Long Beach/Southern California Real Estate

2/17/2015

Energy-Efficiency Upgrades and Residential Energy Tax Credits for 2014

If you made your home more energy efficient in 2014, you might qualify for the residential energy tax credit.

Tax credits are especially valuable because they let you offset what you owe the IRS dollar for dollar for up to 10% of the amount you spent on certain home energy-efficiency upgrades.

The credit carries a lifetime cap of $500 (less for some products), so if you’ve used it in years past, you’ll have to subtract prior tax credits from that $500 limit. Lucky for you, there’s no cap on how much you’ll save on utility bills thanks to your energy-efficiency upgrades.

Among the upgrades that might qualify for the credit:

Biomass stoves

Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning

Insulation

Roofs (metal and asphalt)

Water heaters (non-solar)

Windows, doors, and skylights

To claim the credit, file IRS Form 5695 with your return, the 2014 version may be found at their website with the instructions.

2/12/2015

What is the January 2015 Real Estate Profile of Long Beach, Cerritos, Lakewood and Rossmoor?

Here is a brief summary of January 2015 sales, compared to January 2014:

Long Beach - Median sales price for a single family home: $481,000 (up 5.8%), housing inventory down 22%, with only 2.2 months supply of inventory on the market.

Cerritos - Median sales price for a single family home: $602,000 (up 3%), housing inventory down 9% with only 2.1 month supply of inventory on the market.

Lakewood - Median sales price for a single family home: $443,500 (up 3%), housing inventory down 44%, with 1.4 months supply of inventory on the market.

Rossmoor - Median sales price for a single family home: $807,500 (up from $800,000), housing inventory still at 2.6 months supply of inventory on the market.

By checking points along the graph, prior months' sales prices are seen. Long Beach and Cerritos are down, Lakewood and Rossmoor are up. This is a live graph, and is updated with each month's sales.

Would you like to know what buyers' home buying motivations are? Buyers who purchased brand new homes did so because of fewer electrical and plumbing problems. Sellers who take this and other items into account when preparing their home for sale are less likely to get a laundry list of repairs desired by buyers.