First-time home buyer credit: buyers actually losing money?

According to this SmartMoney article, the recent $8,000.00 cash incentive for first-time home buyers has ended up resulting in home price declines of more than twice that much.    

The government's recent $8,000 cash incentive for first-time home buyers has proved even more costly for recipients than for taxpayers, according to data released Monday. Typical buyers have lost twice as much to price declines as they received from the program.

The median home value fell to about $170,000 in March from $185,000 a year earlier, according to Zillow.com. That means a buyer who closed on a house just before the tax-credit program expired in April 2010 collected $8,000 but has since lost $15,000 in value. Those who bought earlier in the program have done worse; the median price is down $20,000 from March 2009.

Looks like just another example of the unintended consequences that arise from government incentive programs.  Government gets more of what it subsidizes and the consumer gets a higher price.