TIME IS TICKING!

The $8000 tax credit has provided an incentive for many first-time buyers to enter the housing market. Personally, I've had an opportunity to assist five couples with the purchase of their first home this year! Should the tax credit be extended??? I'm curious what readers think!

clipped from rebac.net ECONOMISTS ENCOURAGE TAX CREDIT EXTENSION When Congress passed an $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers last winter, it was intended as a dose of shock therapy during a crisis. Now the question is becoming whether the housing market can function without it. As many as 40 percent of all home buyers this year will qualify for the credit. It is on track to cost the government $15 billion, more than twice the amount that was projected when Congress passed the stimulus bill in February. In the view of the real estate industry and some economists, all that money is well spent. They contend the credit is doing what it was meant to do, encouraging a recovery in the housing market that is gathering steam. Analysts say the credit is directly responsible for several hundred thousand home sales. Skeptics argue that most of the money is going to people who would have bought a home anyway.