Posted Tuesday, January 12, 2010 --- 10:00 p.m.

Traditional wisdom says spring is better than winter to try and sell a home. But experts are saying not so fast... at least this year. If you're selling, now might be the time to list that home.

Just a few months ago, the Holdermans were renting a two bedroom condo in Madison. Mike Holderman says, "It was great. We loved the neighborhood." But then their family got bigger. Mike and Andrea, along with their son Brady, welcomed little Lucy into the world.

Suddenly, that spacious two bedroom condo seemed a little cramped. Mike says, "It definitely made us want some more space."

Lucy's birth wasn't the only thing that sent the Holdermans house hunting.

Like so many people, they felt right now was the time to buy. Interest rates are still low, houses are selling for less, and then there's the first-time home buyer's tax credit.

Mike says, " We would have eventually bought but probably not until near summer or fall."

In November of last year, the government extended the $8,000 first-time home buyers tax credit. And it started offering current homeowners a $6,500 tax credit if they bought a new place.

"If you've owned a home for five of the last eight years consecutively, you may be eligible for a tax credit of up to $6,500." Joe Murray with the Wisconsin Realtors Association says all of this has created a perfect storm and made people like the Holdermans, who may not have really been in the market for house, start looking.

But these prices, interest rates and the tax credits won't last forever. Murray says if you're thinking about selling or buying you'd better act fast.

"If you're interested in buying a home you should probably move sooner rather than later."

The tax credit for first time and existing home buyers expires at the end of April. The Wisconsin Realtors Association has set up a web site with information about those two tax credits:

http://www.wisconsinhomebuyer.org/