It is literally a new sign of these times…a home under contract.
Gary Nelson is a real estate agent for Long and Foster in Harford County.
He has recently sold several houses to first time home buyers with the aid of that incredibly popular eight thousand dollar credit.
"We now can help people get into the houses with this tax credit that we had and the tax credit has stimulated the market to such a degree that we really have a lot of buyers out there," said Nelson.
And now more than ever, with the original deadline set for November, buyers are rushing into real estate offices looking to buy in time to get a piece of the government incentive before it is currently set to expire.
"It definitely makes a lot of us happy. Not only us, but the home buyers themselves. They've finally decided it is time to buy," said Nelson.
Matt Lipsky with Garceau Realty in Bel Air is seeing the same last minute boom.
All the more reason he and other realtors hope congress moves forward with the extension that would push the deadline from next month to April 2010.
It is the number one question Lipsky gets from customers just about ready to jump off the fence and into their first home.
"It is a perfect storm to buy a house right now if you're a first timer because rates are low, there are a ton of inventory out there, lost of houses to buy, they having nothing to sell, and there is that first time home buyer credit."
A credit homebuyers and realtors feeling the boom hope continues beyond next month.
Experts say the extension is likely to pass. The first time home buyer tax credit along with the government’s cash for clunkers program is widely believed to have helped the economy.
The US Senate has agreed on the extension, but there are still questions on its passage in the house.
