Homebuyer Tax-Credit Extension: Will the Senate Follow the House?

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Home is where the heart is. And, the financial discrepancies, apparently.

The House of Representatives passed a bill yesterday that would enable first-time buyers who signed binding sales contracts before April 1 to receive an $8,000 tax credit if they complete their home purchases by September 30, rather than the initial deadline of June 30.

Now all eyes shift to the senate – which has yet to vote on the matter.

The bill—which would relieve the 180,000 buyers currently caught in the real estate mosh pit provoked by the credit incentive—seems to have come at a convenient time. In a press release optimistically titled, “May Shows a Continued Strong Pace for Existing-Home Sales,” the National Association of Realtors conceded that existing-home sales were down 2.2 percent from April.

But Walter Molony, Senior Public Affairs Specialist for NAR, claims that the decline in sales is actually a result of the delay in tax-credit transactions – the very delays that sparked the need for an extension.

–By Ella Quittner