You need look no further than this morning's news.

Congress, at the eleventh hour, passes an extension of the closing date on the home buyer tax credit.

It was supposed to expire at midnight last night.

Last week, at the monthly lockup for the existing home sales report, the Realtors' chief economist, Lawrence Yun, told reporters that if the closing date wasn't extended, 180,000 home buyers who signed contracts by April 30th, would lose the tax credit due to delays in closing. He blamed these delays on the tough mortgage market, new appraisal rules and the still-complicated short sale process (when a home is sold for less than the value of the loan).

Please see the link above for the full article.