My name is Howard W. Hanna and I was born in February 1920. I had an ordinary childhood. However in 1934-1935, when I was old enough to go to Boy Scout camp, I could not afford to go.
Instead, my friends and I discovered that Camp Umbstetter (behind Sewickley) was closed due to the Depression but that the pool was kept open. We were able to sleep in empty barracks and cook our own food over an open fire. This was our version of Boy Scout camp.
Eventually, I got a job at the camp digging holes for the Works Progress Administration, a government works program created by Congress and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, building new outhouses. I was then paid $5 a week plus room and board. With the new outhouses, the camp reopened in 1936 and I had a good job every summer while in high school, thanks to the government's WPA program.
My parents and the high school principal insisted that I go to college, which I did from 1938 to 1942. To keep colleges from going broke, the Pennsylvania government allotted bond money for half scholarships to Pennsylvania schools -- $150 per year. This was the only way I could go to college, so I went to the University of Pittsburgh, which allowed me to get a job and live at home for free. Full tuition was $300 a year.
In 1942, I was drafted into the military. After serving several years in India as an American liaison officer with the British and Indian armies, I was discharged as a captain in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1946.
From 1946 to 1949, I got a master's degree in business from Pitt by attending night school. This was paid for by the Veteran's Administration and included books, pencils, etc. The VA also paid for three years of "on the job" training, which subsidized my job pay with $150 per month.
In 1950, and again thanks to the VA, I was able to buy my first home in Mt. Lebanon for $15,750, with nothing down. I parlayed the profit from the sale of this home into the downpayment on a house in Shadyside, as my wife was from Point Breeze and wanted to move closer to her family. Years later, we parlayed the profit from the sale of the Shadyside home into a condo in North Oakland, for which we paid cash -- all thanks to the original G.I. bill.
I probably paid back in taxes everything I had received from the government stimulus programs in one year in the 1950s. If the stimulus had not been possible, the company I founded in 1957 -- with more than 4,700 sales associates and staff today -- would not be in existence.
My two good friends from college went to Pitt same way. After WWII, one went to law school on the G.I. bill, then was on the White House staff and eventually became a prominent Washington attorney. The other owned over 50 lumberbyards in the Midwest.
This is why I like the federal stimulus program.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- President Obama signed an extension and expansion of the first-time homebuyers tax credit on Friday.
The $8,000 credit was scheduled to lapse on Dec. 1 but will now be in effect through the end of June. Homebuyers must sign a contract before April 30 and close by June 30. The income limits were also raised: Single buyers can now earn up to $125,000 and still get the full credit while a married couple can earn $225,000.
The bill also made more homeowners eligible to claim the credit on their taxes. First-time buyers -- those who have not owned a home in the past three years -- still qualify for an $8,000 rebate. But now people who want to trade up can also qualify. Those who have owned and occupied a residence for at least five years out of the past eight can claim a $6,500 tax credit if they close on a purchase by the end of June.
"The new version of the tax credit has the potential to stimulate the housing market even more than the old version due to the fact that more people will qualify under the new rules," said Gibran Nicholas, chairman of the CMPS Institute, an organization that certifies mortgage bankers and brokers.
Nicholas provided four scenarios illustrating how the tax credit rules for existing homebuyers will apply:
• Harry owned a home in 2001 and 2002 but sold it to relocate for a job. He would qualify for the $8,000 first-time-buyer credit because he has not owned a home in the past three years.
• Sue purchased a home in 2004 and has lived there since. If she decides to buy a new home, she would qualify for the $6,500 tax credit because she has lived in the same residence for five consecutive years in the past eight.
• Jane purchased her home in 2002, lived there for five consecutive years before she rented it out in 2007. She would qualify because she was an owner/occupier for at least five consecutive years in the past eight.
• Mark purchased a home in 2006 and lived there for the past three years. He would not qualify because he is neither a first-time homebuyer nor someone who lived in the same primary residence for five consecutive years out of the past eight.
Chautauqua County HomesFirst-time homebuyers who had been facing a Nov. 30 deadline to take advantage of a $8,000 tax credit offered by the federal government likely will get more time after the Senate approved an extension of the program yesterday by a 98-0 vote.
The extension proposal now goes to the House, where a vote could come as early as today. The bill, which includes 20 more weeks of unemployment benefits for the jobless and tax relief for struggling businesses, then would be forwarded to President Barack Obama for his signature.
Buyers had been racing to meet a Nov. 30 deadline, as those looking to cash in would have had to close on a home by the last day of this month. Under the extension plan, the tax credit would continue until April 30 and would be expanded to include people with higher incomes and some who already own homes. That would cost about $10 billion in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, according to Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation.
Already though, the looming deadline had served the purpose of breathing life into a moribund housing market.
