Phoenix area homebuilder offering deal for buyers priced out by high interest rates

PHOENIX - With home interest rates hovering at around 7.5%, home sales are slowing.

However, new home builders are booming in the Phoenix area, as they try to appeal to buyers priced out by high interest rates they face when buying existing homes.

"It's something that I never thought would happen so soon, especially right now," said new homebuyer Natalia Piñon.

At 29, Piñon bought a new home in March with her fiancé at Marabella Ranch in Glendale.

The price for the roughly 1,400 square foot home? $376,000

Piñon said Lennar Homes made the home affordable, and Alan Jones with the homebuilder said that is their goal.

"So, if we can get the payments down close to what rents are, if we can get payments down, we're finding tremendous amount of individuals that want to buy homes from us," said Jones.

Piñon said Lennar made an offer they couldn’t refuse: an interest rate of 3.99%, for the life of the 30-year loan. That put the couple's payment at about $2,500 a month.

"This is our first home, and when we got the estimate of the mortgage, we were like ‘that’s what were paying on both of our apartments. Easy peasy,'" said Piñon.

Jones said Lennar’s new homebuyer program offers 5.5% interest rate for those using Lennar mortgage. Jones also said what they lose in profit, they expect to make up for in volume of sales.