By KENT HOOVER
American City Business Journals

The economic stimulus bill didn't include what the housing industry wanted the most - a $15,000 tax credit available to any homebuyer - but Realtors are happy with what they got.

The legislation increased the current $7,500 tax credit for first-time homebuyers to $8,000 and removed a requirement that it be repaid to the government over 15 years. The bill also extended the credit until Dec. 1. The credit phases out for taxpayers with adjusted gross income of more than $75,000 ($150,000 for joint returns).

The National Association of Home Builders estimated a Senate-passed $15,000 tax credit - available to anyone, not just first-time buyers - would have generated an additional 500,000 home sales.

The National Association of Realtors thinks the slimmed-down version could stimulate up to 300,000 additional home sales.

The tax credit "will help bring first-time home buyers to the market and reduce housing inventory," said NAR President Charles McMillan, a broker with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Dallas-Fort Worth.

Auto dealers also had to settle for less than what they wanted. The original Senate version of the stimulus bill provided a tax deduction for interest payments on car loans. The final bill, however, reduced that deduction to only sales and excise taxes paid on new vehicle purchases.

Even this limited break "will help jump-start auto sales," said David Regan, vice president of legislative affairs for the National Automobile Dealers Association.

Many of the car buyers who will take advantage of the sales tax deduction probably would have bought a car anyway, said Clint Stretch, managing principal for tax policy at Deloitte Tax. But the tax credit will "create some buzz" and give consumers a sense that "the government approves of me buying a car," he said.

For more information, see www.realtor.org or www.nada.org.