"The market has been in a frenzy pitch in the last six months as the program is running out," said Helen Hanna Casey, president of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services. She said this has been the company's best October in history. "We've seen a continual upswing."
The credit was intended to stimulate the real estate market by encouraging first-time homebuyers, but it has led to increased sales across the board.
"When we sell to a first-time buyer it frees someone who wants to move up," Ms. Casey said. "So, in the last three months we've seen an increase in sales in all price ranges because of this."
Data from West Penn Multi List for the month of October shows single-family home closings have increased 14 percent to 2,242 sales compared with October 2008, the number of homes under contract have jumped 35 percent to 3,623 and the average sales price in the Pittsburgh region is up 1.7 percent to $136,400.
Year-to-date sales in the greater Pittsburgh region, however, are down 6 percent from 19,388 sales in the first 10 months of 2008 to 18,204 sales so far this year. Industry insiders believe the lower sales figures could be due to buyer procrastination in the early months of 2009, and they say a more complete picture could emerge this month.
More than 1.4 million first-time homebuyers have taken advantage of the tax credit so far, according to the Internal Revenue Service. The credit is equal to 10 percent of the home's purchase price up to $8,000.
Claiming the credit is as simple as filling out a tax return.
"It's a refundable credit, so even if you don't owe any tax you get a check for $8,000," said Howard Davis, president of Davis, Davis & Associates, a Downtown accounting firm. "It's unbelievable. In my 30 years I've never seen anything like this. How long would it take the average person to save $8,000?"
Mr. Davis said first-time homebuyers who qualify for the credit could either include the purchase on their 2009 tax return or treat the purchase as if it occurred last year and claim the credit by amending their 2008 tax return.
To be considered a first-time homebuyer under this program, the buyer must not have owned a principal residence during the three-year period prior to the purchase. For married couples, that means unless both individuals qualify neither can receive the credit.
Income limits also apply. Under the extension approved by the Senate, individuals with annual incomes up to $125,000 and joint filers with incomes up to $225,000 qualify for the full credit. Individuals with incomes up to $145,000 and joint filers with incomes up to $245,000 qualify for reduced credits.
The credit does not have to be repaid unless the home is sold within 36 months of the closing date.
In 2008, Congress created a $7,500 first-time homebuyer tax credit, which went into effect April 8, 2008, and was set to expire July 1, 2009. But the problem with that program was that the credit had to be repaid over 15 years and thus was widely viewed as a debt rather than a benefit.
The newer version, which was signed by Mr. Obama in late February, but made retroactive to Jan. 1, 2009, removed the repayment requirement and expanded the credit to $8,000. It also still applies to homes purchased in 2008 under the original program.
"We've noticed over the last couple of months a number of homes we've had for sale have closed and more are under contract hoping to close by the Nov. 30 deadline," said Dick Charles, a broker and owner at ReMax South in Whitehall. "A good number of those sales have been first-time homebuyers. (The tax credit) has had an impact here."
Before yesterday's vote, lawmakers had faced pressure from real estate agents, mortgage brokers and homebuilders to extend the credit.
The extension, according to Walter Molony, a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors in Washington, D.C., would require homebuyers to have a contract in place by April 30, but they then would have 60 days to close on the house, which would give them until the end of June.
The bill also would extend the credit to existing homeowners for a lower dollar amount -- $6,500. Existing homeowners would have to have used their current home as a principal residence for at least five of the past eight years to qualify.
Cameron Findlay, chief economist for LendingTree.com in Charlotte, N.C., said the success or failure of the tax credit program will be regionalized because the impact of the $8,000 credit is greater in a state such as Pennsylvania, where homes cost less, than in California, where they are significantly more expensive. For the sake of comparison, Mr. Findlay said the average list price of a home in Pennsylvania is $286,000, while in California it's $716,000.
"This program is not targeted only for home sales, but to jump-start all industries tied to housing, such as lumber, roofing and labor," he said. "This will get the wheels turning in terms of homes being purchased and getting renters to buy.
"The benefit we see is hopefully some of the excess inventory will go down, which should stabilize prices," he said.
Area realtors are holding on to hope for the spring and summer home-buying seasons, despite drops in figures for the number of area home sales compared to last year.
Rick McMahon, president of the local board of realtors, said the New York State Association of Realtors' figures sent to him recently report that in January 2008, the median sales price for a Chautauqua County home was $68,700 when 48 homes were sold in the county.
In January 2009, he said, the median sales price was $63,650, when 35 homes were sold.
McMahon said ''a little weight'' could be placed on the economy for the decreases, but, he attributed sales drops more to ''the seasonal situation.''
''It's been an ungodly brutal winter,'' McMahon said, adding people don't want to go out and look at homes when it's 17 degrees outside. Despite that, he said, there has been ''an uptic in phone calls'' recently for both residences and those wanting to look at purchasing homes along the lake.
It is a good time to buy, he said.
