Housing industry groups said the federal tax credit for first-time home buyers is working and should be extended to help firm up selling prices in a national housing market recovery that remains fragile.

“(An extension) is very important in the sense that we are very close to getting a self-sustaining housing market recovery, but we’re not there yet,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. “Right now prices are mostly still declining at a single-digit rate. We just need that follow-through with the tax credit to push home values above the zero line.”

The National Association of Home Builders estimated that extending and broadening the tax credit would spur 383,000 additional home sales, including 80,000 new home starts as more sales of existing houses deplete the nation’s inventory of unsold homes.

Full story is available on Winconsin State Journal