Legislation aiming to extend California's maximum $10,000 new home buyer tax credit to several thousand more buyers has stalled, failing to pass during a frantic weekend rush to adjournment by the state Legislature.

The bill, AB 765, was among those pushed aside by bigger final-hour statewide issues, backers said Monday. "With the prison reform package still being negotiated and water discussions going on, things like that kind of got pushed to the back," said Willie Armstrong, chief aide to Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, D-Salinas.

The bill's status is unclear. Armstrong said it could receive a vote during upcoming special sessions being considered later this year.  But that provides little certainty to first-time new-home buyers hoping to combine a state tax credit up to $10,000 with a federal $8,000 home buyer tax credit. The federal tax credit expires Nov. 30.

California's home-building industry had aimed to extend the credit to at least another 4,300 home buyers after the state's Franchise Tax Board estimated the average tax credit would be $7,000, not the full $10,000.