NYT: Spurt Of Home Buying As End Of Tax Credit Looms

Real estate agents say buyers and sellers are hurrying to take advantage of the tax credit, which is worth up to $8,000 for home buyers.  But the last-minute rush is also prompting some foreboding about what will happen to the market on April 30 when the credit ends — and whether it is too risky to let it end at all.

James M. Poterba, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, calls this “the exit strategy problem.”

“If you have a short-run program to stimulate demand, it’s always tricky to figure out how you gently remove it without going off a precipice,” he said.

– David Streitfeld, “Spurt Of Home Buying As End Of Tax Credit Looms”, The New York Times, March 30, B1