By AP
Frankfort, KY – About 2,400 Kentucky residents were approved to claim a $5,000 tax credit for buying a newly constructed home in the last 18 months before the break expired. The end of the New Home Tax Credit over the weekend, combined with the end of federal housing credits, has builders looking to job growth and consumer confidence to aide the housing market in 2011. State Representative Tommy Thompson, a homebuilder who pushed for the state credit, says he sees no new help coming from Frankfort for the housing industry, given the state's expected budget problems. Kentucky ended up approving about $12 million in housing credits, less than half the $25 million lawmakers had first budgeted when the credit became available in July 2009.