For the third time this year, the National Flood Insurance Program lapsed which means if your lender mandates you have flood insurance to buy a home, the transaction will not move forward until Congress renews the availability of it.

New Orleans home buyers, Bennett and Leslie Straight are among the thousands of buyers who cannot move forward with their home purchase. "It's mind boggling," she says, "that they can't do this so as to make it possible for people to buy homes and improve the economy."

The Flood Insurance Program expired at the end of May and Congress has yet to reach an agreement on how to renew it.

The National Association of Realtors on June 11 expressed thanks on behalf of America’s homebuyers to three Senators for introducing a measure to extend the present home-buyer tax credit closing deadline to Sept. 30.

They are Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sens. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn.

“As the leading advocate for homeownership and housing issues, NAR commends these Senators for their attentiveness and sensitivity to thousands of qualified home purchasers, who through no fault of their own, are not able to meet the closing deadline of June 30 for the homebuyer tax credit. Now we urge the Senate and the House to act quickly to pass this legislation and ease the minds and pocketbooks of these homebuyers,” said NAR President Vicki Cox Golder, owner of Vicki L. Cox & Associates in Tucson, Ariz.

The measure was offered as an amendment to H.R. 4213, a tax extension bill now in the Senate.

NAR estimates the number of home buyers who have qualified for the tax credit and met the contract deadline of April 30, but who would not be able to close their transaction by the June 30 deadline, could go as high as 180,000. Realtors have reported as many as one-third of qualified applicants have been notified by lenders that their mortgages will not close before June 30 due to the sheer volume of applications in the pipeline.

Rates on 30-year fixed mortgages ticked up this week from the lowest level of the year.

Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate rose to 4.79 percent, up from 4.78 percent last week. A year ago, the rate averaged 5.29 percent.

Rates dropped to a record low of 4.71 percent in December, pushed down by a Federal Reserve program that reduced borrowing costs for consumers. That campaign ended in March.

Rates have fallen further as investors, wary of European turmoil, shifted money into the safety of U.S. Treasury bonds. Mortgage rates tend to track the interest rates paid on long-term Treasury bonds.

Nearly 800 Canadians jammed a hotel ballroom near the Toronto airport Sunday to hear the gospel of Florida real estate.
High-end Brazilian buyers prefer to be wooed more intimately – perhaps at a cocktail party or a small private dinner – but they are just as pumped. Lured by rock-bottom prices, international buyers are now flocking to buy Florida properties. It’s especially true in countries where the currency is strong against the dollar. “We’re telling Canadians this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – the perfect storm,” said Brian Ellis, who heads Toronto-based Florida Home Finders of Canada. “The prices are just incredible and the Canadian dollar has been so strong.” At least three of five buyers in the Greater Downtown Miami condo market are coming from abroad, estimates Jenny Huertas, international sales director for Condo Vultures, a real estate advisory and research firm. The stampede from overseas is “kind of like a foreign subsidy helping us resolve our real estate problems,” said Peter Zalewski, a Condo Vultures principal.

The next few weeks are crucial for home buyers, who need to close a purchase by the end of June to claim the federal home-buyer tax credit. A hiccup during the next month could cost a buyer thousands of dollars.

"If for some unforeseen reason you end up closing on July 1, you lose out on the tax credit," said John T. Walsh, president of Total Mortgage Services in Milford, Conn.

To qualify for the credit of up to $8,000 for first-time buyers and $6,500 for some repeat buyers, a contract had to be in place by April 30. Eligible buyers now need to close those transactions by June 30.