33% Drop in Sales? Where do we Stand?

Hi Everyone,

Welcome back. We hope that you stayed cool this past weekend, because at least for us here on the East Coast, the humidity has been searingly painful. However, there are people who adore this weather, which shows that we are all unique in our likes and dislikes.

We had a whirlwind week here last week, with some fantastic publicity regarding Rent to Own Homes, along with a lot of work we have been doing on the website infrastructure (including making the website resolve even quicker on your screen).

Looking back to last week, in retrospect, we saw some numbers come out that were a little bit of a shock. By now, most of you already heard that new home sales (new single family homes) plunged about 33 percent from April to May. The tax credit incentive for purchasing homes ended April 30th, so that is a major contributing factor, but are we really shaping up yet? Are the fundamentals of the economy that strong yet to tout a recovery? Yes, there are definitely some promising areas in the country in terms of economic and housing recovery, but there are a lot more regions that are in trouble. Is it that a lot of the incentives are not as far-reaching as anticipated? Or just that it will take more time? On that note, we can only assume that "time will tell", as the old cliche says.

Now, there are some more numbers coming out tomorrow (S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices), but these have a 2-month lag, so I really am interested in seeing their next release (the next one after this release). Let's all keep an eye on them together, as it effects each and every one of us.

Advice for the moment: Keep your focus on the Rent to Own Home that you are either looking to buy or looking to sell. Stay tuned to us for new information, announcements, and contests. We will try to be your liaison and will try to provide you with updates whenever we have them.


Have a great week, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !!

Tax Credit Extensions and a Cool Contest...

Hello and Welcome to Friday !

A lot of emphasis is placed on looking at the National stage and spotlight for the latest housing trends and news, but I think that it is also important to look at your local area and see what news is being generated. That being said, it might be that your local market is an exception to the rule vs being an actual microcosm of the true market.

With that statement out of the way, we have a great local paper that I review quite often, called the Long Island Business News (thus, my sermon about checking out your local markets). They just ran an article, titled, "Senate passes tax credit extension", and this was about the extension of the closing date for those purchasing homes under the tax credit. The date was changed from June 30th to September 30th, which gives lenders what they referred to as, "breathing room". One of the attorneys that they interviewed for this article mentioned that he has all of his deals ready to close by the 30th. This is the the case with most of the attorneys we have been speaking with, some of which are listed in our Home Services Section.

Well, the wind up here is this: Thank you, Washington ! Nothing like going down to the wire. But breathing room is good.


CONTEST TIME:
OK, we will be providing a Free Copy of our E-Book, "Secrets of Rent to Own", to the first 5 people who answer the following question:

What city did we begin investing in when we first started our business?
Hint: The answer is very, very easy to find on our website.


We will give everyone the answer on Monday. So quick - dig up that answer on www.Lease2Buy.com and then E-mail me at homebuyer@lease2buy.com with the subject, "CONTEST ANSWER".


Good Luck to Everyone !

Have a Great Weekend, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !