The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors market stats for July continue to show positive trends. Year to date new listings are up, pending sales are up, closed sales are on track with last year, days on market are down, and prices continue to rise.

We have been talking about the small amount of homes available for sale for months, so it is nice to see new listings up 18% over last July and 9% year to date. There were 9,088 homes for sale in July which is down less than 1% from last July.

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An article in USA TODAY by Matthew Frankel gives a good and simple answer. “First-time homebuyers can take out as much as $10,000 from their traditional IRA penalty-free, although it will still count as taxable income. And if your spouse also has a traditional IRA, they can take out $10,000 as well.

Furthermore, the homebuyer doesn’t necessarily have to be you. You can use the money to help your child, grandchild or parent buy a home as well. The IRS has a liberal definition of what a “first-time” homebuyer is. Basically, you must not have owned a principal residence within the last two years.” A Roth IRA can be used also, but the rules are slightly different.

Our local real estate market is still looking strong in the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors market stats for June. There were 3,868 new listings in June, an increase of 13.4% from last June and 8.1% year to date, which is very positive since the homes available for sale have been very low.

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