Should the Homebuyer Credit be Renewed?

Even on a rainy day, 7-year-old Bella Segal is trying to help sell her house.

"I was thinking that we could sell lemonade to get people to come to the house to see the house," Bella said.

Lemonade and cookie: 50 cents. And for $575,000 she's throw in a free house. The Segals are moving to St. Louis for a better job, reports CBS News correspondent Karen Brown. But their house in New York's Westchester County has been on the market for three months, and so far, not even a nibble.

"We know that we have to patient and carry our mortgage for as long as we can," said Michelle Segal. "We are hurting emotionally and financially, we are losing a lot."

The Segal's house is considered a move-up home. That market, which is two-thirds of all homebuyers, is still in a slump.

"There is a big problem in the middle part of the market," said Jordan Goodman with MoneyAnswers.com.

To solve that, legislators are considering a new tax credit similar to the $8,000 credit for first-time purchases. That helped bring 1.4 million buyers to the table, and stabilized the market.

The new proposal would extend the first-time credit through the summer of 2010, open it up to all buyers, and over up to $15,000. But it's expensive.

"We're talking real money,$75, $80, $85 billion, and I think at that point, we're stretching the limit of what we can do," said Mark Zandi, a chief economist with Moody's Investors Service.

By the time the first homebuyers credit expires on Nov. 30, the government will have spent $15 billion.

"They're spending hundreds of billions on all kinds of things," Goodman said. "It's a pretty targeted area that's actually helping the housing market and helping the economy."

First timers like Moto Tohda are racing to take advantage of the current program before the deadline.

"Eight thousand is a lot of money," Tohda said.

But the majority of sellers are still waiting.

"It's sad that we haven't sold it yet," Bella said.

And economists say without another tax credit, it'll take more than a lemonade stand to get the real estate market moving again.