Is the housing market doomed without tax credits?

Predictably, the expiration of federal tax credits for home buyers is leaving builders with the blues.

The National Association of Home Builders said Tuesday its index measuring member optimism dropped to 17 in June from 22 in May. The index had risen for two consecutive months.

Most analysts aren’t forecasting another deep slump, but neither are they expecting the housing market to bounce back with a vengeance.

“The latest housing market figures remind me of what happens when an athlete stops taking steroids,” Weiss Research’s Mike Larson wrote. “Those tackling and batting records pass into the history books — and all you’re left with is a washed up guy whose best days are behind him. In the case of housing, the home buyer tax credit clearly juiced sales through the spring. But the drugs have now been taken away, and we’re seeing sales slump as a result.”

Do you agree? How badly will sales suffer in the second half of 2010 without the tax credits?

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