Tax breaks are set to expire:
Buyers, rushing to beat the tax-credit deadline, may set off a flurry of April deals. One more reason prospective buyers and sellers may be tempted to move quickly: the looming expiration of valuable tax credits that have been dangled by Uncle Sam to spur sales. Homeowners who move can get up to $6,500, first-time buyers as much as $8,000, as long as they have a joint income of less than $245,000 (or $145,000 for singles). But there isn’t much time left to act because buyers must be under contract on the new home by April 30 and close by June 30 to qualify for the credit. Look for transactions to pick up as the deadline nears. When the credit for first-time buyers was originally set to expire last November, sales surged in the three months before the cutoff. Experts expect a similar pattern this final month before the tax breaks expire.
