PulteGroup, the builder behind Del Webb active-adult communities, said on Oct. 22 that third-quarter orders fell 6% from the prior year.
“The rapid increase in interest rates has stretched affordability even further,” CEO Ryan Marshall said in the company’s earnings release, noting that higher rates have also made it harder for buyers to sell the homes they already own.
Older buyers have held up better at PulteGroup. The company told analysts that sign-ups among active-adult buyers rose 11% from a year earlier, even as total orders fell. Move-up and active-adult buyers together now account for more than 60% of its business.
For shoppers 55 and older with plenty of equity in their current homes, a builder eager to keep sales moving and a large down payment can add up to real leverage at the negotiating table.
Builders are paying to close sales
PulteGroup is not alone. In the National Association of Home Builders’ October 2026 survey, builder confidence fell to 29, its lowest reading since June 2012. Some 43% of builders cut prices, the highest share of any month since the start of 2020, with an average cut of 6%. And 65% used sales incentives.
Rates explain much of it. The average 30-year fixed rate was 7.32% on Oct. 22, up from 6.19% a year earlier, and forecasters have pushed back their timeline for when mortgage rates may come down.
A bigger down payment can unlock bigger builder help
When a conventional loan is sold to Fannie Mae, it caps how much a seller or builder can put toward the buyer’s closing costs, and that cap rises as the down payment grows.
For a primary residence or second home, Fannie Mae’s limits are 3% of the price when the loan covers more than 90% of the value, 6% between 75% and 90%, and 9% at 75% or less.
On a $500,000 home, that is the difference between $15,000 in builder-paid financing help for a buyer putting less than 10% down and up to $45,000 for a downsizer putting down 25% or more.
The cap is a ceiling, not a promise, and the help cannot exceed the buyer’s actual closing costs, but it shows a buyer how much room they have to ask.
Cash buyers have no financing costs to cover and can push for a lower price or upgrades instead.
Price cut or rate buydown
A temporary buydown lowers the payment for only the first few years. Under Fannie Mae’s rules, the reduction can be no more than 3 percentage points, last no longer than three years, and increase by no more than 1 point a year; the lender must also qualify the borrower at the full rate.
A permanent buydown, paid as discount points, lowers the rate for the life of the loan.
A buyer who plans to stay put and keep the mortgage may get more from a permanent buydown. One who expects to pay the loan down quickly with proceeds from selling the old house may come out ahead with a lower price, which shrinks the loan and, in many places, the starting point for property taxes. Ask the builder to price each option in dollars.
Compare the builder’s lender with an outside one
Builders often tie their best incentives to using an affiliated lender. Request a Loan Estimate from that lender and from at least one other for the same loan amount, term and rate lock, then compare the rate, points and total closing costs.
Look at the house, too. Between 2015 and 2025, new homes got smaller even as price per square foot jumped 71.9%, so an incentive on a smaller floor plan may not beat a resale home that needs a little work.
Read the community rules before signing
To operate as 55-and-older housing under federal fair housing law, a community must have at least one person 55 or older in at least 80% of occupied units, publish policies showing that intent and verify residents’ ages, according to HUD.
Communities set their own rules within that, so ask in writing whether an adult child or a younger spouse could live there, and get the homeowners association’s fee history and reserve figures.
Marshall flagged the trouble buyers have selling an existing home. Before signing, ask whether the builder will accept a contract contingent on that sale, or a smaller deposit while the old house is on the market, and get every incentive written into the purchase agreement with a dollar figure attached.
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