HousingWireHousingWire
While shoppers flock to malls and online retailers for Black Friday deals, M/I Homes is shifting the focus to residential real estate with holiday incentives that rival traditional doorbusters. That’s right, there are Black Friday home sales! The Ohio-based builder is offering discounts of up to $20,000 on select homes in Greater Houston, along with no-cost 2/1 rate buydowns, and slashing prices by as much as $93,850 in other markets like Chicago.
The promotion applies to select homes in various housing developments across multiple cities. For instance, at Lone Star Landing in Montgomery, Texas, M/I Homes is offering discounts ranging from $7,500 to $20,000 on specific properties.
Magnolia Ridge, one of the participating housing developments in the Greater Houston deal, is offering $7,500 to $7,500 off select homes, with a few of the homes seeing prices drop from $289,200 to $244,990 and $248,590 to $239,990.
The home builder’s holiday incentives range by location. Chicago’s offerings include doorbuster deals on Quick Move-In homes, which reduce pricing up to $93,850 if the home closes this year. Buyers using this incentive can qualify for either a 3/2/1 rate buydown on a 30-year FHA Fixed-rate Mortgage or a 3/2/1 rate buydown on a 30-year conventional fixed-rate mortgage.
Several areas, including Central Ohio, Greater Austin, Texas, and Charlotte, N.C., offer a “Holiday of Homes” incentive that varies across areas. In Charlotte, borrowers to lock in a lower rate on select Quick Move-In homes that can close by the end of the year. Per M/I’s website, the lower rate includes a 2/1 rate buydown on a 30-year FHA fixed-rate mortgage, a 2/1 Rate Buydown on a 30-year conventional fixed-rate mortgage, and paid closing costs.
But in Greater Austin, the “Holiday of Homes” offers flex cash — which can be used towards design selections or structural options — and financing. Buyers can receive 3% of their home’s base price to use toward financing costs or, for homes that close by December 31, 2024, secure a 2/1 temporary mortgage rate buydown with first-year rates as low as 2.875% (FHA) or 3.875% (Conventional), along with 2% of the base price applied to allowable closing costs.
The discounts come as homebuilders’ confidence in the market remains muted. The National Association of Homebuilders reported in October that builders used sales incentives in 62% of transactions in September.
