If you've been watching headlines about a "tough" housing market, here's the part most people are missing: behind the scenes, builders are quietly handing buyers some of the biggest deals we've seen in years.

I'll break it down in plain English.

PulteGroup, one of the largest homebuilders in the country, just reported that its sales incentives in Q1 2026 hit 10.9% of the average sales price.

On a $500,000 home, that's about $54,500 the builder is essentially giving buyers.

Here's how fast that number has climbed:

For context, in a "normal" market PulteGroup typically spends 3.0% to 3.5% on incentives. We are now more than triple that.

PulteGroup's CEO Ryan Marshall said it directly on their April earnings call: these incentives are how they're "solving the affordability riddle" for buyers, mostly through forward commitments and rate buydowns.

Here’s what both those terms mean:

A forward commitment is when a builder pays a lender up front to lock in a block of lower mortgage rates for their buyers. So for example, PulteGroup goes to their in-house lender and says "we want to lock in $50 million worth of mortgages at 4.99% for buyers closing in the next 90 days." The lender prices that block, the builder pays the difference between 4.99% and the market rate (say 6.25%), and any buyer who uses the builder's preferred lender gets the 4.99% rate for the full life of their loan.

A rate buydown is when the builder puts money into an escrow account to cover part of your interest payment for a set period of time. For example, a 2-1 buydown means your rate is 2% lower in year one and 1% lower in year two, then settles at the regular rate in year three. On a $500K loan, that can save you around $700 a month in year one.

**As a side note on rate buydowns, this and closing cost credits is typically what you see some existing home sellers offering to try and compete with builders, since they don’t have in-house lenders that they can purchase large forward commitment blocks from.

Either way, instead of cutting the sticker price (which would hurt the appraised value of every other home in their community, and actually doesn’t have as big of an impact on the monthly payment as the mortgage rate), builders and sellers alike use their margins to pay your rate down. They eat the cost and you get a payment that actually pencils.

Here's the part most buyers are not hearing on the news…

The mortgage rate you see quoted online is not the rate my clients are actually getting. Between builder forward commitments, seller-paid buydowns on resale homes, and aggressive incentive structures from builders like PulteGroup, Lennar, DR Horton, Toll Brothers, and many others, the effective rate a buyer locks in today is often well below what's published.

If you've been sitting on the sidelines waiting for rates to drop, you may already be closer to your number than you realize. It just takes someone who knows where to look, how to structure a deal, and how to negotiate it.

Builders are competing harder than they have in years. If you're trying to sell an existing home in a neighborhood with active new construction nearby, you're not just competing against your neighbor's listing. You're competing against a builder with a marketing budget, a sales office, and the ability to throw $50,000+ at a buyer's mortgage rate.

That's exactly why many resale listings sit longer than sellers expect. It's also why some homes never sell at all the first time around. It's almost never about the home itself. It's about pricing strategy, presentation, and how the home is positioned against the competition (including new construction).

When sellers reach out to me after a failed listing, the issue is usually fixable. We just have to be honest about what the home is competing against and adjust the plan from there.

The headlines will keep telling you the market is hard. The reality on the ground is more nuanced. Builders are hitting record high buyer incentives. Buyers who know where to look are getting payments that beat the public narrative, and sellers who price and position their homes correctly are still getting multiple offers on their home in many cases.

If you've been waiting for clarity, this is what it looks like. Quiet opportunity for buyers who are paying attention, and clear strategy for sellers who don't want to end up on the failed listings list.

Here to serve,

P.S. Want to know what builder incentives, rate buydowns, or seller concessions are actually available on the home you're eyeing or in your specific neighborhood? Just reply with your address (or the address you're considering) and I'll put together a free, no-pressure market analysis with the real numbers. No obligation, just good information.