How much did the $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit boost local home sales? By about 1,900 deals that otherwise would not have occurred, according to local real estate analysts at Delta Associates. The area's lofty prices and high number of transients make our market less influenced by first-timers than most other parts of the country, Delta analysts say in a report released with Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc., the local multiple listing service.

Well, that tally of deals is poised to go up. President Obama is expected to sign the legislation (possibly today) just passed by Congress extending the $8,000 tax credit until spring. It also creates a new $6,500 tax credit for some move-up buyers. The earnings caps included in the legislation will limit the program's effect locally. For either the $8,000 credit or the $6,500 credit, a phase-out kicks in for people earning $125,000 a year or more, and couples earning $225,000 or more.

Weekend Reading: Mara Lee introduces us to people who've chosen to fight hard times by taking in a paying roommate. And Dan Rafter takes a look at ways you can get rid of a hard-to-sell home.

The Weekend Poll

Fannie Mae announced a new program Thursday that will allow some homeowners facing foreclosure to hand the deed back to their lender but remain in the home as a renter.

The idea behind their new "Deed for Lease Program" is that allowing rent-backs will minimize family displacement and stanch the deterioration of neighborhoods plagued by vacant foreclosures, according to Fannie's announcement.

THE DETAILS:

• The servicer has to decide that the borrower qualifies for a "deed in lieu of foreclosure." Basically, borrowers who are in default on their loan voluntarily give the deed back to the lender, negating the need for a drawn-out foreclosure process. Traditionally this has been considered less damaging to the borrower than foreclosure, although both actions have severe effects on a borrower's credit standing--and both result in loss of their home.


• Borrowers-turned-tenants must be able to afford market rent on the home. That rent can't exceed 31 percent of their monthly gross income, which must be documented.


• Borrowers cannot have 12 or more past-due payments on their mortgage. And they must have made at least three payments since the loan was first taken out--or since the last time it was modified. Borrowers can't be in the process of declaring bankruptcy.


• Rentals are for 12 months, with the possibility of an extension.


• The home remains available for sale, subject to the terms of their lease. Renters remain responsible for maintaining the property.


• Only primary residences qualify. Landlords may qualify if their tenant has been using the home as a primary residence.


• Mortgages backed by the FHA, VA or other government agencies don't qualify.


• Borrowers who think they might qualify for the new rent-back program should talk with their mortgage servicers, who, in conjunction with Fannie Mae, will figure out if they qualify for a rent-back offer.

If you're interested in home values in the Washington area--and about a dozen other big real estate markets around the country--the Redfin online brokerage has a sweet new tool for you. Starting this morning, Redfin is posting closed-sale prices and photographs for all homes on the multiple listing service as soon as the listing broker marks the sale as final.

"With this upgrade, Redfin should have pictures of every sale within 15 minutes of the agent's taking it off the market," Redfin chief executive Glenn Kelman wrote in an e-mail. "It's a big deal because brokers have long kept to themselves the data that consumers need to do a CMA; it's a major reason why people feel like they need a real estate agent." (CMA stands for "comparative market analysis," a study of recent sales prices and current listings, which sellers need to perform before deciding on their own listing price.)

Redfin is launching the service with two years of past sales records and will allow the sales history to accumulate over time. Not all sellers and buyers will be thrilled that the Internet will have a permanent record (with some regional exceptions) of their home's sales price along with photos. But such is life in the information age.

Redfin will require users to register on their Web site before viewing recent sales data, but they say they won't contact users or pass their contact info on to anyone.

In addition to the Washington area, the information will be available for the following real estate markets: Chicagoland; Queens and Long Island, N.Y.; Westchester and Putnam counties, N.Y., Greater Seattle; Los Angeles, Orange County and the Inland Empire area of Calif., the San Diego area; City of San Francisco; San Francisco East Bay; Silicon Valley and South Bay, Calif., and Eastern Massachusetts.

Redfin is also starting to offer trackbacks on its Web site, which link to blog posts about a specific listing.

HOME BUYER TAX CREDIT: On Wednesday, the Senate approved the credit's extension until spring--along with a new tax credit for repeat buyers who owned their current home for at least five years. Homes must be a principal residence and must go under contract by April 30 and close by June 30 to qualify. The home being purchased must not cost more than $800,000. And there's an income cap: $125,000 annual earnings for singles; $225,000 earnings for couples.The Post's Dina ElBoghdady reports that the measure could come up for a vote in the House of Representatives as early as today.

Mortgage interest rates have been bobbing around record-low territory through much of the summer, which led to a boom in refinancing. Freddie Mac said Monday that 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged only 5.1 percent during the first nine months of this year, which is the lowest interest rate in the 38 years Freddie Mac has tracked those loans. People who refinanced during the July-September quarter cut their interest rates by an average of 1.1 percentage points, and they stand to save $3 billion, all together, over the first 12 months of their new loan.

Only 36 percent of refinancers took cash out--the lowest share in six years. The median age of their old loan was 3.5 years. Another telling statistic: The median appreciation of the refinanced property was 0 percent during the third quarter. Zero. In the third quarter last year the median appreciation was 16 percent. And it was as high as 34 percent back in 2006. What a difference.