Congress Wants to Give You $15k to Sell Your Home to Your Brother

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According to USA Today Congress is considering a bill that would give a $15,000 tax credit to anyone who buys a home. There is currently a $8,000 tax credit in place for first-time home buyers. While the first-time buyer credit at least expands the market for homes (although it increases vacancies in the rental market, putting downward pressure on rental prices), extending the credit to all buyers would have no net effect, since the additional buyers would also be selling homes. This tax credit would effectively be giving $15,000 (three years of TANF benefits) to people to shuffle homes. This point should have been mentioned in the article.

--Dean Baker

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