New Construction Incentives in the Triangle: October 2026

The October offers at a glance

We pulled each builder’s published Raleigh-division incentive on October 28, 2026. The terms below are the builder’s own, as posted. Where a builder has not published terms, we say so rather than estimate. All financing offers require the builder’s affiliated lender, and all are on select homes, which in practice means quick move-in inventory and homes that can close before the deadline.

For context, Freddie Mac’s survey put the average 30-year fixed rate at 7.32% for the week of October 22, 2026. Every rate above is below that, which is the point of the offers. The question is what each one costs you later and what the same home would sell for without the financing attached.

Lennar: 3.99% FHA 5/1 ARM, contract by November 1

Lennar’s Black Friday Sales Event is the shortest window on this list. The offer is an FHA 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage fixed at 3.990% for the first five years, with a stated APR of 7.079%, on select new homes in the greater Raleigh area. Lennar pays discount points to reach that rate. On the same homes, Lennar is also offering up to $5,000 toward closing costs.

To qualify you must sign a purchase agreement between October 26 and November 1, 2026 and close by November 20, 2026. Financing must be through Lennar Mortgage, LLC. After year five the rate adjusts annually based on the index. The 7.079% APR is the number to pay attention to: it reflects the points paid up front and the assumed rate path after the fixed period, and it tells you this is a five-year product, not a cheap 30-year loan.

This fits a buyer who is confident they will sell or refinance inside five years and who wants an FHA loan anyway. It is a poor fit for someone planning to hold the home for a decade without refinancing. Lennar’s Triangle inventory this month runs from townhomes under $400,000 in southeast Raleigh to single-family homes in the high $600s in Holly Springs; see our Lennar page for communities and from-prices.

Mattamy: 3.99% 2/1 buydown, contract by October 31

Mattamy’s offer is a seller-funded temporary buydown through Mattamy Home Funding, LLC. On a 30-year conventional loan the rate is 3.99% in year one, 4.99% in year two, then 5.99% fixed for the remaining 28 years. The stated APR is 6.327% on conventional; Mattamy also offers it on FHA (6.784% APR) and VA (6.371% APR).

The window is new contracts entered October 2 through October 31, 2026 on select Mattamy homes that close on or before November 30, 2026. The APR example is based on a $472,000 price, a $424,800 loan with 10% down and a 780 credit score, owner-occupied. On that example loan, Mattamy states it pays up to $9,418.68 into the buydown fund. The rate comes from a locked pool of funds and may expire when the pool is used up, so a contract signed on October 30 is not guaranteed the rate.

The useful way to read a 2/1 buydown is from year three backward. On the example loan, the permanent 5.99% payment is about $2,544 a month in principal and interest. Year one at 3.99% is about $2,026 and year two at 4.99% is about $2,278. The buydown saves roughly $6,200 in year one and $3,200 in year two, which adds up to the $9,419 Mattamy funds. That is real money, but it is a fixed sum. If you would rather have it as a price reduction or as a permanent rate buydown, that is a negotiation, and it depends on the specific home. Mattamy’s communities are south and east of Raleigh, in Garner, Fuquay-Varina, Clayton, Wendell, Benson, Angier and Lillington; details on our Mattamy Homes page.

M/I Homes: 4.875% 7/6 ARM plus 2% closing costs

M/I’s Fall Savings event runs October 14 through November 8, 2026. The financing piece is a 30-year conventional 7/6 ARM fixed at 4.875% for the first seven years, 5.749% APR, through M/I Financial, LLC, on new contracts executed on or after October 14 that close by November 30, 2026. Alongside it, M/I will pay up to 2% of allowable closing costs, subject to the contribution limits for the loan program and down payment.

The fine print is the most specific of any builder this month, which we consider a positive. The rate assumes 20% down and a minimum 720 FICO with no exceptions, owner-occupied. After 84 payments the rate adjusts every six months, indexed to 30-day SOFR plus 2.75%, with a 5% cap at the first adjustment, a 1% cap per adjustment after that, a floor of 2.75% and a lifetime cap of 9.875%. M/I discloses that if the index were unchanged at the first adjustment, the rate would reset to 6.625%. FHA and VA versions are also available.

Seven years is a long fixed period, and 4.875% is a strong rate for it. The disclosure that the first reset would be 6.625% on today’s index is the honest version of what an ARM costs: a buyer who holds past year seven should plan for a payment increase of roughly 20% unless rates fall. M/I is selling in Apex, Cary, Raleigh and soon Durham; see our M/I Homes page.

Toll Brothers: 5.49% 30-year fixed on quick move-ins

Toll’s offer is the only true 30-year fixed rate on this list: 5.49% with a 5.76% APR on select quick move-in homes in North Carolina, with as little as 10% down, through Toll Brothers Mortgage Company (NMLS #18154). It applies to Agreements of Sale signed on or after October 8, 2026 on homes eligible to close by December 28, 2026. A rate lock agreement is required.

Restrictions: new buyers and primary residences only, FHA and VA loans are not eligible, and the loan amount must fall between $250,000 and $832,750. The figures are based on a $555,556 price, a $500,000 loan and a 740 credit score; lower scores may raise the APR. The offer is not combinable with other offers and may expire without notice. Toll also negotiates design-studio credits, lot premiums and closing costs home by home, particularly in final-phase communities, but those are not published and we confirm them on the specific home before you tour.

