Beating the clock on the tax credit

I have been showing a lot of houses these past few weeks making it hard to keep up with the blog, not to mention the offers coming in on my own listings.  It is certainly nice to see this kind of activity.

There are buyers right now who are trying to beat the clock and find a house before the 8K tax credit for first time home buyers expires.  I have mixed feelings about the tax credit. On the one hand it has caused an increase in home sales but on the other hand it is probably just causing people who might have planned on purchasing at a later date to do it sooner.  I don't think it has created any new home buyers. 

There are a finite number of people who wish to buy houses and a smaller number of people who can buy a house.   When the tax credit expires home sales will go down a bit, just like it caused them to go up a bit.   The tax credit may have a long term impact for those who buy a house and take advantage of it. It will not have a long term impact on the housing market or the economy, just that little blip in the home sales numbers.

For those who wish to beat the deadline the race is on and the inventory of homes on the market continues to decrease.  The good news is that about 70% of the homes that are on the market in St. Paul are priced at less than $200,000.