Would You Like a Mortgage Buydown With That?

Buy a new home, get a lower interest rate. Maybe some help with closing costs. Perhaps upgraded appliances. Depending on the builder and the house, there could be tens of thousands of dollars in incentives on the table.

Houston-area home builders are doing some serious wooing right now.

And there's a fairly simple reason: buyers have choices.

The Houston market has more homes available than it did during the frantic years when buyers practically had to tackle one another at the front door. Builders have homes to sell, buyers are watching their budgets, and higher mortgage payments have made many people more cautious about taking the plunge.

So builders are getting creative.

Instead of simply slashing the price of a house, many are offering lower mortgage rates, money toward closing costs, upgrades, appliances, or combinations of several perks. For a buyer trying to keep a monthly payment manageable, a discounted interest rate can be considerably more appealing than granite countertops—although nobody is going to complain if the countertops happen to come along too.

There's just one thing we'd add to the shopping list:

Get the new home inspected.

A builder incentive can make a house more affordable. It can't tell you whether everything behind those freshly painted walls was installed correctly.

New construction is still construction. Hundreds of people and dozens of trades may have been involved in putting that home together, and mistakes happen. We've inspected plenty of brand-new homes and found things that needed attention before the buyer moved in.

So by all means, take the lower rate. Take the closing-cost help. Take the fancy appliances.

Take the free upgrade, too.

And take your inspector with you.