Because there is no adjustment and no step-up, the 5.49% rate is the easiest to value. On a $500,000 loan the principal-and-interest payment is about $2,836 a month, against about $3,435 at the 7.32% market rate, a difference of roughly $600 a month for the life of the loan. The cost is that Toll’s price points are mostly $730,000 and up outside its Regency 55+ communities, which start at $389,000, and its Everstead townhomes in west Cary from the mid $500s. Communities and pricing are on our Toll Brothers page.

Pulte and Drees: programs, not published rates

Pulte is running its “Savings are in Season” fall event, which it describes as builder-paid closing costs and below-market financing on available quick move-in homes at participating Raleigh communities. The specific credit and rate are not published online and vary by home. Financing incentives generally require Pulte Mortgage. Pulte also publishes a $2,000 Hometown Heroes incentive for active teachers, nurses, EMS, police, firefighters and active and retired military. We ask Pulte for the terms on a specific home rather than quoting a number we cannot verify. Pulte’s Triangle communities, mostly in the $280,000 to $540,000 range, are on our Pulte Homes page.

Drees is not publishing a Raleigh-division promotion online as of October 28, 2026. It does negotiate on quick move-ins, model homes and final-phase homesites, and its affiliated lender, First Equity Mortgage, periodically funds rate buydowns. We will not quote a Drees incentive we have not confirmed in writing. Drees builds semi-custom homes on acreage in Wake Forest, Knightdale, Fuquay-Varina, Angier, Pittsboro, Hillsborough and Mebane; see our Drees Homes page.

How to compare a 2/1 buydown, an ARM and a bought-down fixed

The three structures on offer this month are built for different holding periods, and comparing headline rates across them is a mistake. Use three numbers instead.

Year-three payment

For a temporary buydown, the payment you keep is the one that starts in year three. Mattamy’s 3.99% becomes 5.99% in month 25. For an ARM, the payment you keep until the first adjustment is the fixed-period payment, so M/I’s 4.875% and Lennar’s 3.99% are genuine for seven and five years respectively. For a bought-down fixed like Toll’s 5.49%, the payment never changes. Line up the three year-three payments on the same loan amount and the picture changes: Mattamy’s 3.99% headline is already gone by year three, and Lennar’s 3.99% holds only through year five before it adjusts.

First adjustment

Write down the month the rate can first change and what it would change to on today’s index. M/I discloses that number (6.625% at month 85). Lennar’s 5/1 adjusts at month 61 based on the index at that time, and the 7.079% APR is the best public signal of where the lender expects it to land. A buydown has no adjustment, and a fixed has none. If your realistic holding period is shorter than the fixed period, the ARM’s step-up may never affect you. If it is longer, you are betting on a refinance.

A competing quote

Every offer here requires the builder’s lender, and the builder is paying for the rate with money that could otherwise go to price. Get one quote from an outside lender on the same home, same down payment and same credit, and ask the builder what the price or closing-cost credit is without their financing. Then compare total cost over the years you expect to own, not the first payment. In our experience the builder’s package often wins on a quick move-in with a deadline, and the outside quote often wins on a to-be-built home where the builder’s rate cannot be locked for the construction period.

Register your agent on the first visit

Most builders will only pay buyer-side commission if your agent is registered with them on your first visit to the community. Not the second visit, and not the day you write the offer. The first time you sign the visitor card, or book a self-tour through a lockbox app, is the moment that counts. Walk in alone first and you may have permanently forfeited your right to bring in representation on that purchase. The builder does not have to warn you, and the on-site consultant is paid by the builder to represent the builder.

That matters more with incentives than at any other time. Our job on a new-construction purchase is to pull the current quick move-in list and the incentive on the specific address, get you the outside quote, read the builder’s contract (which is not the standard North Carolina offer to purchase), negotiate design credits and lot premiums where there is room, and schedule the pre-drywall, final and 11-month inspections. None of that is possible if the registration step is missed. Call or email us before your first visit and we will handle the registration directly with the builder.

Jennifer Gallagher, Tidal Realty Partners — Triangle. Real Broker LLC (NC Firm #C34379). (910) 372-6720, info@tidalrealtypartners.com.

Sources: Lennar Black Friday Sales Event terms, lennar.com, greater Raleigh area, retrieved October 28, 2026. Mattamy Homes 2/1 buydown offer and APR disclosures, mattamyhomes.com Raleigh division, retrieved October 28, 2026. M/I Homes Fall Savings 7/6 ARM and closing-cost offer, mihomes.com Triangle division, retrieved October 28, 2026. Toll Brothers 5.49% rate offer and conditions, tollbrothers.com North Carolina, retrieved October 28, 2026. Pulte Homes “Savings are in Season” and Hometown Heroes incentives, pulte.com Raleigh communities, retrieved October 28, 2026. Drees Homes Raleigh division, dreeshomes.com, retrieved October 28, 2026. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ending October 22, 2026. Payment illustrations calculated by Tidal Realty Partners on 30-year amortization, principal and interest only; they are not loan offers.