At a Glance It appeared near dead a few days ago, but the extension of the homebuyer tax credit received a unanimous thumbs up from the Senate yesterday. Prospective homeowners have until September 30th to close the deal to take advantage of the extension.
Battle of the Greens The Obama Administration has been offering Federal funds to states to offer eco-friendly housing financing programs like Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), a program many states use to offer bonds for retrofitting homes. NYT reports that mortgage giants Fannie and Freddie are seeing red over programs like PACE, fearing that homeowners might default on their mortgages after using these types of creative financing. Could this lead to taxpayers forking over more green instead of becoming greener?
A Mecca for More Than Maple Syrup and Hockey For years Canada’s housing industry has been criticized by countries for not taking enough risks. Now, it looks like Canada’s reserved nature has paid off in a big way. Due to their risk-free philosophy in banking, among other areas, Canada’s housing market is one of the only in the world that’s still healthy. Not bad, eh?