You have just paid your taxes for 2008. I am not a tax attorney or financial advisor but there are some new programs to consider.
You are familiar with the home interest deduction allowable on your income taxes. You can deduct the interest that you pay on your house payment from your gross income. Then you pay taxes on your net income.
If during the year your payday tax payments accumulated to more than your tax due you got a refund. Otherwise you had to come up with more to pay the amount due.
If you do not own a house you may qualify to get an $8,000.00 tax credit if you buy a house this year. If you buy a new home in California you may get an additional $10,000.00 tax credit. That is not as a deduction against your gross income. That is as tax dollars.
That being said, you can find any type of information you want to believe. Some "experts" advise you that the worst is yet to come. Maybe so. Some "experts" say the recession will bottom out about fall of 2009. It has been said that the Great Depression did not end with the work projects of the FDR era, The industrial machinery began moving with WWII and the economy turned around.
I can not tell you what the future holds. I will propose that the people who live in fear usually end up having nothing to show for all of their fears. Those who prosper are the people who step out and take a chance on a better future.
It is not about Obama and Washington DC. It is about you and your attitude of life.
Only God knows what the future holds. It could be the worst case scenario imaginable. If you chose that reality then you better put your money in a storehouse of groceries. Just don't tell your neighbors because when they get hungry they know where to find food.
Most optimistic people are realizing the dollar is shrinking. Real estate is a necessity. Population growth will increase demand. So what if the value declines more? What if interest goes up? Do they offset the payment? Is it realistic to imagine both dropping appreciable lower?
Is it just possible that we have unprecedented inflation waiting around the corner? What have oil and gold prices done in the past month?
Anyway, best wishes on Tax Day.