Blog > AMAZING Denver Home Deals As We Head Into 2025!
Denver New Construction Deals: How to Save 10-20% in 2025
If you want a real deal in Denver right now, skip the resale market and look at new construction. Builders are dropping prices and buying down rates by 2-3 points.
Why are Denver sellers refusing to drop prices in late 2024?
Roughly 50% of the 18,000 active Denver MLS listings are inherited properties or downsizing sellers with very low monthly payments.
Most resale sellers in Denver are not in trouble. They locked in cheap mortgages years ago, and if they don't get their asking price, they just pull the listing and rent the house out. That's a totally rational move when your payment is half of market rent.
Loan-to-value ratios across the metro are some of the lowest we've ever tracked, nothing like 2008. So even with the election, high rates, and the cyclically slow end of year, we're not seeing aggressive price cuts on resale homes. We're seeing longer days on market, sure, but sellers are stubborn because they can afford to be.
That's why if you want a real discount, you have to look at the one group of sellers who can't sit on inventory: production homebuilders carrying construction loans.
What are mortgage rates doing in Denver right now?
Rates climbed from a brief 6% window in September back up to 6.79% by late October 2024.
When the Fed dropped 50 basis points in September, the market had already priced it in weeks earlier. We had a short stretch of hyperactivity with rates dipping into the 6% range, and then everything cooled off as rates climbed right back above where they started.
This isn't unusual in an election year. Stock market volatility, bond market jitters, and political uncertainty all push rates around. I'd expect more weirdness through November before things settle.
The takeaway for buyers: don't wait for the Fed to save you. The bond market sets mortgage rates, not the federal funds rate, and they don't move in lockstep. If you're trying to buy at a 5% rate by waiting, you might be waiting a long time. Builder buydowns are a faster path to that number today.
Which Denver builders offer the best rate buydowns?
Richmond American Homes is offering 3.99% on FHA, VA, and conventional loans, while Taylor Morrison sits at 4.375% on FHA 30-year fixed.
Here's what I'm seeing across the major Denver builders right now:
- Richmond American Homes: 3.99% FHA (3.5% down), 3.99% VA (zero down), 4.75% conventional (10% down).
- Taylor Morrison: 4.375% FHA 30-year fixed.
- Toll Brothers: 2-1 buydown structure. Year one at 3.99%, year two at 4.99%, then 6% for years 3 through 30.
- TriMark Homes: Multiple incentive packages and active price drops.
Toll Brothers is typically the premium product, often north of $750K to $800K, but the buydown still applies through year 30, not just the first two years like a standard 2-1.
Most builders will also let you negotiate. If they're offering $10K to $15K in buydown credits, ask if you can apply that to a permanent rate reduction instead. A 5.5% rate for the life of the loan often beats a temporary teaser.
How much more home can I afford with a builder rate?
A drop from 6.8% to 4.375% saves about $900 a month on a $650,000 home with 10% down, roughly a 20% increase in buying power.
Let me run the numbers. On a $650,000 home with 10% down, $2,400 annual insurance, and standard property taxes:
- At 6.8% (current market rate): about $4,300 per month
- At 4.375% (Taylor Morrison FHA rate): about $3,400 per month
That's a $900 monthly difference, or roughly 20-25% lower. Flip it around: if your budget caps at a $500,000 resale home at 6.8%, you can likely qualify for a $600,000 new build at the builder rate with the same monthly payment.
That's a real, measurable jump in what you can buy. And you're getting a brand new home with builder warranties instead of a 40 or 50 year old house with deferred maintenance, old systems, and surprise repairs waiting in the walls.
Where are the best Denver new construction price drops?
Most price reductions are happening south of the metro in Castle Rock, Castle Pines, Lone Tree, and Sterling Ranch, with cuts ranging from $21,000 to $75,000.
Builders along the 470 loop on the south side have the most inventory stacking up, which means the most aggressive deals. I've seen a Sterling Ranch home originally listed at $800,000 drop to $750,000. Another in the same community went from $795,000 to $774,000. One move-in-ready home just took a $21,000 cut.
Of the roughly 18,000 active MLS listings in the Denver metro, only about 626 are move-in-ready new construction. That's less than 5% of total inventory, and most of it is concentrated in those southern submarkets.
New construction is also harder to search on the standard MLS. A lot of builder inventory lives on New Home Source, a separate database agents can access. If you want me to set up a custom search across both platforms, shoot me a text or email and I'll get it dialed in.
Are new construction homes actually a better buy than resale?
New builds typically come with 1-year builder warranties, fewer immediate repair costs, and 10-20% more buying power through rate incentives.
There are tradeoffs. New construction usually sits on the outskirts (further commute, newer neighborhoods still building out amenities). Lot sizes can be smaller. You're often paying HOA and metro district fees that older neighborhoods don't have.
But the financial math right now is hard to argue with. Lower effective rate, lower monthly payment, no immediate roof or furnace replacement, and a builder warranty backstop. Stuff still comes up in new builds (it always does), which is why I always recommend a proper inspection and a second inspection right before your 1-year warranty expires.
