Most everyone probably assumes that the $8,000 first time homebuyer tax credit will be renewed before it expires at the end of November.
The Senate bill sponsored by Johnny Isakson actually proposes to increase the credit to $15,000 and have it apply to all home buyers, not just first time buyers. The main arguement for doing this is that we currently have a market of about 40 percent first time buyers, 30 percent investors, and only 30 percent regular buyers who normally make up the bulk of the market. The move up buyer market is very thin. A $15,000 credit might get the move up buyers back into the market. Still with deficits running high there seems little chance that Congress will tack on to the existing arrangement.
In fact, there is opposition to any renewal from some camps, including from many economists. The argument is that most people who have purchased would have bought the house anyway, so as we've reported earlier, the cost for each additional buyer resulting from the credit is much higher than $8,000.
