Revised Stimulus Bill Faces Vote
The price tag of the reworked stimulus bill is $789 billion. It could pass the House and Senate before the weekend and be ready for President Obama to sign by next week.The stimulus bill was finalized on Wednesday after last-minute wrangling on details. Some of the details that are expected to be in the final bill:
Tax breaks for workers that had been set at $1,000 per family or $500 per individual would be scaled back to $800 per family and $400 per individual. The bill breaks down to 35 percent tax cuts, 65 percent spending.
House Prices at 30-year Low
The National Association of Realtors reports that home prices dropped a record 12.4% in 2008 -- the biggest annual drop since the association started recording this information in 1979.
The group reports the median price for a U.S. home sold during the fourth quarter of 2008 fell to $180,100, down from $205,700 during the last quarter of 2007.
The real estate market has been filled with distressed properties, foreclosures and short sales in the past year, which accounted for 45 percent of all sales. The sales volume in Nevada and California and other hard hit states with high foreclosed properties for sales. This flood of foreclosed, discounted properties pushed median prices down.
The largest group of metro areas, 134 out of 153, saw prices decline compared with the last quarter of 2007. Some, like Cape Coral-Ft. Myers, Fla., had prices falling 50.8 percent for the year, to $110,900 from $225,300. Following close was Saginaw, Mich., where prices fell 41.4 percent; Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., prices plunged 40.8 percent; and San Jose, Calif., prices dropped 37.7 percent.