Thank the $8,000 tax credit for this one. Take that away and nearly 500,000 houses would still be sitting on the open market for sale. Take away the tax credit and watch existing house sales plummet. Most sales are in the $100,000-$250,000 range and some are even going 3.5% down with FHA loans. Haven't we learned anything from the last housing crisis. Oct. 23, 2009, 10:01 a.m. EDT · Recommend · Post: U.S. existing-home sales rise 9.4% to 5.57 million Explore related topics Banks Story Comments Screener (13) Alert Email Print Share By Rex Nutting WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Resales of U.S. houses jumped 9.4% in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million, the highest in more than two years, the National Association of Realtors estimated Friday. Sales as tracked by the NAR are up 24% from January's bottom, and are up 9.2% compared with a year ago. The median forecast by economists surveyed by MarketWatch looked for a smaller gain to a 5.38 million annual rate from a downwardly revised 5.09 million in August. "Sales surged" in September, said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the real estate trade group, who gave much of the credit for the increase to the federal government's soon-to-expire $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers.