Mortgage

Housing prices are rising throughout Nevada, which means rental prices are going up as well. As the housing supply continues to try to catch up with demand, this upward trend promises to continue.

There will be two events hosted by Sassafras on Oct. 23 and 25, to provide an opportunity to help raise money for Nichole Millim. The events will feature live music, raffle drawings, drinks and dinner specials. A percentage of the restaurant’s proceeds for the two evenings will also be donated to Nic’s fundraiser account.

If you cannot make it to the fundraiser, you can donate at the GoFundMe account here with ALL proceeds benefitting the care of Nichole.

Beginning Oct. 3, most mortgage transactions will be required to be completed on new disclosure forms created by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The new forms – the Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure – have been designed to improve consumer understanding of the mortgage process sooner, assist consumers with comparison shopping, and prevent unexpected issues at the time of closing.

Do you like shopping, Carson City? Check out the Vintage Fair at Du Sorrella downtown. The last Farmers Market of the season is at Third and Curry, so get your fix of fresh fruits, veggies, honey and more before the leaves fall. Wild Horse Children’s Theater is hosting a huge Warehouse and Multi-family sale; if you need a Halloween costume, you won’t want to miss it. The Teixeira Pavilion at Mills Park is where you’ll find the Autumn Earth Spirit Faire with vendors, workshops, and more.

Buying a home has long been the American dream, but it’s not always easy. While many can afford the monthly mortgage -which oftentimes is less than rent - coming up with the down payment can be daunting.

That’s where the Nevada Rural Housing Authority (NRHA) comes in. Founded in 1973, NRHA has a mission to put rural Nevadans into homes they can afford, which is the cornerstone for building healthy communities.

Based on that philosophy, NRHA created the Home At Last™ (HAL) Home Buyer program in 2006, providing qualified rural Nevada families with the help they need to purchase a home.

It is clear, getting divorced can be a time to consider some financial matters. If the house is sold before the divorce, the full $500,000 home sale gain exclusion rules can apply. Some folks are well advised to sell the home and both parties get new housing.

That can help reduce costs of insurance, property taxes and interest if there is a mortgage. Now that real estate prices are moving up again, you might be better off to sell the house.

Late last year, Congress finally passed various tax law extensions. That did not give much time for individuals and business owners to react. By waiting until the last few days of the year, it did show Congress does not understand the importance of having tax laws that are consistent and easily understood.

The early bird catches the worm and in this case, the early bird gets special pricing for tickets to Lake Tahoe’s only farm-to-fork festival Sample the Sierra.

Early bird tickets for Sample the Sierra are available until August 1 and allow you to attend the festival for just $30 to fully experience dozens of restaurants, wineries, distilleries and breweries. Tickets will be priced at $40 per person from August 1 until the festival on September 6.

Recently a client brought in an IRS Notice that said she owed $2,834 because of a 2013 form 1099-MISC that showed she had income of $14,805. It took some extra research but we sent a letter to IRS that said she owed nothing because the form was issued in error.

USDA Rural Development and its two close housing partners, Nevada Housing Division and the Nevada Rural Housing Authority on Tuesday celebrated National Homeownership Month with a "Power Hour" to brief real estate professionals on the changes in real estate law resulting from the 2015 Nevada State Legislature and to honor their work to leverage homeownership across the state.

USDA Rural Development and its two close housing partners, Nevada Housing Division and the Nevada Rural Housing Authority on Tuesday celebrated National Homeownership Month with a "Power Hour" to brief real estate professionals on the changes in real estate law resulting from the 2015 Nevada State Legislature and to honor their work to leverage homeownership across the state.

A few folks have experienced having debt cancelled. The question is whether or not that cancellation of debt is taxable income.

It could be credit card debt that was reduced or cancelled. It might be a mortgage on real estate that was reduced or cancelled. Fortunately, Congress did some things right. There are several instances when the cancellation of debt is NOT taxable income. Here are a few examples.

New and Returning Student Registration for the 2015-2016 School Year
August 4 through August 14

New Students (All grade levels including Pre-K and Kindergarten):
• Parents will need to supply a copy of the following documents to their neighborhood school:
• new student enrollment form (which can be found on our website under Enrolling Students),
• copy of the student’s birth certificate,
• immunization records, and
• residency verification (property deed, mortgage document, voter registration card, etc.)

Especially older adults have a choice to consider, rent or own a home? Like most questions, it gets answered with more questions.
Do you want to stay in your home in retirement or do you want to move? If you stay, what will it cost for property taxes, insurance, maintenance, repairs and utilities? Will that total housing cost be easy or difficult to pay on the retirement income?

Greater Nevada Mortgage (GNM) has named James Anderson as its new Executive Vice President of Mortgage Lending. Anderson will lead GNM’s strategic initiatives and oversee sales, servicing, operations, and secondary marketing, as well as the relationship with parent company, Greater Nevada Credit Union.

The Nevada Rural Housing Authority is hosting a free Homebuyer’s Expo on Saturday, April 18, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Bonanza Room at the Nugget, 1100 Nugget Ave, Sparks.

