Hawaii Homes from Hawaii Kai to Honolulu
Honolulu Economy
domestic and Japanese arrivals, employment, tourism, inflation, growth (including Honolulu’s CPI or Consumer Price Index) and forecasts
Tax Credit for Housing in Second Economic Stimulus Bill
12 years ago
by Frank
in Honolulu Economy
Housing tax credit in second economic stimulus bill
Federal Housing Tax Credit for First-Time Hawaii Home Buyers
The bill provides an $8,000 income tax credit to people who buy homes between January and November and lets people write off, as a deduction, the sales taxes they pay on new cars, trucks and motorcycles they buy any month this year.
* Available for all home buyers
* No repayment necessary
* Loan limits will be raised to $727,000 in high cost areas
* The tax credit will be raised to $8,000 with NO payback [a true credit]
Individuals who earn less than $75,000 annually will get a $400 credit to apply directly against their total income tax for 2009 and for 2010, and couples who earn less than $150,000 will get a tax credit of $800.
The bill provides tax breaks for people who send their children to college and install energy-efficient air conditioners in their homes.
The legislation also helps people who have lost their jobs, by letting them draw unemployment for more than a year. The current limit is 26 weeks and the bill extends benefits up to 59 weeks.
The bill provides a $2,500 tax credit for college tuition, books and computers. And it increases the maximum allowable Pell Grant for college students from low- and moderate-income families by $500 to $5,350.
The income tax credit has dropped by $100 and $200 respectively, so that it would now total $400 for individuals and $800 for couples (paid in 2009 and 2010), phasing out completely at $200,000 for couples filing jointly and $100,000 for single filers.
The bill also has over $50 billion in it for foreclosure mitigation, with Geithner’s Treasury plan signaling that the second half of TARP and TALF will be used to mitigate foreclosures through a government guarantee, drive down interest rates by buying another $200-300 billion of mortgage paper from the GSES’s thereby freeing them up to do the same with new mortgages, and Fannie has just agreed to lift the cap of 4 investment properties eligible for loans and raise it to 10.
honolulu-hi-beach-makapuu
First-time buyers, Hawaii Homes, home buyer, stimulus bill, tax credit
Honolulu Hawaii is the Best Place to Live
13 years ago
Happy New Year!
We have certainly had a lot of bad news lately.
Honolulu consistently ranks in the “Best” lists among major magazines, however.
Fortune Magazine rated Honolulu as the #67 best place to live in 2009.
It also rated it as the one of the Best places for a long life.
Business Week listed Honolulu at Number 1 in the US from a study done by Mercer Consulting.
No. 28: Honolulu – U.S.
Mercer score: 103.1
2007 rank: No. 27
GDP: $13.86 trillion (2007 est.)
Population: 303,824,646 (total country); 380,000 (total city)
Life expectancy: 78.14 years
A handy calculator shows you how to figure out the difference between where you live and Honolulu. For example, if you make $50,000 in Los Angeles, you will need to make $53,987 since the cost of living is 8% higher. Here’s the catch: employers in Honolulu typically pay 1.9% less than employers in Los Angeles. That explains a lot, doesn’t it? Anyone that has tried to get a job here knows that pay rates are typically lower. My guess is because of the sheer number of retail and tourism jobs, which tend to bring the median wage down. The closest similar income I found is DC – Washington. Even San Francisco costs less than Hawaii.
If you want to get a good comparison of Hawaii home costs (PDF) compared to the mainland, see Paul Brewbaker’s (Senior Vice President and Chief Economist with Bank of Hawaii), reports. They are excellent. He has data on domestic and Japanese arrivals, employment, tourism, inflation, growth (including Honolulu’s CPI or Consumer Price Index) and forecasts. Good stuff.
Unfortunately, the number of bankruptcies in Hawaii hit a 3-year high last week, according to the Star Bulletin. Foreclosures are up as well, with the majority apparently being held by Countrywide Home Loans, particularly on the Leeward and Ewa areas. It’s going to get worse before it gets better, it would seem.
Now is a great time to visit your local library, bookstores (don’t forget Jelly’s Honolulu or in Aiea!) and parks. Go camping! Start a blog! Get in shape. Stay positive, and Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff.
Aloha,
Frank
