First-Time Homebuyers' Tax Credit About to Fade Away

The tax credit for first-time homebuyers— created as part of the federal stimulus— is about to expire, which has a few people who were sucking from its teat anxious get it renewed for another year. Those people include the real estate industry at large, including California's, which as we all well know has been littered with foreclosures and still has a weak market. One proposal on the table would increase the $8,000 tax credit to $15,000, which one estimate says would double its cost from $15 billion to $30 billion. Critics of the program have noted the tax credit mainly subsidizes people who are already going to buy houses (85 percent of the tax credit recipients), rather than spurring sales that wouldn't have otherwise occurred. Proponents, however, aren't few, at least in Congress: there have been more than 20 bills put forward to extend or expand the tax credit.
· First-time home buyer tax credit set to expire [Curbed SF]