The Expo is designed to educate prospective homeowners on the process of purchasing a home and ways to prepare for homeownership down the road. There will be presenters from NRHA, USDA Rural Development, Financial Guidance Center, lenders and more.

When recession struck the Silver State, it was Nevadans who pulled together and were the most charitable, according to IRS statistics compiled by a national nonprofit consulting agency.

From around December of 2007 to June of 2009, the recession kicked off by the subprime mortgage crisis, affected the entire nation and especially Nevada, among the hardest hit. The states that experienced some of the biggest decreases in median income actually increased their charitable giving the most, according to PlentyConsulting.com.

We sometimes get the question, “Can I deduct the mortgage interest part of the home mortgage payments I paid even if I am not the owner?”

A new Tax Court Memo decision (Puentes, TC Memo 2014-224) tries to clarify the answer. The facts seem to be: L’s brother B bought a house in California in 2002 with a down payment and a mortgage loan secured by the property. B was the sole legal owner of the property. B paid all of the required mortgage payments until he lost his job. In 2010 L (and her father) lived in the house and paid the property taxes, insurance premiums and mortgage payments.

More than $161 million was invested in rural Nevada in 2014 by the Department of Agriculture's Rural Development agency to support housing, business and community facilities. Since 2009, the rural agency has provided more than $987 million to strengthen rural Nevada’s families and communities.

The following is in answer to Brendan Trainor's RN&R Nov 6th column, The power of gold and silver.

http://www.newsreview.com/reno/power-of-gold-and/content?oid=15407117

Brendan Trainor's "Austrian School" theories won't add to his understanding of the real world of banking and finance.

Individual income taxpayers have a choice. They can claim the Itemized Deductions (medical, taxes, interest, contributions, other expenses) on form 1040, Schedule A. Or they can choose the “standard deduction” allowed by the tax law.

Sometimes the total of Itemized Deductions is just a little more than the standard deduction (or just a little less).

Sun West Mortgage Company, Inc. NMLS ID 3277, (Sun West) is proud to announce that its national spokesman, Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez will be participating in the 25th Annual American Century Golf Championship at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course at Lake Tahoe.

Home sales throughout Lake Tahoe continued to slow throughout the first half of the year, while home prices remained steady, according to a quarterly report released by Lake Tahoe-based real estate company Chase International. Despite an 18 percent decline in overall sales volume, the figures are still significantly higher than those of 2012.

This week's episode of Women to Women features Kris Smith, a mortgage banker from Bank of The West in Carson City.

In its third season, Women to Women Nevada, hosted by Carol Paz of Carson City, is televised on Charter Media every Thursday at 7 p.m. on Channel 190 in Carson City, Gardnerville, Dayton, Reno, Sparks, Fernley, Fallon and Lake Tahoe. The program also airs Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays at 8-8:30 p.m. and on Sundays from 11:30 a.m. to noon. Episodes also appear every Friday on Carson Now.

Ministers have a special tax benefit for the amount of Housing Allowance they receive. They can exclude from gross income for income tax purposes the rental value of homes furnished by churches as part of their compensation.

This is also allowed for the portion of a retired minister’s pension that is designated as a rental allowance by the national governing body of a religious denomination having complete control over the retirement fund.

Today is the official graduation ceremony of the Carson City Leadership Institute Class of 2014. They’ve spent 8 months of intensive study learning about Carson City and have made new friends and business acquaintances.

Friday night at the Chamber’s annual meeting, which is sold out, the class will unveil its unique and historic class project that has the souls of some very historic figures, including our founder Abram Curry, dancing on their graves.

Silver Oak Golf Course owner Garth Richards has taken steps to buy the struggling Empire Ranch Golf Course, according to documents submitted this week to the Carson City Assessor's Office.

GSR Investments, a company connected with Richards, owner of Silver Oak Golf Course, has bought the deed of trust to the struggling 27-hole Empire Ranch Golf Course and has paid outstanding taxes owed to the city.

Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto announced this week a $550 million joint state-federal settlement with mortgage lender and servicer SunTrust Mortgage Inc. to address mortgage origination, servicing, and foreclosure abuses. It is estimated that eligible Nevada homeowner’s will receive approximately $2.8 million in loan modifications as part of the settlement.

Some high earning individuals were surprised when they got their 2013 Individual Income Tax Return. They paid more taxes in 2013 than they did on the same income in 2012. Several different tax laws caused the higher federal income taxes.

The Itemized Deductions on Schedule A of form 1040 were reduced if single individuals had more than $250,000 of total income. Even their home mortgage interest and charitable deductions were reduced to less than they paid. Married couples saw the “phase down” of Itemized Deductions if their total income was $300,000 or more.

Nicole Larrimore Clark has been promoted to Director of Homebuyer Services for the Nevada Rural Housing Authority. In her new capacity, Clark will manage the agency’s Home At Last™ programs throughout the state of Nevada.

Clark has been with the agency since 2010, most recently in the position of Mortgage & Marketing Specialist, overseeing the agency’s Home At Last activity in the northern half of the state. She earned her BS in business administration from Southern Oregon University.