''It's a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing,'' said McMahon about a federal $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers that has been made available by the federal government. McMahon said interest rates are hovering at about 5 percent and programs are available to subsidize closing costs.
''There's never been that kind of convergence before,'' he said about all of the factors coming together at once to make it a good time to buy a home.
''It's definitely gone down,'' said Chautauqua County Clerk Sandra Sopak about the number of deeds recorded in her office. She said there is usually a downturn during winter months when people don't want to move or pull children out of one district midway through the school year to start in another school when they could wait to buy a home in a new location during the summer months.
''People classically ... sit tight through the winter here,'' said Mrs. Sopak, adding that ''stands to reason.''
Despite that, however, she said, there has been a 20 percent decrease in deeds filed, in addition to what is usually seen in winter. She attributes that to different factors, including the economy, people losing jobs, a new U.S. president leading to people's uncertainty about the future.
She said in January and February 2008, her office recorded 563 deeds for property transfers. Although there was an increase for the same time period in 2009, when 593 deeds were recorded, she attributed 146 deed transfers to the county tax sale held in September for the first time in four years. She said that although the sale was held in September, paperwork was not fully completed until the January, February time frame. Therefore, she said, if one subtracts the146 tax sale deeds, the 20 percent decline of 447 properties sold for January, February 2009 would be accurate.
''We're not at a down right now,'' said Tony Parinella, office manager at Coldwell Banker Phil Mathyer Real Estate. He said the local real estate market never made huge amounts of money, so it has not seen declines evidenced in other areas, where homes sold for huge amounts and recently took a nose-dive due to people not being able to afford purchasing the higher-priced homes.
''We've been fairly busy,'' he said, adding other states are feeling the hardship more. Parinella said the area real estate market is steady and stable in Chautauqua County.
Existing single-family home sales in 2008 across New York State fell by 16.2 percent compared to 2007 due to tighter mortgage availability, a shrinking economy and a decline in consumer confidence, according to preliminary single-family sales data accumulated by the New York State Association of Realtors', their Web site states. The statewide median sales price also finished the year down 8.5 percent compared to 2007, reports the Web site.
Optimism in sales was expressed by Paul Goldberg of Bemus Point Investments LLC project co-developer of 40 new condominiums on the lake in Bemus Point.
''We'll weather the storm ok and have 40 happy purchasers pretty soon,'' he said after the firm recently announced its first round of sales have been completed at the newly constructed Bemus Bay condominiums. The development features the homes in two buildings, named Browning and Columbian, that have been architecturally designed to resemble the two early 20th century hotels of the same names that once stood on the site. Each of the homes at Bemus Bay includes a private boat slip on Chautauqua Lake as well as secured entry, handicapped access, elevator service, a garage and reserved parking spaces.
Four different floor plans with three bedrooms and two or three baths include air conditioning, granite countertops, master suites with whirlpool baths, access to the courtyard's heated swimming pool and hot tub and a view of Chautauqua Lake.
Goldberg said the number of homes sold so far is in the teens, and, he said, he expects more sales soon. Sales are also expected to grow during the spring and summer months, now that finishing touches to the condominiums are being completed, according to a news release about the condominium sales.
''We're doing fine,'' he said, adding the number of sales are about what was expected at this point.
Although Goldberg said the project was entered into before the market ''really took a nose dive,'' he said, the condominiums are ''a very special product.'' Goldberg said enough people remain interested in the homes, which sell in the range of $300,000 to $600,000.
''People do come to the lake for vacations, second homes,'' he said, adding the condominiums cover a wide economic spectrum of people interested in them, including wealthier buyers. Goldberg said those buyers' ''portfolios may have suffered a bit of a hit,'' due to recent economics, but, he remains confident there are enough people who still have resources available who want a condominium in Bemus Point.
''It will satisfy their lifestyle objectives,'' said Goldberg of the homes. He said his firm's staff may not be happy with the way economics changed, and will probably be impacted, but, he said the homes' sales remain ''well-positioned.'Sales are moving quickly, so you need to act now to get the views, floor plan and location you want.
Howard Hanna Holt Real Estate, www.howardhannaholt.com, offers comprehensive residential and commercial real estate sales, leasing and related services including real property appraisals, property management, development services, vacation property rentals and traditional rentals. It has offices in Fredonia, Mayville, Peek n' Peak resort, and Westfield, and seasonal offices on the grounds of Chautauqua Institution and at the Bemus Bay condominiums, www.bemusbaycondos.com, in Bemus Point.BEMUS POINT (NY) The first round of sales are being completed at the newly constructed Bemus Bay condominiums, according to the project developers.
The Bemus Bay development features 40 Chautauqua Lake homes in two buildings, named Browning and Columbian, that have been architecturally designed to resemble the two, early 20th century hotels of the same names that once stood on the site.
