ranking real estate

The current First Time Homebuyer’s Tax Credit of $8,000 is due to expire on December 1, 2009. On the Island of Hawaii we are seeing an uptick in activity over the past few weeks. Presumably part of that activity is driven by these First Time Homebuyer’s eagerness to qualify for the credit.

Based on some of the numbers I posted last week for Residential Sales for the Big Island, overall we have seen an increase of 25.27% in activity Year-to-Date. That is a significant number for the Island, in regards to activity, although at the same time we have seen an overall Median price decrease for the Island of 18.75% with 7 of 9 districts showing a decrease in Median home prices.

While the Tax Credit is not the sole reason for the increase in activity, it is a major factor. That is why the National Association of Realtors is pushing hard for an extension of the program. One of the fears voiced, should this program end, is that activity will slow significantly which will put further downward pressure on Median home prices.

At its best the $8,000 tax credit has been described as a tool to increase activity and sales in the Residential Real Estate market at its worst its been called a prop which only stalls the inevitable, falsely holding up a market that needs to fully correct before it can be healthy.

As the deadline for the sunset of this credit nears and then passes, we shall see.

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Tags: Hawaii, linkedin, market, real estate

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 at 5:27 pm and is filed under Market Info, Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.