NEWARK, N.J., October 19, 2009 - The first-time homebuyer tax credit has been vital in stabilizing the U.S. housing market and should be extended by Congress, one of Prudential Financial Inc.’s (NYSE: PRU) top real estate executives said today.

Earl Lee, president of Prudential Real Estate and Relocation Services, said the federal tax credit, which is set to expire December 1, has helped bring equilibrium to a besieged U.S. housing market.

“The real estate market is a game changer,” Lee said. “It’s not coincidental that the U.S. economy has improved as residential real estate has improved.”

Lee said the housing recovery is fragile and Congress could help by extending the tax credit by at least another year. There are several proposals now before lawmakers to extend the tax credit into next year.

The National Association of REALTORS^® (NAR) estimates that 1.8 million homebuyers will take advantage of the tax this year and that one-fifth of them would not have purchased a home without the credit. According to the NAR, first-time homebuyers represented about half of home sales logged during the first half of this year. The measure allows first-time homebuyers, and those who have not owned a principal residence in three years, to take a credit against their federal income taxes of as much as $8,000.

"The risks of not having an extension – including a further decline in home prices – are very clear to me," Lee said. "We are not out of the woods by any means."

Prudential Real Estate and Relocation Services, Inc. is Prudential’s integrated real estate brokerage franchise and relocation services business. The company’s real estate network is one of the largest real estate brokerage franchise networks in North America, with nearly 1,940 independently owned and operated franchise offices and approximately 62,000 sales professionals in the franchise Network as of March 31, 2009. The relocation division provides comprehensive global relocation services to Fortune 500 corporations worldwide.

With locations in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Hong Kong, Singapore, and China, the company offers a broad menu of services critical to the relocation of clients’ employees. For more information, visit www.prudentialrealestate.com.

Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), a financial services leader with approximately $580 billion of assets under management as of June 30, 2009, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Leveraging its heritage of life insurance and asset management expertise, Prudential is focused on helping approximately 50 million individual and institutional customers grow and protect their wealth. The company’s well-known Rock symbol is an icon of strength, stability, expertise and innovation that has stood the test of time. Prudential's businesses offer a variety of products and services, including life insurance, annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds, investment management, and real estate services. For more information, please visit http://www.news.prudential.com/.

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