This month, usually yes, because of the size of the gap. A builder-funded rate in the 3s or 4s against a 6.95% market rate moves your payment more than most resale price cuts do, but what the incentive is worth to you depends on how long you keep the loan and what the builder’s lender charges for the privilege.
Buyers ask us this because the offers sound too good next to everything else in the market. The 30-year fixed averaged 6.95% in Freddie Mac’s survey for the week ending September 17, 2026, up 19 basis points in a single week. In that environment a builder advertising 3.25% in year one does not read as a discount. It reads as a catch.
It is not a catch, and it is also not free. Every one of these offers is paid for somewhere, usually out of the money the builder would otherwise have used to cut the price, and every one of them is tied to a specific lender, a specific contract window and a specific list of homes. Our job is to tell you what the offer is worth in dollars against the alternative, which is a resale house at a lower price.
What is actually on the table this month?
These are the terms the six builders we work with most closely were marketing when we last verified their pages on September 22, 2026. They change monthly, sometimes faster.
- Logan Homes: $20,000 use as you choose on select homes for contracts written September 1 to 30, 2026, requiring financing with Alpha Mortgage, or a 2/1 buydown at 2.99% in year one, 3.99% in year two and 4.99% for the life of the loan Tidal Realty Partners Logan Homes page, terms verified September 22, 2026
- Mungo Homes: 2/1 buydown at 3.25% in year one, 4.25% in year two and 5.25% for years three through thirty at 6.025% APR through Silverton Mortgage, or up to $20,000 in savings instead Tidal Realty Partners Mungo Homes page, terms verified September 22, 2026
- HHHunt Homes: 4.99% fixed and locked on select move-in-ready homes at Fawn Valley and McQuillan Pines, worth roughly $500 a month against a 6.95% market rate on a $400,000 loan, plus $1,500 for teachers, first responders, medical professionals and military Tidal Realty Partners HHHunt Homes page, terms verified September 22, 2026
- Stevens Fine Homes, Bill Clark Homes and Trusst Builder Group publish no standing promotion, and negotiate home by home instead Tidal Realty Partners builder pages, terms verified September 22, 2026
- 30-year fixed mortgage rate 6.95%, against 6.26% a year ago Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ending September 17, 2026
Two things stand out in that list. The first is that the HHHunt 4.99% fixed rate applies only to move-in-ready inventory, so whether it is available to you depends on what is standing on the lot the week you call. The second is that half the builders we cover are offering nothing published at all. On Stevens, Bill Clark and Trusst homes, the negotiation is the inventory home, the homesite premium and the close date rather than a headline rate.
How do you tell whether an incentive is real money?
Ask the builder one question: what is the total dollar amount you are contributing, and can I take it as a price reduction instead. The answer is usually no, and the reason is instructive. Builders protect the recorded sale prices in a community because those prices become the comps for the homes they have not sold yet and for the appraisals of the neighbors who already closed. A rate buydown moves your payment without touching the recorded price. That is why the money shows up as a buydown or a closing credit rather than a discount.
Then compare the two forms of the same money. On a $400,000 home the Mungo buydown is worth roughly $7,300 in builder contribution, front loaded into your first two years, per our Mungo Homes page, while the alternative $20,000 in savings is worth more if you hold the loan long enough to get past the buydown years. Which one wins depends entirely on how long you keep the loan. If you expect to move or refinance inside five years, front-loaded money is worth more to you. If this is the house you retire in, take the permanent reduction.
The distinction to watch is temporary versus permanent. A 2/1 buydown lowers your rate for two years and then settles at a permanent number, and the permanent number is the one that matters. Logan’s buydown settles at 4.99% for the life of the loan. Mungo’s settles at 5.25%. Both are well under this week’s market rate, which is what makes them worth the paperwork, and the year-one number in the marketing is the least important figure in the offer.
What does the incentive cost you?
