“And you shall hear of tax credits, and rumors of tax credits…”

I’m paraphrasing from the book of Matthew here. The rest of that verse (it was, of course, “wars” instead of “tax credits”) goes, “See that you be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” I realize that Jesus was talking about things far more eternal than the early 21st Century American housing market, but you have to admit, it
works well anyway.

Who knows where the idea of a new round of home buyer tax credits got started, but depending on who you listen to in Washington, you get every position from, “It’s very likely,” to, “We have no idea where that rumor started.”

When asked about the possibility of new homebuyer tax credits last weekend, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan got out of the way of that little question like you’d get out of the way of a Randy Johnson fastball. "We're going to be focused like a laser on where the housing market is moving going forward, and we are going to go everywhere we can to make sure this market stabilizes and recovers." Thanks, Shaun. I’ll take that as a “huh?”

Anyway, the scuttlebutt around the campfire has the scope of this new round of [rumored] tax credits extending beyond the first-time and move-up home buyers of last year, to also include buyers of foreclosed properties and short sales. The impetus for the [purported] tax credit is the stalled recovery of the housing sector. Some have argued convincingly that—excruciating though it would be—the housing market must be allowed to correct itself with no artificial intervention from the government. Only then, the reasoning goes, will the market naturally settle to where it would have been had not the Twilight Zone-esque spectacle of 2003-2006 occurred.

“Nonsense!” say others including Governor Charlie Crist of Florida, the only state along with, perhaps, Arizona that has come as close to Nevada in having been completely laid to waste by the housing collapse. Another tax credit, he opined "would stimulate the economy. It would increase home sales in Florida.” Crist is one of the biggest promoters of this [alleged] tax credit idea, and it points out the dilemma we’re all facing with these kind of bailout schemes. In his case, it’s, “What’s Good For My Specific State vs. What’s Good For the Country in General.”

Me? I’m conflicted, too. The fiscal and economically responsible side of me says, “Enough of this!” Let the housing market take the beating and adjust instead of keeping it afloat at the expense of the future of the economy.

On the other hand, the real estate agent side of me (the one that needs as much action in the market as possible to help keep the bills paid, the kids fed, and the wife still willing to put up with my shenanigans) says, “Hey, let’s roll! Keep those federal sops coming, Uncle Barack!”

Of course, none of this may happen anyway. Whether the housing market is going to be propped up and kept alive by artificial, taxpayer-supported resuscitation, or left to flop around and struggle for breath like a perch on a fishing dock, we have little choice but do as The Man said: “Be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”