The United States Senate could vote to extend a popular tax break for home buyers that has helped lift the housing market out of its worst slump since the Great Depression.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, speaking on the Senate floor on Monday, listed the first-time home buyers’ tax credit among proposed amendments he would like to attach to an unemployment insurance Bill.
The US$8,000 (S$11,000) credit has brought new buyers into the housing market, helping prices to rise starting in May after a serious buying drought that, along with high unemployment, has wreaked havoc on the economy.
Housing has become such a hot button issue that investors sold off US stocks and pushed the US dollar sharply higher on Monday after a misleading media headline said research firm ISI Group had written the tax credit probably would not be extended when it expires on Nov 30.
Markets partially recovered after Florida Senator Bill Nelson said he expected an extension of the tax credit would pass later this week and the headline was corrected. Continue reading
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