PORTLAND, Ore. – One week remains for first-time homebuyers to get in on an $8,000 tax credit the government will give them for buying a new house.

Local real estate agents say they  - along with home shoppers - are feeling pressure because homebuyers need to close on a house before a Dec. 1 deadline and escrow is taking around 45 days.

“Really, by next week you have to have an accepted offer and have it submitted to the bank and get the process started,” said Lisa Owens, a real estate agent with Realty Trust.

Owens said the tax credit deadline, along with exceptional interest rates, and more reasonable and accurate prices, has created a bit of a first-time homebuyer frenzy that has hit in the last couple of weeks.

Samantha Slaughter-Mason and Guy Allen are among first-time buyers trying to get in on the tax credit.

“We haven’t found much in our price range that we can just put an offer in on,” said Slaughter-Mason.

They have an offer on a short sale, but two months later they still don’t know if they’ve got it. So they’re frantically searching for a backup and they have 8,000 reasons why they need to find a house fast.

The tax credit is designed to prop up the slumped housing market and in Portland it seems to have worked. The city went from 19 months of inventory on the market to around eight, and nationally, close to 400,000 more homes are said to have sold because of it.

But just like sales plummeted after the Cash for Clunkers programmed expired, there’s concern this new housing bubble will burst as well. The criticism is that people are persuaded to act fast, which could depress activity come Dec. 2. That’s one reason lawmakers are contemplating extending the tax credit so that people like Slaughter-Mason and Allen can make a less urgent decision on such an important investment.

“That pressure is completely there,” said Slaughter-Mason. “We wouldn’t have even considered buying a home this year. It didn’t seem like an option at this point and then the tax credit was there and we were able to make things work. If we can’t meet that deadline, then we won’t be buying a house this year.”

Less expensive homes appear to be the ones moving because of the tax credit. But many of those are short sales, limiting the inventory even more.