According to the Government Accountability Office, Florida came in number 3 in the nation, with nearly $65,000 first time homebuyers that took advantage of one of the IRS tax credits under the Housing, Recovery and Assistance acts.

Although Florida ranked number three, California took the number one spot with over $814 million returned to first time homebuyers, reflecting nearly 117,000 claims. On a nationwide scale, nearly $23.5 billion were returned and 3.32 million submitted claims!

There were three different credits that were offered to Americans; The Housing Act, which provided a maximum of $7,500 in refundable tax credit funds which must be repaid by the taxpayer, The Recovery Act, which provided a maximum of $8,000 in which the repayment is waived and the Assistance Act, which extended the credit to the spring of this year as well as providing 2nd time qualified homebuyers up to $6,500.

The tax credit had such an impact on the real estate market over the last year, that since the expiration of the tax credit over of the spring of this year, home sales have dropped significantly.