Awhile
back I wrote why I thought
the $8,000 tax
credit was a bad idea. Now here we
are coming up on the November 30th deadline and
no one is sure what
December 1st holds for the housing market, but a
lot of real estate
agents are nervous and I’m one of them.
This $8,000 tax credit created a
false housing market,
including increases in buying and prices over the past couple months. But what happens when these
buyers are gone? We are
left with a completely dead real estate market. (In my opinion)
So, now that things are already screwed
up and we are possibly headed for another little crash in the real
estate
market and we are left looking for answers. I’m going to look
at our pets
for answers. If you have ever had a dog, cat, or in our case a pig, you
know
that you can’t take them away from their mothers too quickly. (That is
what
will happen on December 1st, 2009.) First time
home buyers will be
pulled out of the market way too early.
Now, what if we were to wean them away
from the tax credit like you do a pet from their mother?
Maybe offer $7,000
if close before January 1st and then lower than
amount over time
until we reach no tax credit at all. Maybe then the housing market
could slowly
drop, rather than take a complete fall on December 1st.
If by the time we have weaned the first time home buyer off the tax credit our economy hopefully will have picked up enough that regular buyers will be ready to buy again and investors will be out purchasing homes again.
Even though I disagree with the tax credit in general, we need to think of something to help the housing market continue beyond December 1st, 2009. Since they already started this mess, maybe our government should look for ways to fix it or maybe just let it take its natural course and in a couple years, it will recover on its own.
Todd Clark - Broker / Sales Coach
Palazzo Realty Group
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739
©2009 Todd Clark - Should the $8,000 tax credit be saved and extended?
