Home sales up.

[flippinout]

Home sales right now are higher than they have been in two years. Most of the sales are attributed to first time home owners who are trying to get in under the wire for the $8000 given to them in the form of a tax credit.

There's a mini-boom going on in the housing market," said Thomas Popik, who conducted the survey for Campbell and expects a double-digit increase

A lot of buyers are adding a clause to their contracts stating that if the sale doesnt go through by the end of November, that they can back out of the sale.

Many of the claims for the tax credit are fraudulent. Here is an example:

At a hearing before a House subcommittee Thursday, J. Russell George, the Treasury Department's inspector general for taxes, questioned the legitimacy of some 100,000 claims for the credit, potentially including some illegal immigrants and 580 people under 18. The youngest taxpayers to apply for the credit were 4 years old, his office said.

Its a real shame that dishonest people take up the time of the people that are trying to push the sales through in time for the honest people that have applied.