"Any time there is a lot of money around, there is going to be people attracted to it with evil intent."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125599683058895389.html A spokesman for the National Association of Realtors, Lucien Salvant, said, "Any time there is a lot of money around, there is going to be people attracted to it with evil intent." ------------------------------------------------------------ Housing-industry officials recently have stepped up their lobbying for an extension of the credit. In... [more]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125599683058895389.html A spokesman for the National Association of Realtors, Lucien Salvant, said, "Any time there is a lot of money around, there is going to be people attracted to it with evil intent." ------------------------------------------------------------ Housing-industry officials recently have stepped up their lobbying for an extension of the credit. In a letter to the Obama administration on Monday, the National Association of Realtors, the National Association of Home Builders and the Mortgage Bankers Association called for a 12-month extension of the credit. They also asked that the tax break be extended to all home buyers -- not just first-time purchasers -- and noted that they were urging Congress to expand its value. The IRS said it was investigating 167 "criminal schemes" involving the credit, according to the subcommittee. IRS officials on Monday declined to describe the suspected schemes or provide additional details. Ted Gayer, an economist at the Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank based in Washington, estimated that the current credit costs the government about $43,000 for each additional home sale it generates, because most of the two million or so home buyers expected to claim the credit would have bought a house anyway. Expanding the credit to all home buyers would raise the government's cost per additional home sale to more than $250,000, he said. [less]