The clock ticks for new home buyers

Time is quickly slipping by for purchasers who hope to close on a home sale in time to claim the up-to $8,000 first-time home buyer credit that expires at the end of November.

That makes now an excellent time for a checkup on your local housing market. In particular, investigate the pipeline of pending sales – is it flowing freely or clogged? Is there a danger that willing buyers will be shut out of the credit due to any paperwork backlogs at lenders and title companies?

Here’s the latest IRS bulletin on the credit, which is up to 10 percent of the sale price. Eligible buyers must not have owned a principal residence within the past three years; the credit phases out for single filers earning more than $75,000 and married filers with income over $150,000. Be sure to note that it’s a fully refundable credit, meaning that filers will get the full amount even if their overall tax liability is lower than that.

Real estate and lending experts have warned that buyers making offers toward the end of October and beyond risk underwriting snags and other delays that could cause them to miss the deadline.

The National Association of Realtors has an extensive portal devoted to the credit, including factoids, an in-depth primer and legislative news.

That trade group, among other entities, is lobbying for an extension of the credit, which is part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus program. So far, the tax break is credited with boosting the nation’s moribund housing market by some one million sales.

To keep abreast of legislative changes, keep an eye on the Mortgage Bankers Association site; here’s a summary of the trade group’s Congressional testimony on Wednesday.

Bear in mind that many states also run assistance efforts aimed at making housing affordable to first-timers; check with your state’s housing authority for statistics and rules. The National Association of Home Builders operates a Web site on the federal tax credit; - note, you can follow developments via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as well as through conventional means. The Facebook page in particular highlights the complementary state programs for new or low-income buyers.

Localize coverage by following families attempting to beat the deadline; tracking their red-tape triumphs and setbacks could make for a dramatic and appealing standing Web feature or blog. Another approach: Enlist local Realtors to help you create a graphic checklist for prospective buyers, with specialized tips for those with poor credit, job complications and other precarious scenarios.

Come back to Your Daily Tipsheet each morning for advice on where to find sources, background and creative ways to make financial news and trends relevant to your audience.

Digging into development

It’s not what you know, it’s whom you know.

And if there’s one single business beat that epitomizes that old saw, it’s the commercial development realm.

Stagnant strip malls, overbuilt office complexes, failed factories - they seem to be lurking everywhere. And they’re not just an aesthetic blight, they’re a constant reminder of moribund local economies.

Now – when things are quiet, to say the least – is a good time to pave your path into the commercial real estate beat. Don’t wait until development’s eventual rebound to start forging relationships in this fruitful arena.

A few gallons of coffee downed this fall over vacancy-rate chitchat can determine whether you have next year’s 1A scoop about a new Fortune 500 firm coming to town, or whether you hear about it on the radio en route to the office.

As with residential real estate stories, a good place to start is the National Association of Realtors. Their site’s commercial channel offers e-newsletter sign-up, Twitter sign-up and other resources for keeping tabs on overarching trends.

The NAR’s affiliate CommercialSource.com is a great tool for searching commercial listings by market, with links to a variety of other organizations and data providers.

On a regional scale, some of the Federal Reserve banks track commercial occupancy rates and trends; here’s a link to a previous tipsheet about how to find the FRB that oversees your territory. Some local listing services also do periodic analyses of commercial space; the commercial lending divisions of your hometown banks can give guidance there.

Better yet, get in your car and drive around. Those giant “For Lease” signs in key business districts, on landmark buildings and at stalled malls will give you quite a list of names and numbers with which to start.

Take it slow. People sitting on millions of square feet of costly, idle space don’t need us to rub it in. Set up a lunchtime backgrounder and ask about challenges unique to your market, key pending projects, what’s on hold, etc. Do this a few times and slowly but surely you’ll become attuned to the big plays in office and industrial real estate.

Bone up ahead of time by visiting the Web portal of Site Selection magazine, the bible of the real estate and development sector. In addition to timely analysis on topics ranging from public policy to real estate finance, Site Selection produces tools like annual state and market rankings that can add context and texture to your local reports.

Come back to Your Daily Tipsheet each morning for advice on where to find sources, background and creative ways to make financial news and trends relevant to your audience.

Why wholesale prices matter

Ever wonder what KFC is forking out for “processed young chickens” these days, or how much a paper maker pays for a pound of wood pulp? Me neither.

But wholesale prices do affect the costs of consumer goods, not to mention corporate earnings – or lack thereof - and hence jobs, the stock market and other tangible aspects of our fiscal well-being.

For the fundamentals on the monthly Producer Price Index, which will be released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, check out its comprehensive Web site and tutorial. Like the CPI discussed in a previous tipsheet, the PPI measures the cost of goods and services – in this case, raw or semi-finished materials sold to businesses.

