Propelled by the first-time homebuyers tax credit, nearly half of home sales are now being made by first-time purchasers, according to an industry report released Friday. In fact, 47 percent of all Americans who purchased homes this year had not owned one during the previous three years, according to a press release Friday from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). That was up from 41 percent of sales in 2008 and 36 percent in 2006.

 
       The tax credit boosted markets by giving first-time buyers a credit of up to $8,000 they could deduct from their income taxes. The credit is fully refundable: Even a buyer who pays less than $8,000 in income tax gets the full amount of the credit back.
 
    NAR forecasts that existing-home sales will total slightly over 5 million in 2009, a 2 percent increase compared with 2008. Next year, they predict a gain of 13.6 percent to 5.69 million units. That should draw down inventory and prop up home prices, according to Yun, but he cautioned: "Risks, such as unemployment, remain."  Critics of the tax credit call it a poorly targeted method of boosting sales. The credit added, by nearly the most positive evaluations -- including NAR's -- fewer than 400,000 sales to the total this year, about 20 percent of all first-time purchases.
 
     Since all first-timers get the credit, whether it persuaded them to buy or not, that would mean about $40,000 was spent by the government for every extra sale, critics say.