They say that time always changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.
Andy Warhol (1928-1987)

MENU: 1) La venta de una propiedad vieja y la compra de una nueva. 2) Avoiding Foreclosure.

Para acogerse al alivio contributivo que concede la ley, la adquisición de la nueva residencia no tiene necesariamente que efectuarse mediante una compraventa.
Si usted vende su residencia principal y compra una nueva, puede tener que pagarle contribuciones al Gobierno si en la venta recibe una ganancia Esa situación se daría si el precio que usted paga por la residencia nueva es menor que el precio pagado por la residencia vieja En este caso, la diferencia entre un precio y el otro seria la ganancia que usted tendría que reconocer y sobre ella pagar la cantidad correspondiente como ganancia de capital a largo plazo al Departamento de Hacienda.
Por el contrario, si el precio de la residencia nueva es igual o mayor al pagado por la vieja, entonces usted no tiene que reconocer ganancia alguna en la venta de esta, siempre y cuando que la compra de la nueva residencia se lleve a cabo dentro de los dos años siguientes a la fecha en que se efectuó la venta de la vieja residencia Si deja pasar esos dos años, pierde el beneficio.Puede ocurrir, sin embargo, que usted haya hecho mejoras a su residencia principal. En ese caso, al precio pagado por ella puede añadirle todo el dinero que hubiera invertido en las mejoras para de ese modo aumentar la base contributiva sobre la cual va a decidirse" si ha tenido una ganancia o no.Asi, por ejemplo, si el precio pagado por su residencia fue de $100,000, pero usted le hizo mejoras valoradas en $20,000, la base contributiva para de-terminar si recibe una ganancia de capital al adquirir una nueva residencia, serian $120,000 y, por consiguiente, si el precio pactado por esta es esa misma cantidad o una mayor, no tendría que reconocer ganancia algunaUtilizando el mismo ejemplo anterior, si usted no le hizo mejoras a su residencia, la base contributiva serian $100,000, o sea el precio pagado por la vieja residencia, en cuyo caso tendría una ganancia de $20,000.
Esa ganancia puede usted tributarla como una ganancia de capital, en cuyo caso tendría que pagarle al Departamento de Hacienda el 10% de esos $20,000.0 puede usted, si le resulta mas conveniente, incluirla en su planilla de contribución sobre ingresos como parte de su ingresos bruto y tributar dicha ganancia al tipo contributivo regular establecido por el • Código de Rentas Internas.

Debo agregar que para que usted cualifique para recibir el beneficio contributivo que concede la ley, la segunda residencia, o sea la nueva adquisición, tiene que estar localizada en Puerto Rico. Si la ganancia la utiliza para comprar una nueva residencia en Florida, por ejemplo, entonces no es usted elegible para recibir ese alivio contributivo y tendría que reconocer como una ganancia los $20,000 recibidos según en ejemplo arriba mencionado.

Es importante saber que si se cumplen los requisitos antes mencionados, usted no tiene que utilizar todo el efectivo recibido en la venta de su residencia para pagar el costo de la residencia nueva Puede utilizar parte del mismo, retener la diferencia y usarla para lo que desee y pagar el balance del precio con un préstamo hipotecario. El método de pago del costo de la nueva residencia, pues, no es lo importante.
Para acogerse al alivio contributivo que concede la ley, la adquisición de la nueva residencia no tiene necesariamente que efectuarse mediante una compraventa. Puede usted adquirirla mediante permuta (cambio de una propiedad por otra) y recibe el mismo beneficio, sujeto, claro esta, a que se cumplan los requisitos antes mencionados.
Toda vez que lo importante en estos casos es por un lado el precio pagado por su residencia y el pagado por la nueva, es esencial que conserve copia de las escrituras de esas transacciones, así como la prueba documental de las mejoras hechas a la primera y lo pagado por ello, a fin de que pueda de ese modo establecer los hechos determinantes que requiere la ley y recibir el alivio contributivo que esta concede.No obstante lo dicho anteriormente, la ley le concede un privilegio especial a las personas de 60 años de edad o mas que hayan poseído y usado una propiedad como residencia principal por mas de tres anos durante el periodo de cinco anos terminados en la fecha de venta de la misma, consistente en una exclusión de $150,000 de la ganancia.Esta exclusión aplica para años contributivos comenzados a partir del 1 de enero de 2005 y puede ser ejercida una sola vez en la vida del contribuyente.Reconocemos la recopilación de la antes incluida información al Lcdo. Rodolfo Glück.If you don't pay your monthly mortgage payments over a period of time, the mortgage company can foreclose. This means you will lose title to your property and may be evicted from your home.

