The $8,000 first-time-home-buyer tax credit that’s been helping juice the housing market is set to expire on Nov. 30. A lot of people don’t want to see that happen. Since some of those people are in Congress, there’s a decent chance the credit will be extended into 2010. Among the bills floating about are ones that would grow the amount to $15,000 and make all home buyers — not just those who haven’t owned before — eligible. One policy-analysis shop puts the odds of some extension at 2 to 1, despite a cost that could run as high as $50 billion to $100 billion.

This makes little sense. Since the credit first passed last year, the logic of our financial rescue has evolved. The panic phase — the time when so many felt government had to act boldly and at any cost — has passed. Slowly, the free market is easing back in. Consider the federal guarantee on money-market mutual funds, which was slapped together a year ago to prevent a run on a key part of our financial system. That backstop expired on Sept. 18. It wasn’t renewed.

In most realms, in fact, the return to normality is under way. Banks are paying back TARP funds. Cash for Clunkers has faded into the sunset. The chairman of the Federal Reserve Board has declared the recession over, and home prices are inching upward.

Full story is available zikkir