(Washington, DC)  --  Missouri Senator Kit Bond originally supported the creation and first extension of the first-time home-buyer tax credit, but recently spoke out against extending and expanding the tax credit.

   The Senate on Wednesday approved continuing the popular tax credit with a new benefit for buyers already in homes and Bond voted against it.

   Bond says in reality, the $8,000 home-buyer tax credit costs taxpayers $43,000 per home sale using the most generous assumptions.

   The Brookings Institution reports the vast majority of home-buyers who used the credit would have bought a home without it and at best, the credit simply brought forward home sales that would have occurred in the future.

   Brookings estimates that only 15-percent or 350,000 sales were directly attributable to the tax credit.


(Copyright 2009 by VERTEXNews/Newsroom Solutions)