Today is Black Friday and there are all kinds of deals and people camped out all night to be at the opening bell when stores like Target, Walmart, Kohls and dozens of others opened their doors.  Everything from flat screen TVs to toys were heavily discounted to attract a good start to the holiday shopping season.

What does this have to do with real estate?

Probably nothing.  Except that today might have been real estate’s own Black Friday if Congress had decided to let the first time home buyer tax credit expire.  Instead, they decided to extend the cred and to expand it to existing home owners (people who have owned their own home for the past 5 consecutive years).  The first timers till get the $8,000 as a tax credit and the existing home owners get $6.500. Not bad.

This tax credit caused a little bit of a frenzy in September and October and it was duly noted in the housing statistics that came out.  However, when time was running out, the activity started to drop off, too.  When Congress decided to extend and expand the home buyer tax credit real estate activity did what it normally does in the winter — hibernate.

This all brings me to the next real estate Black Friday — April 30, 2010.  Can you believe it?  It’s actually on a Friday!  That’s the day everyone — first time home buyers and existing home owners — have to have a fully executed contract of sale on the house they want to purchase.  It has to be a primary residence and there are other restriction. (Click Here to see a great chart of all the fine print involved with the tax credit).

So, while Realtors aren’t jumping up and down and screaming “Take a number” to long lines of home  buyers today, they may very well be doing something similar to that in about four to five months.  When March comes around, people will need to start getting serious if they want the home buyer tax credit.

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