During the week of January 5, NAR surveyed a sample of its members to test their perceptions of the First-time Homebuyer tax credit. The goals of the survey were to find out the extent to which consumers were aware of the credit and to gather information about Realtor perceptions of consumers' interest in the credit.
The compiled results showed that most first-time homebuyers are unaware of the credit. When they learn about the credit, the majority do not find it to be an incentive, largely because of the repayment feature. Seventy-one percent of the REALTOR respondents indicated that the repayment feature was the biggest obstacle to consumer interest. Sixty percent said that consumers perceive the credit as an additional debt and not as an incentive. Other obstacles included the inability of consumers to utilize the benefit at closing and its limitation to first-time homebuyers only.View the survey results