Real Estate Information

ECONOMIC VITALITY - The business of creating, sustaining, and enhancing public and private wealth in Virginia Beach, consistent with the overall well-being and quality of the Community. This includes focusing on:

• Economic Diversity and Growth
• Business Climate
• Community Environment
• Work Opportunity and Security
• Opportunity for Upward Mobility and Success
• Regional Setting and Relationships

SAFE COMMUNITY - A partnership between government and citizens creating a comprehensive and quality system that effectively prevents and responds to threats to health and safety and promotes health and safety. Taking a pro-active approach to being safe and healthy, and having access to health and safety care and services.

QUALITY PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT  - A unique and diverse developed and natural environment which contributes to the City’s economy and is visually pleasing, safe, functionally and environmentally sound. It creates pride in the Community. It consists of:

• Quality commercial, public, and agricultural areas that meet Community needs.
• An efficient and safe multi-modal transportation system which provides the mobility of people and the movement of goods and services.
• Utility systems that are reliable and efficient.
• Housing and neighborhoods that are maintained to increase economic value and balanced with needs.

CULTURAL & RECREATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES  - The business of creating, nurturing and strengthening accessible and sustainable cultural and recreational opportunities for all ages and interests; opportunities which stimulate the mind, body, imagination and spirit, and allow for participation for personal interest, achievement, relaxation, enjoyment, and artistic expression.

QUALITY EDUCATION FOR LIFELONG LEARNING  - The business of creating and continually enhancing a cooperative network of lifelong learning opportunities, facilitating access to the network, and promoting a Community focus on the importance of education and continued development of individuals. Ensuring that all children come to school “ready to learn” and that all students are empowered with the knowledge and skills necessary to meet the challenges of the future.

FAMILY & YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES  - The business of fostering, through families, the health, economic vitality, safety and well-being of individuals in the City. Creating a partnership between members of the family, schools, government and other communities to foster opportunities to enhance the way families, live, work and play based on an acknowledgment and commitment to shared responsibility. Creating a concept of Community that will enhance the desire for collaboration to reach solutions and build trust.

QUALITY ORGANIZATION - Align the City government's shared or common resources and system processes with the city's strategy and to City Council's priorities. Support the strategic and functional delivery of services to our citizens and customers.  Provides support, direction, and services to citizens and visitors, City Council, City staff, and other entities to maintain and nurture a quality community for Virginia Beach.

That's especially true if you commonly fudge the value of donated items.

In 2007, the Internal Revenue Service will hold you accountable for accurately documenting the value of donated goods under a new tax edict tucked away in the Pension Protection Act of 2006, signed by President Bush this summer.

The broader act is aimed at curing the ailing defined-benefit pension system but it includes a host of unrelated provisions, including one that governs required, accurate documentation when you claim tax breaks for gifts, including household goods trucked off to charitable organizations.

Under the current law, the IRS pretty much takes you at your word when you claim a tax break for donations of money or items you've valued at up to $250. Documentation is required for larger amounts and, of course, if you are audited.

Next year, you might want to put a check in the Salvation Army's Christmas Kettle and make sure that futon is really worth $50 -- if you take the deduction.

Under the new provision, you won't have to file your receipts, canceled checks or other donation documentation, but you'd better have proof on hand.

IRS will keep tabs on you through a form that's already necessary when you give goods, IRS Form 8283, "Noncash Charitable Contributions" which comes with instructions, both of which you can download from http://www.irs.gov/.

Along with newly required documentation, the IRS will be beefing up enforcement of existing penalties that rain down on you if you overstate the value or adjusted basis of donated goods.

The penalty is 20 percent of the underpayment of tax related to the overstatement if the value or adjusted basis claimed on the return is 200 percent or more of the correct amount, and you underpaid your tax by more than $5,000 because of the overstatement.

The penalty jumps to 40 percent if the value or adjusted basis claimed on the return is 400 percent or more of the correct amount and you underpaid your tax by more than $5,000 because of the overstatement.

And of course you'll have to pay any taxes that were actually due.

The Salvation Army (http://www.satruck.com), Goodwill Industries (http://www.goodwillpromo.org) and other charities offer suggested values for a host of items, but it's up to you to make sure you get it right.

If you are a frequent household goods donator it makes sense to get more assistance from the source of the new rules. IRS Publication 561 "Determining The Value Of Donated Property" or theIRS Web page (http://www.irs.gov/) with the same name, both teach you how to value everything from aircraft and household goods and to real estate and stocks.


Written by Broderick Perkins

Years in the making, a federal tax deduction for mortgage insurance is all but assured after bills which include the provision were passed last month by both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

Only borrowers who close loans during and after 2007 and make less than $100,000 a year will be eligible to deduct all the private or government mortgage insurance paid for the year.

A tax deduction reduces taxable income, leaving less income to tax. The new break with result in an average tax savings of between $300 and $350, according to Howard Glaser, a Washington lobbyist and former senior official in the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

During the past five years, about one in five new loans have included mortgage insurance, according to Jeff Lubar, a spokesman for the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America, a trade group for private insurers, but the number of new policies has fallen.

