This article comes from the L.A. Times. “The agency clarifies documentation that taxpayers will need in an effort to curtail widespread fraud in the program. Reporting from Washington - Despite blizzards that shut federal offices for days, the Internal Revenue Service issued new guidance Feb. 12 on the two tax credit programs that are powering the country’s real estate markets — the $6,500 credit for repeat buyers and the $8,000 first-time buyer credit.

The new IRS policy clarified documentation that taxpayers need to submit to successfully obtain either credit. When Congress revised the credit programs in November, it ordered the IRS to tighten its rules and monitoring to curtail widespread frauds that had emerged earlier in 2009.

These included fictitious home purchases in which people claimed and received $8,000 checks from the government on transactions that had never occurred. Click here to read the rest of this article.

This post comes from Bloomberg.com. “The Obama administration endorsed a plan to extend an $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers, saying it is helping stabilize the housing market. The tax break, enacted early this year as part of the economic stimulus, has “brought new families into the housing market and contributed to three consecutive months of rising home prices nationwide,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said today in a statement.” Click here to read the rest of this article.

The National Auctioneers Association, a trade group for auction professionals, this week reported that gross receipts for real estate auctions grew about 1.1 percent in 2008, with an estimated $17.1 worth of residential real estate sold at auction.

Bank-owned properties that have completed a foreclosure process (commonly referred to as REOs) were “a major contributor to the industry’s growth in 2008,” NAA reported.

Gross receipts for commercial and industrial real estate auctions fell about 0.5 percent in 2008, to $15.5 billion, NAA also reported. Land and agricultural real estate auctions grew an estimated 0.5 percent to $26 billion in 2008.

In total, all types of real estate sales at auction accounted for an estimated $58.6 billion in gross receipts in 2008, or 21.8 percent of all goods and services sold at auction last year. Overall, gross receipts for all types of auctions dipped about 1 percent in 2008 compared to 2007.

Segments of the auction industry that grew last year include: agricultural machinery and equipment; commercial and industrial machinery and equipment; and charity auctions.

NAA reported “significant decreases in gross revenue” for art, antiques and collectibles (down 9.3 percent), automobiles (down 5.4 percent), and personal property (down 5.1 percent).

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