After all real estate is what started this mess, so let’s do what we can to fix it, right?   After all the talk, debate, cussin’ and discussin’, they do what?  Raise the first time home buyer credit by an additional $500.  Yep, that’s it.  Five hundred bucks.    Oh, and you don’t have to pay the tax credit back.  Yoo hoo.  

There’s a reason why first time home buyers don’t have a home right now…… because they can’t qualify financially.  Do you think tax planning really factors into a renters mind when they decide to buy a starter home?   The median income for a first-time buyer was $60,600 and typical first-time buyers bought homes costing $165,000.  

This is a worthless piece of legislation, absolutely worthless.  Had you scrapped all other elements of the “stimulus” and simply allowed the $15,000 tax credit for anyone to buy real estate, with no limits or phase outs, it would have helped all sectors of the struggling market.  Understand that a home is more than a commission check in a Realtors pocket and in a builder’s bank account.  That is money going to local municipalities for fees and taxes, to the workers that pour the foundation, frame the house, raise the roof, and paint the home.  It is money to the appliance makers, the insurance agents, and the utility company.  So what are we going to “stimulate?” The market sector that helps the least, that employs and pays the least, and the one sector that would already buy without any incentives or prompting if only they could afford it in the first place?  

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