Texas Home Builders Forced to Offer Discounts to Dump Inventory by Year End

Soaring housing costs are forcing Texas home builders to slow production and offer concessions in […]

Soaring housing costs are forcing Texas home builders to slow production and offer concessions in order to sell completed homes

Texas home builders ramped up construction post-pandemic to boost housing supply in overpriced Lone Star housing markets, but as the cost of housing in cities like San Antonio rises up to an average of 39 percent, builders are slowing their operations and handing out discounts to an increasingly uncertain buyer pool, The Real Deal reports. 

Before cutting into the base price of new-home construction, builders are incentivizing buyers with strategies aimed at curbing mortgage rates, but as cancellation rates rise, price reductions are becoming more commonplace.

“Most homebuilders I’ve spoken to have said they want to close out their inventory by year-end,” Sean Chandler, president of Chesmar Homes’ Central Texas division, told the San Antonio Business Journal on Friday. “The best time to buy a home will be in the next three months.”

“A year ago, we were selling homes as fast as we could build them, and prices were going up all the time — 90 days ago, that came to a screeching halt,” Chandler says. Since the pandemic started, the cost of housing in San Antonio has ramped up an average 39 percent across the city to a median $385,340.