Many homebuyers assume a brand-new home will automatically cost more than a resale home. In today’s market, that isn’t always true. Builders can offer incentives that traditional homesellers usually can’t, including lower mortgage rates and help with closing costs. Those incentives can sometimes make a more expensive new construction home cost less each month than…
Editor’s note: This is part one of a two-part story on builder incentives. Part two will focus on what agents and brokers think about incentives, and how they guide buyers. These may be uncomfortable days for many buyers, with mortgage rates in the mid-7s and threatening to go higher if the Fed raises interest rates.…
A lack of inventory and an affordability crunch since the pandemic have affected the housing market in many ways, few of them positive for buyers. But one interesting dynamic remains pricing between new builds and existing homes—with existing homes historically much cheaper. Despite a welcome surge in inventory overall, the price of a new build…