The Economic Stimulus Plan Benefits Housing and Mortgage

Today the President signed a $787 Billion Stimulus Plan made up of tax cuts and spending programs aimed at reviving the US economy.

Home owners and potential home buyers could benefit from key provisions in this stimulus plan.

First-time home buyers who purchase homes from the beginning of the year until the end of November 2009 may be eligible for the lower of an $8,000 or 10% of the value of the home tax credit.

Tax Incentives to Spur Energy Savings and Green Jobs — This provision is designed to help promote energy-efficient investments in homes by extending and expanding tax credits through 2010 for purchases such as new furnaces, energy-efficient windows and doors, or insulation.

Landmark Energy Savings — This provision provides $5 Billion for energy efficient improvements for more than one million modest-income homes through weatherization. According to some estimates, this can help modest-income families save an average of $350 a year on heating and air conditioning bills.

Repairing Public Housing and Making Key Energy Efficiency Retrofits To HUD-Assisted Housing—This provision provides a total of $6.3 Billion for increasing energy efficiency in federally supported housing programs.Specifically, it establishes a new program to upgrade HUD-sponsored low-income housing (for elderly, disabled, and Section 8 ) to increase energy efficiency, including new insulation, windows, and frames.

Expanding Housing Assistance—This provision increases support for several critical housing programs. It includes $2 Billion for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program to help communities purchase and rehabilitate foreclosed, vacant properties.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Hard to believe we are over a month into the new year of 2009 already! Time flies when you’re having fun, working, and raising children.  We hope your New Year has started off well and continues to be wonderful!

Valentine’s Day is an occasion celebrated on February 14 by many people throughout the world. In the West, it is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine’s card, presenting flowers, or offering confectionary.  The holiday is named after two among the numerous Early Christian martyrs and Valentine.  The day became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. 

Valentine’s Day is most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of “valentines.” Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged cupid.  Since the 19th century, handwritten notes have largely given way to mass-produced greeting cards.  The sending of Valentines was a fashion in nineteenth-century Great Britain, and, in 1847, Esther Howland developed a successful business in her Worcester, Massachusetts home with hand-made Valentine cards based on British models. The popularity of Valentine cards in 19th-century America was a harbinger of the future commercialization of holidays in the United States.

The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year, behind Christmas.  The association estimates that, in the U.S., men spend in average twice as much money as women.

Happy Valentine’s Day from “The Sister Team”!