Earlier this week, the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) sent out a call to action asking its members to get in touch with their congressional delegations and ask them to extend the first-time home buyer tax credit.
While it’s probably not necessary to remind everyone about the impact the tax credit has had this year on our housing markets, I would like to mention a couple of things about it. According to the NAR, close to half of potential home buyers are first-timers wanting to both fulfill the American dream of owning a home and take advantage of a very generous tax credit.
Furthermore, we have seen sales in Arkansas improve dramatically this year and the tax credit has played a large part in that growth. I know for a fact that Realtors® in other states have seen the same thing. Our markets are recovering and this is not the time to cut off a solid government program that has helped greatly in that regard. Simply put, if housing markets are struggling, that’s a sure sign that the overall economy is troubled. That tax credit, then, is critical to the economic improvement that this nation needs.
If you haven’t yet responded to the call to action, I strongly encourage you to click here to go to the NAR’s Realtor® Action Center to make sure your voice is heard on this issue. The site is set up so that non-Realtors®, too, can participate and ask Congress to extend the tax credit. The ARA has also posted quite a bit about the technical aspects of the credit on its blog.
If you’d like to watch a video detailing the importance of the tax credit, click here to go to the Arkansas Realtors® Association’s (ARA) blog post about this very issue. If you’d like to read about how much the tax credit has benefited housing markets in Arkansas, click here. To review the technical requirements of the tax credit, click here.
Remember — the tax credit expires after Nov. 30. Let’s do what we can to see that it is extended — or expanded — so that the positive growth we’ve seen in housing markets around the country and in the national economy will continue.
#1 by meford on September 18, 2009 - 8:18 pm
Great Job Chris and thanks for taking the time to share this information with everyone!!
#2 by Laurie Rushing on September 24, 2009 - 6:07 pm
Chris- Great blog! Hot Springs is proud to have you as a member of our local Board. Thanks for all your hard work at the local, state and national levels of our organization.
#3 by John Sullivan on October 4, 2009 - 8:20 am
Hey Chris Great Comments . Folks also need a reminder that first time buyers purchase homes that free up a homeowner to purchase another. I seem to remember one of our congressional members stating that every first time purchase averaged 2 additional real estate transactions. When you add up all the transactions the value of this incentive is enormous