If you're a buyer who values predictable costs and doesn't want to inherit someone else's deferred maintenance, new construction in this market is genuinely one of the best deals available. The combination of builder rate buydowns and price cuts on standing inventory isn't going to last forever.
Video Chapters
Full Video Transcript
Full transcript from this video, organized by chapter. Click any timestamp to jump to that moment in the video.
Market Deals Overview
[0:00] everybody wants a deal when it comes to buying a house right I mean it's only natural and I don't blame you but in our current market where interest rates are high sellers have very low interest rates there's not a whole lot of motivation for people to be dropping their price even though it's the end of the year got the election coming up cyclically this is the slowest time of year to be a seller we just don't see a whole lot of massive price trps happening we're seeing stuff set on the market for a lot longer but we're just not seeing aggressive price drops well what if I told you there is a solution to get a really good deal like we're talking 5 10 15% off of a home and not have to deal with all the issues of a 40 50 60 year old home that's right ladies and gentlemen we're talking about new construction and you know here's here's the deal and why it's actually really interesting right so most of the inventory that's on the market right now we've got about 18,000 units and all of the Denver metro MLS active for sale I mean 50% C of that is likely inherited Properties or people aging and having to sell and kind of downsizing and you know at the end of the day most of these payments are so low that if they don't get their price they can just rent it out and have a really good investment for many many years to come well that's why we're not seeing all these crazy price drops happening because people aren't actually in trouble the big picture numbers are actually stating that we have some of the lowest lending to Value right your LTV uh is some of the lowest that we've ever seen nothing anything like what happened in 2008 so there's just no motivation to be dropping prices like crazy if you don't get your price me we pull it off the market we continue to live here we rent it out whatever it is but you know who is motivated to sell new Builders right they don't have that option they typically have these huge bank loans that they need to pay off over time and they have to sell their properties and they're continuing to build at such a pace where their inventory is starting to stack so I want to show you some things but we're going to first touch on what in the world the interest rates have been doing because that's been affecting the market in the last few weeks we had a few weeks of hyperactivity there and then it's all kind of died down why well take a look here at what is going on so what we're looking at here is the chart of uh interest rates right as they go up and down back here September is when they did the uh 50 basis points drop so back in August this is where they were starting to talk about it and then it kind of gets baked in we had a few weeks of 6% rates and now we're back up to 6.79% okay higher than where we were prior to when they started talking about reducing rates now this isn't uncommon during election years for things to be crazy stock market to be crazy all that sorts of stuff so I'm assuming that's kind of what's Happening here now before we look at some of these incredible deals my name is Alex s I've been a local Denver agent since 2010 helped hundreds of buyers sellers moving into relocating around the Denver area I'm also an agent that flips houses so I see things from a little bit of a different angle on the investing side too I'm really heavy into the numbers and if you have any questions feel free reach out give me a call shoot me a text message below or you can scan uh this QR code you can get directly in touch with me get out my weekly email kind of keep a pulse on what's happening in our local Denver Market because the numbers are different all throughout the country we have some cities like Chicago that are up eight or 9% year-over-year Denver we're kind of flat over the last two years so I decided to go through and look at some of the biggest home builders around the Denver metro area and if you live here you know that there's a lot of construction going on on the outskirts of that 470 Loop and you know they've been offering incentives for a while they have gotten a little bit more aggressive here not only with their incentives that they're offering for in-house Lending but also the price drops they have on already built inventory so move in ready homes right stuff that you don't have to wait six eight 12 months for okay we're talking stuff that you can move into in a few weeks so I pulled up Taylor Morrison right and Taylor Morrison has their intro rate here for an FHA 30-year fixed rate 4.375% like that is pretty wild when rates currently are at 6.8% so just to give you an idea of what that actually means right and I'm going to pull up a calculator here um to show you so let's say you were looking at a $650,000 house right let's say you were putting down 10% uh with FHA it can be as low as three and a half perc right so let's take our current interest rate 6.8% um let's put in a little something for property taxes a little something for homeowners insurance we'll say $2,400 year let's forget about HOA fees for a second on a $650,000 house with a 10% down payment you're looking at $4,200 $4,300 a month right and your typical 6.8% interest rates now Taylor Morrison is offering 4.375 what does that actually change your monthly payment $3,400 it's a $900 20 25% difference right and that's through Taylor Morrison that is crazy your buying power is 20% higher with a new build so if you can afford 500,000 right with a pre-sale home at 6.8% you can afford what 600,000 on a new build home like it's a massive difference ladies and gentlemen okay Richmond American Homes has a ton of new builds going around uh they're doing an intro at 3.99% right and here's here's their deal FHA 3 and a half% down 3.99% VA zero down 3 3.99% conventional 10% down 4.75 want want go the FHA route um Shay I was looking at there they don't have many new builds going on um Toll Brothers like Toll Brothers is like kind of the cream of the crop they make a really good product uh typically on the higher price end you know north of 750 800,000 for the most part and they're offering a 21 buy