Most ridiculous is this comment: “18.1 percent of those surveyed plan to buy a home this year taking advantage of the $8,000 tax credit”. That might be true if “those surveyed” were all cornered by Realtors at open houses, but in light of the first paragraph's claim that “nearly a quarter of ALL ADULTS” were thinking of buying a home, saying “18.1% of those surveyed plan to buy a home this year” makes it sound like 18.1% of ALL ADULTS plan on buying this year. One normally assumes that “those surveyed” are supposed to be a representative sample (in this case, of “all adults”).That would be about 42 million people. And they'd all have to be first-time buyers in order to be eligible for the $8k tax credit, so that conflicts with the previous arithemetic (53.5% of 23% of all adults = 28 million first-time buyers within the next FIVE years). Even if all of the 42 million were buying with another person (spouse or other) and there were no single buyers at all, that would mean 21 million first-time homebuyer purchases consumated in 2009 with an aim of getting the $8,000 tax credit. Considering that that's more than five times the current annual TOTAL home purchase rate for 2009 (including 2nd, 3rd & 4th time buyers), it would be impossible for 18.1% of all adults to buy their first house in 2009 in order to get a tax credit.

Of course poorly-written survey questions can confuse those being surveyed, but any true survey organization needs to filter for illogical responses and to report their results in a way that is logical and comprehensible.

Fielding Mellish, Fmr President, San Marcos