NAHB Ads Pushing For Extension of Tax Credit

Washington, DC, Sept. 18, 2009--The National Association of Home Builders and other housing players this week launched a newspaper advertising campaign urging the extension of the popular first-time home-buyer tax credit.

The NAHB estimates the credit has spurred more than 150,000 new and existing home sales this calendar year.

The credit of up to $8,000 gave the housing industry its first sales boost after a multi-year slump, NAHB says.

By August builders started slowing down in constructing new homes, figuring they couldn’t get them completed in time for buyers looking to cash in before the Nov. 30 deadline.

That helps explain why single-family housing starts were down 3% in August from a month earlier, the Commerce Department said on Thursday, reversing course after five straight increases.

“They naturally pulled back,” says David Crowe, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders in Washington.