Century 21 wants more tax credits, lower rates for buyers

Century 21 executives
are asking lawmakers to boost the current first-time homebuyer tax
credit to $15,000 from $8,000, and to make it available to anyone
buying their principal home. Thomas Kunz, Century 21’s president and chief
executive, said he thinks the government should push 30-year fixed
mortgage rates down to 4 or 4.5 percent for a year. Kunz said the
$8,000 credit has been great for first-timers, but the market needs
more. “Some first-time buyers are taking the foreclosed properties.
What we wanted was to open up these markets above it” — the
higher-priced move-up homes — “and get that same kind of effect going
forward,” he said.