At last week’s NAR Mid-Year Conference in Washington, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is going to permit its lenders to allow home buyers to “monetize” the $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers, to be used as a down payment. In his remarks to REALTORS, Secretary Donovan indicated that details of this plan will be released shortly.

As a buyer, I would take this information to my lender to see if this has come about yet with Fannie Mae or any other type of loan that you may have interest in securing. Often others will follow suit. This is a news flash coming through the Tennessee Association of Realtors “Digest” to its membership directly. The Tennessee Housing Department Authority has also worked out a manner in which the $8,000 tax credit can be used on its first time homebuyer’s incentive. Chattanooga is located near the Georgia border. There are Georgia state tax credits to a buyer for buying between 6/1 and 11/1/09 that we shall also be happy to discuss with you.

Our boutique real estate agency of veteran professionals, having an average of 18 years experience each, has been selling real estate in the consistently progressing Chattanooga and North Georgia market for 81 years. The present mood and feel of the economy is upbeat, positive and progressive. Supply in homes and condominiums is exceptional and demand remains strong. Chattanooga feels good about itself and it shows all over town. Because of our reasonable average sales prices ($141,000 entire MLS metro area), the incredible beauty of this mountain/valley/river location, low property taxes and lack of state income taxes, the market for those out-of-the-area buyers remains alright as well as there being good local demand. We are in a growing economy in which Volkswagen is building a major new facility and a major new chemical production plant is locating in the area. The French plant Alston is relocating 350 nuclear engineers to its downtown Chattanooga plant.

We at Herman Walldorf and Company have it all for you. I invite your call so I can put you in touch with one of our professionals. We are internationally connected, being longtime members of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World and luxury home specialists who can even have properties shown to you in another city. We can also sell your property, therefore, in any market across the world for you -call and we’ll explain that, too. See our website.