For your corporate coverage, talk to executives about how their financial strategies fluctuate with the inflation rate. Many airlines, for example, have been recording profits or losses based more on the outcome of their fuel-price hedging rather than on the fares we pay for our munchkin-sized coach seats. Other industries stock up on or speculate in the raw goods that make up their products; see if major local employers will they’ll share economic forecasts and the reasoning behind them.

Housing data mania next week

Just a heads up that, as usual, the last two weeks of the month teem with housing data that can help you layer anecdotal stories with statistics. Among the releases coming up:

Aug. 17: National Association of Homebuilders housing market index
Aug. 18: Commerce Dept. housing starts, building permits
Aug. 19: Mortgage Bankers Association applications
Aug. 21: National Association of Realtors existing home sales
Aug. 25: S&P Case/Shiller home price index
Aug. 26: Commerce Dept. new home sales

This Reynolds Center centerpiece by Stephanie Riel offers invaluable hints for covering today’s residential real estate market. And here’s a past tipsheet with related advice.

Bored with the same-old, same-old? Try writing from a non-consumer point of view. It must be pretty grim trying to earn a living as a Realtor these days -- talk to some about their livelihood, fallback plans and whether they’re moonlighting to keep the cash coming in. Imagine the irony of finding a real estate agent who’s in foreclosure herself, or a mortgage broker who can’t make his own house payment. People in those lines of work were all but beating off business with a stick a few short years ago, but when you’re in commissioned sales the downturns really sting.

Also feeling the pain: Homeowners’ associations. Strapped consumers are withholding condo maintenance fees, leaving association boards hamstrung when it comes to paying vendors and repair firms. That starts a downward spiral of declining amenities and sub-par maintenance which doesn’t exactly help move real estate in a stagnant market.

Come back to Your Daily Tipsheet each morning for advice on where to find sources, background and creative ways to make financial news and trends relevant to your audience.

Prepping for the Home Builders' Forecast

Real-estate watchers are hoping for an upbeat omen Thursday when a trade group releases its monthly builder sentiment report, which showed an uptick in May but then dropped in June after hitting record-breaking lows over the winter and early spring.

Why should you and your audience care about a dry-as-a-bone industry index? The National Association of Home Builders polls its members about what level of demand they expect in the near future for new houses. The results of the survey – formally known as the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index - are considered a harbinger for the overall residential real-estate market and the ripple outward toward consumers, lenders and suppliers – not to mention appliance dealers, furniture stores, painters and other businesses that serve home builders and buyers.

In short, most of us. Any story that addresses the precarious local housing scene and its effect on just about everyone’s fortunes will grip your readers’ attention. With a little digging, you’ll find myriad options for localizing and adding color to an otherwise abstract report.

First, visit the NAHB newsroom and sign up for their e-mail delivery, so you’ll get future releases automatically. Familiarize yourself with the methodology and historical results of the poll; you’ll notice the dramatic dip into single digits late in 2008 and early this year; a five-year look-back would make an eye-catching graphic, or you might just add a link to this chart with your story.

Then delve into the impact on your audience. On the NAHB site, locate the state-by state list of local builders’ associations. Click on the URLs for local sites and you'll get a member directory or search engine leading you not only to area builders but to industry trades and suppliers, from masonry experts to architects to electrical contractors. All of these small- and medium-sized businesses have a housing-related story to tell. And since most are privately owned, they’re not under the corporate constraints of large and publicly traded developers – meaning you're apt to get more candid comments and even access to workers, job sites and dynamic photo/video possibilities.

Layer those anecdotes with specific data - in prose or in graphic form - about housing permits issued in your region. County governments often can provide recent stats; otherwise check out the U.S. Census’ Building Permits report - which is current through May right down to the county level for many major U.S. markets.

The NAHB also has subsets of data you can tap for quirky angles, depending on your audience demographic. For example, the 55+Housing Market Index (55+HMI) measures developments aimed at mature buyers and retirees – helpful info if you’re in snowbird territory.

Another go-to residential real-estate resource you should bookmark: The National Association of Realtors; this trade-group site offers statistics, analysts and assistance with local contacts. They’ll be releasing their monthly existing home sales report on July 23.

It’s nearly impossible to overestimate your readers’ interest in home sales trends and real-estate values. In an era of dwindling equity, a tidal wave of foreclosures and a glut of new construction, the fallow housing market still is fertile ground for enterprising reporters.

Come back to Your Daily Tipsheet each morning for advice on where to find sources, background and creative ways to make financial news and trends relevant to your audience.