The first-time homebuyer tax credit allowed anyone who has not owned a home in the past five years an $8,000 tax credit if they were under contract to purchase a home as of April 30. Homeowners also could buy a new home and receive a $6,500 tax credit. Originally, the deal must have been closed by June 30, but Congress passed an extension of this act to allow for a new closing deadline of Sept. 30, which has yet to be signed by President Barack Obama. Under the extension, homes still must have been under contract by the April 30 deadline.

“People were obviously trying to get in under that deadline,” said Bullhead Laughlin Realty broker Evan Fuchs, noting that it was not only those who were already considering purchasing who took advantage of the tax credit. “I think it did bring people into the market.

The first quarter of 2010 saw 287 single-family homes sold with a median sale price of $113,500, according to figures from the Western Arizona Realtor Data Exchange (WARDEX).

“If anyone was interested in buying in 2010, that was the incentive to go,” said Petra Fahey, co-owner and Realtor with Country Ranch GMAC Real Estate in Bullhead City, which explains the better-than-average first quarter of the year. “It was a good reason to

get off the fence.”

According to the National Association of Realtors, “The legislation is designed to create a seamless extension of the new closing deadline for eligible transactions to Sept. 30. There will be no gap between June 30 and the date the president signs the bill into law.”

“There’s no indication that prices are going down,” said Dick Tripp, broker with Remax at the River, “They’re creeping upward.”

May 2010 saw an increase in the median sale price for site-built homes in Bullhead City from $92,900 in April to $130,000. The June figures show a decrease to $97,000.

The increase in May could be attributed to more homes being under contract or sold because of homebuyers trying to take advantage of the tax credit, but could be due to other factors as well.

“We’re just seeing a lot of these low-end properties distressed,” said Fahey, noting that the surplus of lower-cost homes on the market can skew the median sales price, along with the high percentage of sales being foreclosures.

“Until it really swings into buyer’s market territory … it’s only makes sense that you wouldn’t see market appreciation until then,” Fuchs said.

While May did show a jump in the median sales price, over the course of the entire first quarter of the year, the spike doesn’t stand out as clearly.

“If you look at them by quarter, there’s not that much of a change,” Tripp said.

With all issues taken into account, “Considering the location, I think we’re rocketing,” Fahey said. The Bullhead City region sits in the midst of the some of the hardest-hit markets — Phoenix, Las Vegas and Los Angeles — but has seen more positive gains than those areas, she said. “The good news is that we have people that want to buy real estate in Bullhead.”

“I don’t think our market is going to drop now,” said Tripp, predicting a 1.5 percent increase in sales prices from January 2010 to January 2011. “That’s very, very healthy.”

“It’s a buyer’s market,” he said, “a very, very good buyer’s market.”

“We still have a supply issue,” Fuchs said. The Bullhead City area market is sitting at about 7.7 months supply for all residential real estate, a number that has plateaued over the last few months. A six-month supply is generally considered a balanced market. “We’ve come a long way with inventory.”

The real estate market responds to any number of factors, said Tripp, and to pin the results on any one of them would be hasty.

Said Fuchs: “This year’s going to be very interesting.”