down now what they say here so they actually explain it really well so the first year you pay 3.99% uh year two you paid 4.99 and then years 3.3 to 30 you're still getting in at 6% so they're still using part of that to buy down your rate for the entire 30-year term like that is still a really good deal um now there is the option with a lot of these Builders to kind of renegotiate on what they're offering so let's say they're offering a 21 buy down and that would normally cost you know10 to $15,000 well what if we just did a permanent rate buy down would that get you at 5 a half% 5.7% like what does that look like instead of just allocating the funds for two one buy down can we just use that for a permanent rate buy down and most of them are going to work with you right um true Mark Holmes uh they've got several deals going on right now and then this is the other part so they're actually showing you uh some price trps that they have so they've got this one here Sterling ranch right which is just south of Chatfield uh kind of a southern Littleton is area this home was originally 800,000 it's kind of hard to see they're down to 750 okay $4,000 price drop on this home down from 795 down to 774 so you're also going to see a lot of price drops right talking 30 40 50 $75,000 on already built homes because they need these to move right um and actually to show you new homes so I know new homes are not the easiest thing to search on the MLS uh and I'm going to throw this option out for you if you want all of the new construction actually the new construction it's a totally different website called New Home Source uh we have access to it as agents I can set you up on a home search uh just just shoot me an email here um shoot me a text message I'll get your email and then I can set you up but this is move in ready homes right now okay that are on the MLS 626 move in ready homes okay not all of these excuse me are going to be on the MLS uh these are on New Home Source okay 626 the amount of homes on the entire market right now in the Denver metro area is about 18,000 so what is this 5% right of that little little less than 5% of the inventory is ready to move in homes that you can get a deal on right and a lot of them are happening in the South part of town Castle Rock Castle Pines Lo tree uh this is over by Sterling Ranch um and so you can really check out like you know when a builder has 40 50 properties for sale like it's it's a big deal for them you know here's another one price drop on it um you're going to see this a lot they just did a $21,000 price drop on this move in ready home so a lot of benefits here ladies and gentlemen your buying power can be 10 to 20% more with a new build than a currently pre-owned home right now that's on the MLS um and you're going to have a lot less issues with it inspection wise yes I know stuff will always come up um but that's where we can help you as professionals getting the home inspected properly and then offering you know a one-year inspection prior to your home warranty being up to make sure everything's still up to Snuff with that house just a thought here ladies and gentlemen if you're looking for a deal these are some of the best deals in the market right now which are on new construction now we're the end of October the month is almost up here the election's almost about to happen I can't wait to find out what the October numbers have done uh throughout the Denver metro area because I don't know if we are up or down I feel I felt some weirdness out there um in the market but again if you have any questions you know feel free shoot me a text message shoot me an email there's my number right below that goes directly to me um or you can scan this QR code uh to get in touch with me directly and in the meantime ladies and gentlemen until next week happy housing
Interest Rates & Charts
New Builder Incentives
Rate Buydown Example
Inventory Analysis
Ready-to-Move Homes
Professional Resources
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need my own agent when buying new construction in Denver?
Yes, and it costs you nothing. Builders pay buyer agent commissions out of their marketing budget. Having your own agent means someone is negotiating upgrades, rate buydowns, and price on your behalf instead of the builder's sales rep, who works for the builder.
Can I negotiate the price on a new construction home?
Yes, especially on move-in-ready inventory homes. Builders rarely drop the base price on a build-to-order home because it affects appraisals for the whole community, but they will negotiate on incentives, upgrades, closing costs, and rate buydowns. Standing inventory is much more flexible.
Are builder mortgage rates actually real or just marketing?
They're real, but the builder pays for them through their in-house lender. The catch is you usually have to use their preferred lender to get the rate. Always compare the total cost (rate plus fees plus price) against an outside lender to confirm the savings are genuine.
What is a 2-1 buydown and is it worth it?
A 2-1 buydown reduces your rate by 2% in year one and 1% in year two, then returns to the note rate for years 3-30. It's useful if you expect income growth or plan to refinance, but a permanent buydown is often a better long-term value if the builder allows it.
How do I find new construction homes that aren't on the MLS?
Many builders list inventory on their own websites and on New Home Source, a database licensed agents can access. Roughly 626 move-in-ready new builds are available across the Denver metro right now, and not all of them show up on standard MLS searches like Zillow or Redfin.
Where is most Denver new construction being built right now?
The bulk of new construction sits along the outskirts of the C-470 loop, especially Castle Rock, Castle Pines, Lone Tree, Parker, Sterling Ranch, and parts of southern Littleton. There's also significant activity in Aurora, Thornton, and the northern I-25 corridor toward Erie and Brighton.
Will home prices drop more after the 2024 election?
Denver prices have been roughly flat over the last two years, so a major drop isn't likely without a recession. Some cities like Chicago are up 8-9% year over year. Election uncertainty creates short-term rate volatility, but the underlying inventory and equity picture in Denver doesn't support a price crash.
Thinking about buying or selling in Denver?
Call or text (303) 552-4804 for a no-pressure conversation about your situation.
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