The House of Representatives voted Tuesday to give first time home buyers an extra three months to complete their purchases and qualify for tax credits of up to $8,000.

The bill would give buyers until September 30 instead of June 30 to complete their purchases.

The extended deadline is applicable to those who signed purchase agreements by April 30.

According to the National Association of Realtors, there are about 180,000 homebuyers who already signed purchase agreements are likely to miss the Wednesday deadline

The House voted 409 to 5 to extend the closing deadline to September 30. The move comes nearly a week after the Senate failed to advance a much larger jobs bill that contained the tax credit provision.

The popular tax credit has helped the economy to stabilize the nation's slumping housing market. According to the Internal Revenue Service, more than 2.6 million taxpayers claimed the tax credit through April amounting to $18.7 billion.

The NAR says the tax credit has generated 1 million new home sales that wouldn't have happened if not for the tax credit.

The tax credit for first-time homebuyers was part of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus enacted last year. In November, Congress extended the credit and expanded it to homeowners who bought new homes. First-time buyers were eligible for a tax credit of up to $8,000 while existing homeowners could qualify for a credit of up to $6,500.

The NAR has been pushing hard for the extension as mortgage lenders have been swamped with borrowers trying to get approved by the end of the month.

Buyers rushed to purchase before the tax credits expired at the end of April. The numbers are likely to drop in the next report.

Home prices rose in April for the first time in seven months. Home prices increased 0.8 percent in April compared with March and 3.8 percent above a year ago level, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index of 20 major housing markets.

Of the 20 cities included in the index, 18 showed price improvements in April from March. Washington, San Francisco and Dallas each posted gains of 2 percent or more. Eleven cities reversed declines from the month before.

Only Miami and New York showed price drops as New York hit a new low for the index. Miami fell 0.8 percent for the month, which pushed the city into negative territory for the year at -0.5%. New York dropped 0.3 percent.

Nationally, prices have risen but they remain 30 percent below their July 2006 peak.

The overall price gains highlight the impact of the federal tax credits for homebuyers as federal government was heavily subsidizing home sales through an $8,000 homebuyer's tax credit. That credit is about to expire.

"Other housing data confirm the large impact, and likely near-future pullback, of the federal program," said David Blitzer, a spokesman for Standard and Poor's.

Buyers rushed to purchase before the tax credits expired at the end of April. The numbers are likely to drop in the next report.

McLean, VA – Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.69 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending June 24, 2010, down from last week when it averaged 4.75 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.42 percent.

The 15-year FRM this week averaged 4.13 percent with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.20 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 4.87 percent.

The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 3.84 percent this week, with an average 0.7 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.89 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 4.99 percent.

The 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 3.77 percent this week with an average 0.7 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.82 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 4.93 percent. This is the lowest the 1-year ARM has been since the week ending May 6, 2004 when it averaged 3.76 percent.

(Average commitment rates should be reported along with average fees and points to reflect the total cost of obtaining the mortgage.)

“Mortgage rates for all but traditional 1-year ARMs hit all-time record lows this week in our survey while activity in the housing market slowed in May following the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “Freddie Mac began collecting rates for 30-year fixed loans in April 1971, 15-year fixed mortgages in September 1991 and 5-year hybrid ARMs in January 2005. The record low for traditional 1-year ARMs of 3.36 percent occurred during the week of March 25, 2004.

“Both new and existing home sales showed unexpected declines in May. Existing sales fell 2.2 percent, compared to the market consensus forecast of a 6.0 percent gain, based on figures published by the National Association of Realtors® . Sales of new homes fell 32.7 percent to an annualized rate of 300,000 units, which was the largest monthly drop and slowest pace since records began in 1963, according to the Census Bureau .”

Freddie Mac was established by Congress in 1970 to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the nation's residential mortgage markets. Freddie Mac supports communities across the nation by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Over the years, Freddie Mac has made home possible for one in six homebuyers and more than five million renters.

Source: FreddieMac, Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), www.freddiemac.com

New home sales dropped to its lowest level on record in May, as potential buyers stopped shopping for homes during the first month following the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit.

New home sales fell 32.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 300,000 last month, down from a downwardly revised 446,000 in April as released by the Commerce Department in a report Wednesday. Year-over-year sales plunged 18.3 percent.

This is the slowest sales pace since the Commerce Department began tracking data in 1963. The prior record was set in September 1981, when new homes sold at an annual rate of 338,000. It also was the largest monthly decline on record. Sales have now dipped 78 percent from their peak in July 2005.

This has erased the home sales surged in March and April when homebuyers scrambled to sign contracts ahead of the April 30 tax credit deadline.

The government report showed that the median price of new homes sold in May was $200,900 which was down less than 1 percent from April but a 9.6 percent down compared to May 2009.

An estimated inventory of 213,000 new homes was for sale at the end of May, the lowest inventory level in more than 40 years. This is an 8.5 months of inventory at the current sales pace up from 5.8 months in April. Six months of new homes inventory is considered normal.

Sales decline was most evident in May as sales decreased by more than 50 percent; the Northwest registered a drop of about a third. Sales in the South and Midwest fell by about 25 percent.

Existing home sales fell in May as the housing market may be on the brink of taking another dive. Last month’s sales dropped 2.2 percent compared to the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.66 million according to a National Association Realtors report released Tuesday.

Year-over-year sales were up 19.2 percent to an annual rate of 6.1 million units.

Existing home sales data is based on transaction closings, so figures still reflect strong interest for the $8,000 tax credit where homebuyers had to sign contracts by the end of April but have until the end of June to close deals.

So the tax credit, stabilizing home prices and low mortgage rates kept sales at elevated levels last month, said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist.

"We are witnessing the ongoing effects of the homebuyer tax credit, which we'll also see in June real estate closings," Yun said.

The Senate is in the process of passing an amendment to push back the closing deadline to September 30 as part of a controversial job and tax bill.

Also in the NAR report was the median price of homes sold in May were it was up 2.7 percent up from a year ago to $179,600.

Total housing inventory dropped 3.4 percent to 3.89 million existing homes for sale which represents an 8.3-month supply at the current sales pace, down from a 8.4-month supply in April.

Considered normal homes inventory is a six month of supply.

Sales of single-family homes dropped 1.6 percent in May compared to the prior month, while condominium and co-op sales fell nearly 7 percent.

Regionally, Northeast had the biggest drop as it registered an 18.3 percent drop to an annual level of 890,000 units in May. That's still 12.7% higher than a year earlier.

In the Midwest, sales were unchanged in May from the previous month at an annual pace of 1.33 million units.

Sales increased 0.5 percent in the South and 4.9 percent in the West.