Every offer on that list runs through the builder’s lender. Logan’s requires financing with Alpha Mortgage and closing with a named law firm. Mungo’s runs through Silverton Mortgage and holds only until the locked pool of funds is depleted. HHHunt’s requires the builder’s preferred lender. That is normal and it is not sinister, but it removes your ability to shop, and a lender who knows you cannot leave has less reason to sharpen the fees.
So we do one thing on every new construction purchase: get one competing quote from an outside lender on the same house, the same day, and lay the two side by side including origination, discount points and the APR. Sometimes the builder’s package wins by hundreds a month and the decision takes ten seconds. Sometimes the rate is better and the fees eat a third of the advantage. You cannot know which without the second quote, and asking for one has never cost a client an incentive.
Also read the fine print on the example. Mungo’s advertised payment assumes FHA financing with 3.5% down and a 780 credit score. If your file looks different, your rate looks different. The published number is a starting point, not a quote.
Register your agent before your first model home visit
This is the part that costs people the most money and has nothing to do with rates. Most builders will only pay buyer-side representation if your agent is registered with them the first time you walk into the model home. Walk in alone and you may have given up your right to representation on that purchase permanently, and the friendly on-site agent works for the builder. Our New Construction section and the new construction guide cover how we handle that, and our Buyer Advantage Program exists for exactly this kind of purchase.
An incentive is only worth what it saves against the alternative, and sometimes the resale house wins. Our Brunswick County market update makes the honest version of the comparison: a $15,000 closing credit plus a rate buydown can beat a resale that is $20,000 cheaper on paper, and the reverse is also true when the resale is priced to sell and needs nothing. New construction also comes with things a resale does not: a homesite premium, a build timeline you do not control, landscaping and window treatments that are not in the base price, and a lender you did not choose. And these terms expire. Logan’s September credit closes with the month, Mungo’s funds run until the pool is gone, and HHHunt’s rate applies only to homes currently standing. If someone quotes you a rate from a page like this one, confirm it with us before you count on it.
Related questions people also ask
Can I ask a builder for a price cut instead of the incentive?
You can ask, and the usual answer is no. Builders protect recorded sale prices because those prices become the comparable sales for the homes still to sell in the community and for appraisals on homes that already closed. That is why the money is offered as a rate buydown, a closing credit or an upgrade package instead. Where price does move is on standing inventory and closeout homes, because a finished house carrying costs every month is a different problem for the builder than a lot that has not been started.
Do I have to use the builder’s lender to get the incentive?
Generally yes. The offers we track from Logan Homes, Mungo Homes and HHHunt Homes as of September 22, 2026 all require financing through a named lender partner, and some also require closing with a specific attorney. You are free to finance elsewhere, you just do not get the incentive. The practical move is to get one competing quote on the same house so you can see the rate, the fees and the APR side by side before you commit.
Is a 2/1 buydown worth it if I might refinance in a few years?
If you genuinely expect to refinance or move within a few years, a temporary buydown is worth more to you than a permanent one, because the savings arrive in the years you will actually be in the loan. The catch is that nobody can promise rates will be lower when you want to refinance. We run both versions of the numbers on the specific house, using the permanent rate rather than the year-one rate as the baseline, so the decision does not rest on a forecast.
Before you tour a model home, send us the communities you are considering and let us register you with those builders and pull the current terms, because they change monthly and the best of them apply only to specific homes. Then we will run the incentive against a competing lender quote and against comparable resale homes so you can see in dollars which one actually wins. That comparison takes one conversation.
Sources: Tidal Realty Partners New Construction builder pages for Logan Homes, Mungo Homes, HHHunt Homes, Stevens Fine Homes, Bill Clark Homes and Trusst Builder Group, terms verified against the builders September 22, 2026; Tidal Realty Partners mortgage update, September 2026; Tidal Realty Partners Brunswick County market update, August 2026 data; Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ending September 17, 2026.
