As many as 40 percent of all home buyers this year will qualify for the $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers, and it’s on track to cost the government $15 billion, more than twice the amount that was projected when Congress passed the stimulus bill in February. But there’s another problem brewing: can the housing market even function without it? Some Analysts say the credit is directly responsible for several hundred thousand home sales, and the National Association of Realtors wants Congress to expand the program to $15,000 and extend the timeframe at least through next summer.

The price tag on that plan: $50 billion to $100 billion. Skeptics argue that most of the money is going to people who would have bought a home anyway, and that unless it is allowed to expire on schedule in late November, the tax credit is likely to become one more expensive government program that refuses to die. Economists are split on the merits of another round of government help, but as a real estate broker I can say without a doubt that it is one of the few stimulus plans that actually work in getting our economy moving again.