The National Association of Home Builders issued their NATIONAL new detached home numbers for the month of June. As expected the numbers were down 6.6% from the previous month. The inventory of new homes remained the same as the previous month but due to slower sales however the supply of homes available now stands at 7.8 months.
As always the national numbers do not reflect what may be happening locally. New home sales were up in the south by 7.6%. Building permits issued in our area for detached homes is down 19% over June of last year which I think reflects the builders pulling back on some of the projects that they were projecting to build.
What do this numbers mean for buyers? With builders offering significan incentives to purchase a new home it is a good time to consider visiting a new home builder. Builders are open to negotiation on everything from upgrades, closing costs, price reductions and price guarantees. Buyers need to realize that if they are planning on visiting a builder's site that they must take their Realtor® with them. Builder's representatives are nice people but they are working for the builder. They are not there to negotiate on your behalf and as a result may not tell you about the "extras" that are available.
Builder contracts are not the same as the Virginia resale contracts, which are by themselves complicated, and have different language which can leave an unsuspecting buyer with little recourse if the new home they are buying is not delivered on time or has issues. Did you know that you can and should have an independent home inspection on new construction? I recently had a home inspection done on a new construction ($1M+) home "ready" for delivery. The home inspector discovered over 3 pages of home inspection issues that the builder needed to correct. Most of these items were things that the average home buyer would not have noticed until it might have been to late for the builders warranty to correct.
If you are thinking it is a good time to visit either a Fairfax County or Prince William County builder give me a call. With my experience in negotiation with builders I can make sure that your interests are protected. My new home buying incentive program provides you up to an additional $10,000 rebate* from the builder commission and gives you represenation from the your first visit to the builder all the way to the closing table. 
*rebate must be approved by the lender and reflected on the HUD-1 at closing. Rebate is up to 1% of the real estate commission offered by the builder and generally on base price of the property purchased.
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