Time has run out on $8,000 tax credit for home buyers

House hunter Shaul Halevi is a Buddhist, and that helped three days ago when he was outbid on a Huntington property and lost his chance for an $8,000 tax credit.

"I accepted it, but I felt sad," said the New Jersey resident, admitting he had tears after months of trying to move closer to his Port Washington job. "This was my dream house. It was the perfect location, the perfect timing . . . It was my karma not to get the house."

Time ran out Friday night for house hunters to nab up to $8,000 (when they itemize taxes next year) from the federal home buyers tax credit. What they do next could dictate the rise or fall of Long Island's housing market. The credit, which required a contract be signed by midnight, helped beef up first-quarter sales here by 35 percent over a year ago.

Now, the industry waits to see how many of those who missed the deadline will disappear or resurface in the market - and when. Considered key are first-time buyers, who can set off a chain of moves because they don't have to sell to buy.

"The first-time buyer market fuels our economy," said broker Frank Dell'Accio, president of the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island. "They create the move-up buyer."

Karen Inglima, owner of Keller Williams Realty of Greater Nassau in Carle Place, thinks 75 percent of her deadline-busting clients will return.

She's gotten about 40 calls this week from buyers wanting homes. She and her business partner have had six contracts in the last three weeks; she sees two in a normal month.

"You want to talk about crying?" Inglima said. "People all of a sudden are waking up. They're finally starting to realize they missed out on the home buyers tax credit, and they're going to buy because they realize prices are going to start shooting up again."

That's because the real estate and mortgage industries have been lockstep in delivering one message - prices and interest rates are going up.

It was a dash to meet the deadline Friday, with home inspectors booked from dawn to the dusk, attorneys working late and agents fielding calls.

From Saturday, it's downhill for sales, predicts Michael Romero of Brooklyn, who presigned a contract at 10:30 Thursday night on a Port Washington house, then had it inspected Friday, the reverse order of things.

"I think that in certain areas of Long Island, the drop won't be as precipitous because the real estate climate right now is still a very good one for buyers," he said.

For now, the market has lost Halevi, who will rent on the Island: "We were rushing and it's an exhausting process. Now, there's no reason to rush."