#builder-incentives

#builder-incentives

Monthly payments for new and existing homes are now nearly equal, amid a trend of stagnating prices and increased use of mortgage buydowns among builders. That was one of the main findings from Realtor.com's Q3 New Construction Report. According to the report, buyers purchasing a new home last quarter had an average mortgage payment only about $30 more per month than those buying an existing home with less money down.

"As we anticipated on our last call, we did expect to lean in more heavily to the offering of 3.99% [mortgage rate buydown]," said Jessica Hansen, D.R. Horton's senior vice president of investor relations. "That is something that we've been doing, and we saw the mortgage rate in our backlog come down. It's actually below 5% today coming into this quarter."

New construction homes often have less wiggle room on base price, but builders may offer significant incentives during negotiations to help buyers secure deals.