WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- Price cuts, financial deals and other incentives are being used by builders to counter the soft housing market and move newly built but unsold homes.
"It's a little odd thinking of homes being sold that way," Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, told the Washington Post. "You think of a sale for coffee or laundry detergent, but not really for a home."
Nationally sales of new homes fell in August to an annual pace of 795,000, the lowest in more than seven years, the U.S. Commerce Department reported. The median price dropped 7.5 percent from a year earlier.
Discounts offered by builders can carry strings, such as restrictions on lenders, officials said.
If a home is auctioned, buyers may be able to negotiate the lower price or incentives even if they don't make the decision that day.
Still, said Chris Longly, National Auctioneers Association public affairs manager, such sales are the fastest-growing sector of the auction industry.
"We're seeing more of it every day, especially this particular type of auction where builders are choosing to go to auctioneers to help them liquidate the properties," he said.
