You may have noticed I didn’t say extend the First Time Homebuyer tax credit.  I really feel this needs to be expanded to anyone who wants to buy a primary residence.  We have seen good, steady gains in selling the inventory in the first time home buyer sector through the $8000 credit this year.  It hasn’t been a run on funds like the cash for clunkers which is probably good.  The benefit has been there but people still have to have good credit and want to make a move to take advantage. 

I have heard that extending this credit for 1 year and expanding it to all homebuyers who want to buy a primary residence would cost us about 1% of the 700 billion that has been set aside to help get out of this recession.  This would be an appropriate move to solidify the housing market in a time of tough economics.  I’ve been telling my agent for months if not a year now that it all goes back to jobs but when a house is sold that creates jobs as well.  Bank personnel, plumbers, contractors, electricians, home inspectors, Realtors, movers, and on and on have a job because a house is sold.

If you are a Realtor please help NAR push for an extension of the tax credit by going to http://bit.ly/extendcredit.  You will login with your NAR number and send a note to your local government representative.