I know what you're thinking. November 30th is coming at us faster than a Mac truck, and you're wondering if you'll have time to close on a house before the First-Time Homebuyer Federal Tax Credit expires.

Like the cash-for-clunkers program that swept the nation earlier this year, the Federal Tax Credit has generated a flurry of sales activity as homebuyers hurry to benefit from the up to $8,000 incentive.

And now we're only a couple of months away from the end. Or are we?

Long-term rates are rising today, the all-important 10-year Treasury suddenly above the 3.16-3.28 percent range that gave us sub-5 percent mortgages for the first time since spring. Gone now, pushing 5.125 percent, the 10-year trading 3.37 percent at this moment.

Ordinarily, a range breakout like this would signal a run to the top of the old range, 10-year Treasurys testing 4 percent as in summer, mortgages at 5.75 percent. However, nothing in this moment is ordinary -- not remotely predictable with normal tools.

Believers in "V"-shaped recovery gave it up this week, as did many hoping for any near-term recovery at all. The 10-year T-note broke cleanly through its post-May 3.28 percent low, taking mortgages below 5 percent, also for the first time since spring.

The manner in which the bond market cascaded said more than the fact. There was no new, single-piece, trend-changing report, just the cumulative weight of news describing an end to the May-July bright interval, and the beginning of an economic flattening or outright stall sometime in August.

First-time home-buyers across America have until November 30 to benefit from the Federal Government's tax credit that can add up to as much as $8,000 and, in some cases, can be used for the down payment on a home.

But for New Yorkers the news are even better, thanks to Mayor Bloomberg's "New Housing Marketplace Plan". As part of this plan the New York City HPD (Housing Preservation and Development agency) has created a special program that provides qualified home-buyers with up to 6% of a home's price toward the down payment or closing costs.

According to a report issued August 25, Tolleson and Litchfield Park in Arizona were hit hardest by foreclosure crisis in the first half of 2008, when compared to the same period in 2007.