Wisconsin Transfer Tax Fee Shot Down!

Recently, Gov. Jim Doyle tried to pass a bill to double the WI transfer tax fee. The transfer tax fee is the tax you pay on your home when you sell it, and stands at $3 per every $1,000 of the sale price.

I am very happy to say that this bill has been defeated and the tax will not raise!

The National Realtors Association and the Wisconsin Realtors Association have worked hard to protect home sellers and we have lobbied against this bill since day 1. Our local market remains strong with thanks to their combined efforts.

Milwaukee Housing Market

I recently was the guest speaker at a First Time Homebuyer Seminar. One thing I really wanted to do was ease their minds about the local housing market. I found an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal (September 11, 2007) that pretty much summed it all up and read that to the class. It was a letter to the editor written by Mike Ruzicka, President of the Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors, and it goes exactly like this:

HOUSING

News locally is not all doom and gloom

While national housing figures are newsworthy, running the Sept. 7 article with its fervent headline "Housing market in for worse?" on the front page was a disservice to readers. Implying that national housing statistics directly apply here is like checking the weather for the entire United States and assuming the temperature is the same in Boise, Idaho, Houston and Milwaukee.

Foreclosures have increased, but 96% of homeowners in the state are not in trouble and are making their payments. The small increase in foreclosures we have seen is largely a dynamic of the subprime market: greedy Wall Street firms backing loans with overly optimistic terms to people who were marginally able to get into the housing market.

Over the next year, about 10,000 adjustable rate mortgages will reset in our market, but very few will default. That is because homeowners will refinance, just as they had intended when they originally took out the loans.

Readers would have been much better informed with just the facts and less zealous innuendo. The market may get worse - in seven other states. Locally, homebuyers can expect an economy that is in good shape, a variety of homes to choose from and interest rates in the 6% range.