The group's "2006-2007 Fact Book &Membership Directory" reports nearly 1.6 million private policies and about 700,000 government policies (for FHA and VA loans) were written in 2005. In 2002 there were approximately 2.3 million private policies and about 1.6 million government policies written.

The growth in the use of piggy-back loans, down-payment assistance programs, other creative financing and rapid home price appreciation that allows home owners to refinance have all contributed to the declining number of policies.

Maligned years ago when two in five new loans were saddled with the coverage, and before laws mandated full annual disclosures and the right to cancellation, mortgage insurance has its pluses and minuses.

Because buyers with down payments of less than 20 percent have higher default rates, the insurance is typically mandated on low down payment loans or first loans that don't also come with a second or "piggy-back" loan to bring the down payment to 20 percent.

The insurance protects the lender from default, but the premiums are paid by the home owner.

The premiums can be $100 or more a month but the extra cost can help a home buyer qualify for a home that otherwise could have been out of reach. The insurance can also help a buyer buy a larger home, buy a home sooner and hold onto some cash after they've purchased a home with a smaller down payment.

Mortgage insurance has been around in some form since the late 1800s, but it wasn't until 1999 and the federal "Homeowners Protection Act of 1997" when home owners gained disclosure reforms and broader insurance cancellation rights.

Before the law, many borrowers could only cancel by refinancing to a loan with a balance 80 percent or less of the home's value, say, because the home's value had appreciated. Many who wanted to keep their current mortgage, but cancel because their home's value had jumped, were at the mercy of the lender.

Since 1999, private mortgage insurers must annually disclose the amount of insurance paid and automatically cancel mortgage insurance when a homeowner pays down the mortgage to 78 percent of the original purchase price.

A lender also must cancel the insurance if a home owner requests it and the mortgage balance is 80 percent of the original value of the house.

In both cases, the borrower must be current on mortgage payments and meet other requirements. Refinancing to a loan that's 80 percent or less of the home's value remains an option.

Unfortunately, the law doesn't apply to government insured loans and some others.

With a presidential signature, which is likely, the new law will allow the tax deduction for all mortgage insurance -- private and government -- paid by qualifying tax payers.


Written by Broderick Perkins

Your Realtor® will tell you when they show buyers a cluttered home, no matter how lovely it could be, prospective buyers just can't picture it and will usually pass or make an offer for much less than the seller thinks the home is worth. Yes, packaging matters. It matters when you're buying a product in a store and it matters when you're selling your home.

Think about the way model homes are packaged for display. There's so little in them; yet they look just perfectly appealing. Of course, that's not how any of us really live. But it's how consumers want to see the home. The fact is, maybe we could live with a little less -- at least while our home is on the market. After all, much of the clutter ends up collecting dust! And since you are moving, packing up some of your belongings before you actually move out (or even getting a tax credit for donating items to a charity) will help you when you finally sell your home and are ready to move.

Even if you're not in the market to sell, clearing clutter will give you a sense of freedom (and the ability to eventually accumulate more). Since the holidays just passed, you probably are already bombarded with stuff and maybe even wondering where to put it all.

The problem is many of us have a hard time letting go of things. So clutter builds up fast and furious and undoing the clutter becomes a frustrating task. But it doesn't have to be. Here are some tips on de-cluttering. Wouldn't it be nice to have a home that when you stepped inside you felt a sense of spaciousness -- everything seemed to have a place rather than items jammed into every last inch of the room? Cabinets and closets closed properly -- not like when you've gone on a three-week vacation to Italy and now you have to sit atop your luggage and tug roughly on the zipper to get it closed.

De-cluttering is a project that once you take the time to unload a few items, you often find they're never missed. And consider this, studies have shown that people waste several weeks a year looking for misplaced items that are buried beneath clutter. So let's get started.

First, don't de-clutter by making more room for clutter. As crazy as this is, true pack rats merely move their clutter from one location to another throughout the year without ever throwing anything out. When one area is too cluttered, they add shelves or even room additions to house their clutter.

Start with non-emotional items and rooms. You're less likely to have trouble throwing out things if you don't have an emotional attachment to them. Do you really need 12 different measuring cups? But here's a tip, I don't recommend throwing out your spouse's trinket collection (no matter how tempted you are) without first consulting him/her. Otherwise, you might end up listing your home by divorce default! Instead, start with your own stuff and lead by example.

Next go to the bathroom cabinets. Get rid of old prescriptions and products that you rarely use.

Clean out the clutter from under the bed. There are likely items that you haven't used in years underneath the bed just collecting dust. Nothings worse than viewing a home and the buyer lifts a corner of the bed's dust ruffle to reveal a mixture of clutter, dust, and pet hair -- yuck!

Walk-in-closets are so named because you should be able to move about in them. But some people have them overflowing. Buyers can't even squeeze inside, nor would they want to in that condition. So, the desirable walk-in-closet now becomes a negative for the buyer. Chances are there are clothes in your closet that probably haven't been worn in a long time.

Clearing clutter not only makes your home appealing to others, it's a richly satisfying feeling to create a sense of organization and space. And just think what you could do if you didn't have to spend weeks looking beneath clutter to find something you've misplaced.


Written by Phoebe Chongchua