A foreclosure becomes part of your credit report and may adversely affect your ability to obtain credit in the future. To avoid possible foreclosure, it is helpful to have money saved to cover several months of your housing costs in case of an unexpected emergency, like job loss, divorce or separation, serious illness, or the death of a loved one.
• What if You Cannot Pay Your Mortgage?
• What if You Can No Longer Afford to Keep Your Home?
• Beware of Scam Artists

What if You Cannot Pay Your Mortgage?
1. Call your mortgage company now!
As soon as you realize that you are unable to make your payments, talk about your circumstances with the mortgage company to which you send your monthly mortgage payment. Your options to retain your home are most effective when you are only one or two payments behind.
Too many people in financial trouble wait until the last minute to call their mortgage company. Some hope their problems will quickly resolve themselves. Others worry the mortgage company will rush to collection or foreclosure. The truth is: the longer you wait, the greater your chance of losing your home. If you are unable to make your mortgage payment, don't delay–call your mortgage company immediately. In a significant number of all foreclosures, the borrowers did not return their mortgage company's calls or written invitations to discuss payment options.Depending upon your situation, your mortgage company may be able to provide you with temporary financial relief. Here are a number of alternatives to discuss with your mortgage company.
• Forbearance is an agreement to temporarily let you pay less than the full amount of your mortgage payment, or pay nothing at all, during the forbearance period. Mortgage companies may consider forbearance when you can show that funds from a bonus, tax refund, or other source will let you bring the mortgage current at a specific time in the future.
• A reinstatement occurs when you pay your mortgage company the total amount you are behind, in a lump sum, by a specific date. This is often combined with forbearance.
• A repayment plan is an agreement that gives you a fixed amount of time to repay the amount you are behind by combining a portion of what is past due with your regular monthly payment. At the end of the repayment period you have gradually paid back the amount of your mortgage that was delinquent.
• A loan modification is a written agreement between you and your mortgage company that permanently changes one or more of the original terms of your note to make the payments more affordable. Common loan modifications includeo Adding missed payments to the existing loan balanceo Making an adjustable-rate mortgage into a fixed-rate mortgageo Extending the number of years you have to repay

2. Contact A Non-Profit Housing Or Credit Counseling Agency

Non-profit housing and credit counselors can help you analyze your financial situation. They also can help you organize a budget to pay your mortgage and other monthly expenses–without your mortgage company's direct involvement. Finally, these agencies can help you find and take advantage of local services or programs that provide financial, legal, medical or other support.

You can find a credit counseling agency in your local phone book or by contacting the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) at (800) 569-4287 on weekdays between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Eastern time. You can find a list of HUD-approved agencies on their web site.

What If You Can No Longer Afford to Keep Your Home?

If you cannot or do not want to keep your home, your mortgage company can work with you to avoid foreclosure. This can help reduce the negative effect on your credit reputation. There are several different ways this might occur depending upon your financial circumstances:
• An assumption permits a qualified buyer to take over your mortgage debt and pay the mortgage payments, even if the mortgage is non-assumable. As a result, you may be able to sell your property and avoid foreclosure.
• If you can sell your house but the sale proceeds are less than the total amount you owe on your mortgage, your mortgage company may agree to a short payoff and write off the portion of your mortgage that exceeds the net proceeds from the sale.
• Your mortgage company may agree to a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure if you agree to voluntarily transfer title of your property to your mortgage company in exchange for cancellation of your mortgage debt. In most cases, you must attempt to sell your home for its fair market value for at least 90 days before a mortgage company will consider this option. This option may be unavailable if there are other liens on your home, such as judgments from other creditors, second mortgages, or tax liens.

Beware of Scam Artists

Predatory lenders often target people in financial distress. They try to panic you into high cost mortgages, making financial problems worse and increasing your risk of losing your home. Predatory lenders usually offer loans with
• High interest rates
• Broker fees
• Unnecessary costs like pre-paid life insurance
• Unaffordable repayment terms

Here are some tips to protect you from predatory lenders:

• Be suspicious of anyone who offers you "bargain loans," whether they mail, fax or e-mail an offer to you, call you on the phone, or come to your door.
• Beware of promises of "No Credit? Bad Credit? No Problem!" and offers that are only "good for a very short time".
• Avoid lenders who encourage you to borrow more than you need or more than the value of your home.
• Beware of terms that change at the last minute or offer next-day approval based on prepayments or up-front fees.• Do not sign anything you do not understand. It is your right and duty to ask questions.
• Beware of phony credit counseling agencies charging high fees for financial counseling services you can get for little or no charge through non-profit agencies. You can find a list of HUD-approved agencies by visiting their web site.

REMEMBER: Anything that sounds too good to be true usually is! If you suspect a predatory mortgage company is targeting you, call your local office of consumer affairs, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an approved credit counseling agency or your local Don't Borrow Trouble campaign.

How Freddie Mac Helps

Ask your mortgage company if Freddie Mac owns your mortgage. We require our mortgage companies to look for options that help borrowers who are delinquent on their mortgages keep their homes and avoid foreclosure.

Working together with our mortgage companies, from 2000 through 2004 we have helped over 176,000 financially troubled borrowers keep their homes.

Resources
• Get a list of housing counseling agencies from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
• Get debt advice from the National Foundation on Credit Counseling.
• Learn more about managing your finances by taking Freddie Mac's online credit education course, CreditSmart®.

Is the housing market dead, flat, or about to make a surprised increase?
Who knows, and quite frankly, who really who cares.
After reading what's on this portal, you will figure out that no matter what's going on with the economy, finances, or what's going on within the real estate industry, people will always need a place to live.
It doesn't take a, sophisticated techie yuppie to figure out that owning a home or owning several homes, has far more benefits than renting. Just see for yourself!