The point we were making the other day in our post San Ramon Housing Market Loses Buyers seems to be backed up by today’s Saturday Homes special advertising section in the CC Times.
On the front page of the section, you have Centex advertising their “One Day Sale.” They go into great detail about how fantastic the sale will be for buyers, but if you read the entire page, you find one mention of price = Save up to $200,000 on selected Bay Area homes.
Has any one other than me seen these types of come-ons before? How many homes in all of their developments do you think they are discounting $200K? I’ll bet that $200K is off the original price set two years ago when the project launched and before the decline in the housing market and the subprime loan meltdown. If this is the case, what we probably have is a home that is already valued $175K below what Centex originally hoped to get for it. But telling folks you are going to reduce a home another 1% to 2% doesn’t motivate them much to come by on a holiday weekend.
All of this is speculation on my part because the ad doesn’t give any real figures. Most of the copy is spent telling us how great Centex is.
On page E2, we find Copper Ridge, a condo conversion project in San Ramon, offering furnishings to all escrows that close before Oct. 31 this year, Of course, there is no mention of what they mean by furnishing or the extent of the furnishings. Maybe you’ll get a new chandelier and a hat rack.
I like Copper Ridge. My 25 year old nephew bought one of the units, He also likes it, says it’s quiet and convenient.
On page E3, we find Shapell announcing buyer incentives. The incentives include no payments for the first 6 months, one full year of homeowner’s association dues paid, temporary and permanent loan buy downs and non-recurring closing costs.
If you’re considering buying, read these two posts first:
Know the market! I think with the proper knowledge you can beat any deal offerred in the home section.
One Comment
It’s interesting to see how these same builders that were using lotteries and charging five times their cost for every option are now on the other side, marketing and asking for business.
What is it they say about what goes around…?
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[...] As you may recall, at the end of last summer, homebuilders were trying to reduce incentives as the market gave a slight hiccup of improvement. That attempt didn’t last long and after the end of a dismal year, the incentives have returned. New home buyers with a downpayment and good credit remain in the driver’s seat with negotiating a good deal on a new home. [...]