The marketing opening this weekend is new construction. Census put August new-home sales at a 684,000 annual pace, up 6.4% from July's revised 643,000, while HousingWire reports an Audience Town analysis of 201,000 builder sales across 25 markets in which every market sold below asking. Builders are using incentives to move inventory at a time when resale buyers are stalling, and a buyer comparing a new build against a resale home needs someone to put both on the same payment basis. That is an LO job, not a builder-sales-office job. The calendar gives you two more beats to pre-write for: August PCE on Wednesday, September 30, and the September jobs report on Friday, October 2.
Be straight about rates. Bankrate's 30-year is 7.22% this morning, the top of its 90-day range (6.47%–7.22%) and 49 basis points above a month ago, even though bonds bounced Friday. On a $400,000 loan that is about $2,721 a month in principal and interest, versus about $2,589 at last month's 6.73%. The segment to talk to is active purchase shoppers, especially anyone looking at new construction: a builder credit applied to a rate buydown or closing costs can matter more to their monthly number than a week of market movement. FHA and VA buyers have a second angle — Bankrate's FHA and VA 30-year are both 6.93%, below the conventional rate.
The tactical move this week is a builder-incentive explainer you can send to buyers and share with the new-construction agents in your market. Keep it to one idea: an incentive has a dollar value, and the buyer should know what that value does to their payment before they compare homes. Offer to run the numbers on any builder offer they are holding. If you run ads with a payment figure, pair it with the full terms (see the best practice below).
ask two new-construction agents or builder sales reps you know what incentive they are offering on standing inventory this month, then run the payment impact on one example home and send it back to them as a shareable one-pager with your contact on it.