The housing market has started a mini-rebound in Carroll County, but Realtors say the nascent recovery may be short-lived because the steam that is driving the sales engine is about to be removed from the market.

The federal government’s $8,000 first-time homebuyer’s tax credit, first offered in early 2009 and renewed in November, will expire at the end of April. Homebuyers have until April 30 to place a property under contract and until June 30 to close the deal.

“It’s actually made a huge difference; almost every home I have sold in the past year has either gone to an investor or to a first-time homebuyer, and we just have a lot of activity right now with people in a real rush to go ahead and get a home under contract and get it closed,” said Lauren Yates, president of the West Metro Board of Realtors and an agent with Real Estate West in Carrollton. “People who are on the fence right now, it’s giving them an incentive to buy.”

Dwayne Hicks, a broker with United Country West Georgia Realty in Carrollton, said he expects the market to lose some ground once the buyer’s tax credit program ends later this spring.

“It has had a very good effect on the market, but I have a feeling the market may do what the automobile market did after the Cash for Clunkers program went away,” he said. “The market does not have enough legs on it yet to stand, and I think the biggest thing right now is nobody has ever seen a jobless recovery and it’s a little bit tough to see a rebound taking hold if people can’t buy anything, certainly not a home or a car, because they’re concerned about their job.”

Hicks said he’s had a lot of interest lately from first-time buyers, though.

“I’ve had some who are very motivated by the credit and some that aren’t, saying they’re in no hurry,” he said. “I’d say 60 to 70 percent of my clients right now are motivated by the credit. I do think, come April 30th, the activity will definitely tool back down to the levels we saw previous to that program being enacted.”

The credit has already been extended once, and Congress is not expected to extend it again.

According to some sources, the program, which was expanded in late November 2009 to include a $6,500 credit for move-up buyers, has not been as successful in stimulating the housing market as was hoped.

While real estate agents are reporting some brisk activity in first-time home sales, only a small percentage of move-up buyers have been able to take advantage of the $6,500 credit.

“The problem you run into are the people who own houses are having such a difficult time selling right now,” Yates said. “So even though there is a credit for repeat buyers, most can’t sell their home and take advantage of it.”

Arline Griffith, who operates Coldwell Banker First Georgia Realty in Villa Rica with her husband Chuck, has noticed the same trend. She said first-time buyers are feasting on attractively priced foreclosed properties.

“Especially after the first of the year, I’ve seen it really pick up,” Griffith said. “I have been working with several first-time buyers lately and all of them are trying to get a contract on a foreclosed property and most of the time we find there are multiple offers so it’s hard for them to go through. But it’s harder to sell a resale home right now because they’re competing with all the distressed sales.”

U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, who is a Realtor, spoke to the West Metro Board of Realtors in February and told the group not to expect the tax credit program to be renewed for a second time,

“He said it was passed as a stimulus and the longer you extend a stimulus program, it loses its potency over time and if it got extended he would be absolutely shocked,” Yates said. “Obviously, we were hoping it would be extended but people lose some of their urgency when they believe it will go on and on.”

The local market, while showing signs of improvement over the past two to three months, is coming off a very difficult year in 2009.

A total of 1,136 single-family residential homes sold in 2009 in the local MLS area, which includes Carroll, Heard and Haralson counties. That was down 14 percent from 1,327 residential properties sold in 2008, which was already a weak year. The average sales price was $115,254 in 2009, down 25 percent from $153,396 in 2008.

Yates said she believes 2009 would have been even worse if it weren’t for the first-time buyer’s credit.

“I have no doubt, that was us scrambling to salvage everything we could right there,” she said.

Those who can buy right now can expect to find bargains. Yates said some houses in the Mirror Lake community that might have fetched upwards of $600,000 or more a couple of years ago can now be bought out of foreclosure for $350,000. But the downside is when the new owner’s Carroll County tax bill arrives in the mail.

“Some people are getting some really good bargains on these houses, but then they are really shocked when they see a $7,000 tax bill,” Yates said. “We’re having to prepare the buyer for that before he sale closes.”

Yates said she doesn’t see any end in sight to the record-high foreclosures and their impact on the market.

“The foreclosure trend is going to continue for several years,” she said. “We can tell that from the backlog in the system.”

She said banks hold back to some extent because they don’t want to flood the market even more and drive down the prices they can get for their own foreclosed properties.

“It will continue to be a great time to invest,” she said.

Hicks, a former president of the West Metro Board of Realtors, agrees.

“This market is a very good market for buyers and the good thing is that if you have to take a loss on a sale you can make it back when you guy,” he said. “We are seeing lows in this market we haven’t seen in years. As Sen. Isakson said, at the end of this we’re going to come out with a new normal. And I think everyone is going to have to get used to what the prices are now and forget about what they were, because those days are behind us.”

Until industries start to expand and hire back workers, any gains in the market will be spotty at best, Hicks said.

“It’s all going to start with jobs and job creation and I don’t think Congress and the administration has got that figured out yet. Jobs are shaky ... people that have jobs today don’t know if they’ll have one tomorrow. It’s a way different world than we’ve experienced in many, many years.”