That’s the thesis of this article in Yahoo News which points out that pending U.S. home sales are down 16%.
Another look at this news is this blog post detailing the crash in the number of pending U.S. home sales. Obviously, the crash was all about the expected end of the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit. The crash in pending sales in November, even though the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit program was extended and still existed in November, show pretty convincingly to me that the tax credit program stole from future sales. That is, many first-time home buyers that were considering buying their first home this winter or spring, moved up their plans to take advantage of the program. It seems the tax credit program didn’t increase demand as much as move demand forward in time.
