The government has extended the tax credit in length and depth. It will go until May 1, 2010 and there is an added credit of $6500 for anyone but still $8,000 from new buyers.
So where do we stand now in regards to closed sales? In August 2009 we had 1841 closed sales in the Portland Metro Area.
August Closed Sales
2008 1,770
2007 2,554
2006 2,939
2005 3,690
2004 3,062
2003 2,982
2002 2,369
2001 2,507
I guess we should be around 2,200 -2,500 to be considered healthy and we still have a ways to go.
It seems that the expanded tax credit may be more helpful than the original tax credit because anyone can get it now. As one person told me, “That tax credit pays for my closing costs.” I don’t think we can have a worse winter than last year where we had about 1000 closed sales each month in December and January.
Are you going to buy a house in the next couple of months because of the tax credit?
