At the Stroke of Midnight

…Cinderella kept a shoe?

You need look no further than this morning’s news.

Congress, at the eleventh hour, passes an extension of the closing date on the home buyer tax credit. (“Homebuyers with contracts signed by April 30 who failed to go to closing by the June 30 deadline will now have until September 30 to complete their purchases.“)

It was supposed to expire at midnight last night.

Or was it the pumpkin?

Nah. WE got the pumpkin.

…I can’t tell you how many calls we got here in the CNBC DC bureau from Realtors claiming there would be “rioting in the streets” (I’m not kidding—and that was a Connecticut Realtor) and PR reps for industry types offering endless “experts” to discuss the “vital” need for the extension.

You can imagine what was going on a block up from my office on Capitol Hill.

So, lo and behold, before midnight last night, a stand-alone measure made its way through the Senate, as the House had passed it the day before…

…Many Realtors also moonlight as state legislators, city council members, mayors and school board presidents; if you think members of Congress don’t understand that, think again.

“Certainly we have been talking to more people in the past number of years than ever before,” admits NAR’s chief economist Lawrence Yun. “We are fortunate in terms of members of Congress willing to listen to our members.”

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