use the new tax credit immediately,” said NIFA Executive Director Tim Kenney. He said the agency received special permission from the Federal Housing Authority to enable the buyer to lower the first mortgage loan interest rate when the buyer repays the tax-credit advance loan within 120 days

The ABC mortgage is available only to first-time homebuyers, with certain income and purchase price restrictions, on FHA and some RD loans that are eligible for financing under NIFA’s single-family mortgage program.

More information about the new loan product is available on the NIFA Web site (http://www.nifa.org) or at any NIFA participating lender in Nebraska.

• Authored By: Lincoln Journal Star

 Posted by Woods Bros Realty

A few years after the Battle of Little Big Horn in Montana, Mark Woods decided to take the train to Native American Territory and buy cattle. While there was still a feeling of hostility between some of the white settlers and the Native American tribes, trading and buying of cattle still occurred, and Mark Woods was interested in buying cattle.

Before the chiefs of the tribes would parlay, Mark had to wrestle the strongest brave of the tribe for the honor of sitting down to negotiate. The Native Americans did not know that Mark was captain of the wrestling team at the University of Nebraska, so his skills opened up many opportunities to buy cattle.

The cattle were then shipped by rail back to Lincoln where Burlington Northern Railroad had fattening pens in what is now Lincoln’s Pioneers Park.

Several years later Mr. Harris, President of Burlington, after having closed these pens, was hosting Mark Woods and Pace Woods Sr. in his New York City apartment. Mr. Harris was anxious to make a gift of some kind to the City of Lincoln. Mark suggested that he donate a park to the citizens in the land owned by Burlington west of the City.

The Harris family was so pleased with the idea that they also decided to donate several items of animal sculptures for the park. Mark agreed to donate evergreen trees and lilac bushes from his nursery then located south of Sheridan Blvd. and east of South 33rd. They were to line the south side of Van Dorn leading to the Park and south on Coddington to the Park entrance leading to the buffalo.

Buffalo statuary in Pioneers Park, courtesy of the Nebraska State Historical Society

The buffalo with its green patina was to be the first piece of sculpture to arrive and later several other animals indigenous to Nebraska were to follow. The entrance to Pioneers Park was landscaped by Ernst Herminghaus and over the years has become a favorite of Lincoln’s citizens.

A few years after the buffalo was in place and the other sculpture had not arrived, City Hall decided that the buffalo would look better if painted with gilt. That decision so disturbed Mr. Harris that when he saw the result, he cancelled all the other animals which were to follow. While that decision by the City Hall was quickly reversed, the remaining sculpture has never arrived.

Pioneers Park has continued to be a place of beauty and growing activity and would not have occurred without the generosity of the Harris family and the Burlington Railroad.

• Authored By: Pace Woods

 Posted by Woods Bros Realty

The number of local homes under contract to be sold rose in April for the second-straight month.

There were 444 pending home sales in April, according to the Realtors Association of Lincoln, up from 413 in April 2008.

“Were excited about that,” said Executive Vice President Doug Rotthaus.

Rotthaus said that though closed home sales for the year through April are still down considerably compared with the same period last year — 911 vs. 1,001 — pending sales are indicative that things are really picking up.

 Typically there is a one- to two-month lag between a contract and a done deal, meaning local closed sales figures don’t yet reflect the uptick.

The Realtors Association put out updated pending sales numbers recently for the period from April 15 to May 15, and the numbers were just short of an all-time record.

There were 497 pending sales during that period, just two fewer than the record set in 2005.

In a blog post about the pending sales figures titled “Lincoln real estate market doing great,” Woods Bros. Realty agent Jon Rademacher wrote  that it’s not uncommon for people to ask him how the market’s doing these days.

“Lately I’ve been forced to tell them the truth: It’s doing great!,” Rademacher wrote.

The local numbers on pending home sales were in line with national figures, which had their largest monthly jump in nearly eight years in April.

Read the rest of this Lincoln Journal Star article here.

 Posted by Woods Bros Realty

RISMEDIA, June 2, 2009-Record low mortgage interest rates boosted pending home sales for the third consecutive month, with some benefit now from the first-time buyer tax credit, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in April, rose 6.7% to 90.3 from a reading of 84.6 in March, and is 3.2% above April 2008 when it was 87.5.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said buyers are responding to very favorable market conditions. “Housing affordability conditions have been at historic highs, but now the $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit is beginning to impact the market,” he said. “Since first-time buyers must finalize their purchase by November 30 to get the credit, we expect greater activity in the months ahead, and that should spark more sales by repeat buyers.”

Read more: “BREAKING NEWS – Pending Home Sales Up for Three Months in a Row | RISMedia” – http://rismedia.com/2009-06-02/breaking-news-pending-home-sales-up-for-three-months-in-a-row/#ixzz0HOyliSKE&A

 Posted by Woods Bros Realty

KLKN TV – You probably already know about the $8,000 dollar tax credit for first time home buyers, but could the deal be getting even sweeter?The Federal Housing Commission announced that tax credit can now go towards part of a down payment in some states…but how will this affect Nebraska?

The bad news, right now, Nebraska isn’t included in the list of states that can use the credit towards a down payment. The good news though, one local realtor said there’s a big push in Washington to add Nebraska to that list.

Back in February President Barack Obama signed an incentive in the form of an $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers. Just a couple days ago the Federal Housing Administration announced some home buyers could use the tax credit as a down payment.

The problem with that not all states can take advantage of this offer.  ”They would approve it so you could get a second soft mortgage up front so you could use that $8,000 towards your down payment.  Nebraska is not currently included in that many states are there’s a big push in Washington to get it approved right here and well have to see if it’s going to,” Rob Predmore with Woods Bros Realty said.

Read the rest of the story from KLKN TV here.

 Posted by Woods Bros Realty