Each of the homes at Bemus Bay, www.bemusbaycondos.com, includes a private boat slip on Chautauqua Lake as well as secured entry, handicapped access, elevator service, a garage and reserved parking spaces.
Four different floor plans with three bedrooms and two or three baths include air conditioning, granite countertops, master suites with whirlpool baths, easy access to the courtyard's heated swimming pool and hot tub, and a stunning view of Chautauqua Lake.
"This is a magnificent project and we are very excited to be completing home sales and seeing the owners moving in," said Bemus Point Investments LLC project co-developer Lee Chilcote. He said many of the homes were pre-sold during construction and he expects sales to grow this spring and summer now that there are just some finishing touches to be completed.
"We have some minor items, mostly exterior work, that will be addressed this spring," said co-developer Paul Goldberg. "When people arrive this summer they will see a beautiful new development, fully landscaped with an inviting pool and hot tub. Bemus Bay offers high-quality homes for year-round enjoyment."
Howard Hanna Holt Real Estate, www.howardhannaholt.com, is the exclusive marketing agent for the Bemus Bay condominiums. Complete offering terms are available by calling the real estate company toll-free at 1-888-269-7460.
FINDLEY LAKE (NY) – Peek’n Peak Resort and Spa has entered into a marketing agreement with one of Chautauqua County’s leading real estate companies.
Mayville, NY-headquartered Howard Hanna Holt Real Estate will be the exclusive on-site marketing agent for all new residential properties being constructed at the resort as well as its resale units.
“We are honored to be selected to market Peek’n Peak’s properties,” said George W. “Pete” Holt, president of the real estate company. “This is a premier, year-round destination that offers outstanding facilities and amenities.”
Established in 1964, Peek’n Peak, www.PKnPK.com, features 27 ski slopes and trials, 10 miles of cross country skiing terrain, two highly acclaimed golf courses, an exquisite day spa, fine dining and a vast selection of resident and guest accommodations. The resort has received the prestigious RCI Gold Crown rating.
Condominiums at Peek’n Peak range in size from one bedroom units up to 4,500 square foot, free standing homes offering 7 bedrooms and baths.
“We look forward to working with Howard Hanna Holt Real Estate’s staff to promote the resort’s real estate,” said Peek’n Peak owner Paul Kiebler. “The company is a very professional organization with a great deal of expertise in vacation and condominium property marketing.”
He said one of the reasons the resort chose Howard Hanna Holt was its affiliation with Pittsburgh-based Howard Hanna Real Estate Services. Howard Hanna is the 5th largest full-service real estate firm and the 3rd largest independently-owned real estate company in the United States. The company has 122 offices in 55 counties across Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and West Virginia.
“We expect the breadth of Howard Hanna’s reach in the primary market for people seeking recreation in Western New York will be of significant benefit to our promotional program,” Kiebler said.
“The Peak,” as most local residents call it, is located near the New York-Pennsylvania border. Chautauqua Lake and the world-renowned Chautauqua Institution are just a short drive from the resort, and the Seneca Alleghany Casino is less than an hour east on Interstate 86.
Under terms of the marketing agreement, Howard Hanna Holt will staff an office at the resort from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week with professional real estate agents available to ensure a pleasant buying experience for customers.
“We pride ourselves on providing exceptional customer service,” Holt said, “and we look forward to offering each and every customer the highest standards of attention and care.”
Howard Hanna Holt, www.howardhannaholt.com, offers comprehensive residential and commercial real estate sales, leasing and related services including real property appraisals, property management, development services, vacation property rentals and traditional rentals.
Information about Peek’n Peak Resort and Spa is available by calling “The Peak Team” toll-free at 1-800-388-3689.
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What this means in short is that there were fewer homes that sold, but not drastically. This can be attributed to the recession or an unwillingness to buy, which is what the Post Journal article seems to point to. However, the sheer amount of property on the market also greatly influences these numbers.
Meanwhile the rise in the median home price shows that the values throughout the county have not collapsed as they have in so many other areas. Real Estate in Chautauqua County sells at a reasonable price, and was not artificially inflated as it was in other areas, so there was no bubble to burst.
Combine this with low interest rates and government incentives like first-time home buyers tax credit and it makes this a great time to buy real estate in our area.
Howard Hanna Holt, www.howardhannaholt.com, offers comprehensive residential and commercial real estate sales, leasing and related services including real property appraisals, property management, development services, vacation property rentals and traditional rentals.
The company has permanent offices in Fredonia, Mayville and Westfield, and seasonal offices on the grounds of Chautauqua Institution and at the Bemus Bay condominiums (www.bemusbaycondos.com) in Bemus Point.
Howard Hanna is the third largest independent real estate company in the United States, the country's fifth largest full service real estate company and the sixth largest mortgage banking company in the nation.
~Nick Holt
