As the real estate market slows, sellers seem willing to try anything to close a deal. “[tag]Incentives[/tag] are all over the place,” says Salli Kirkpatrick, founder of SK Associates, a Sacramento area advertising agency that works with home builders. “No [tag]closing costs[/tag], no payments for six months, $10,000 toward a built-in s[tag]wimming pool[/tag]. Things have gone berserk.”

“Price cuts are averaging 5 percent to 6 percent,” Seiders says, “and 30 percent of all the large builders have cut prices in at least some of their development by 10 percent or more.” As mortgage rates inch higher, some builders eager to move inventory may help in that area too, says Seiders. That could mean a 4.5 percent interest rate for the first year and 5.5 percent for the second on a [tag]30-year fixed rate mortgage[/tag], instead of the going rate of about 6.5 percent. That would save a total of $6,828 on a $300,000 loan over the first two years of ownership.

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