In Apex, the Builder Discount Is in Your Mortgage Rate, Not the Price Tag

The fine print at the bottom of M/I Homes' fall promotion uses a $460,000 house with 20% down. At the 7.0% market rate the disclosure cites as of September 22, 2026, principal and interest on that loan comes to $2,448 a month. With the builder's financing, the same house costs $1,730 a month in year one, $1,947 in year two, and $2,176 in years three through 30.

The sales price stays at $460,000 in all three cases. That's how much of Apex's new-construction market works this fall. The discount is real and sizable, but it shows up in the loan terms, not in the price. A buyer who compares an Apex new build with a resale home by sticker price is comparing the wrong numbers.

What the M/I offer is worth in dollars

The offer is called "Game Time," and M/I lists it for three Apex communities: Friendship Station, Retreat at Friendship, and Retreat at Friendship Townhomes. It has three layers, and they're worth very different amounts.

1. The permanent layer. The loan's note rate is 5.875% for the full 30 years, against the 7.0% market rate the disclosure cites. On the $368,000 loan in M/I's example, that's $272 a month for as long as you keep the loan. To get the same payment at 7.0%, you'd need to borrow about $41,000 less. With 20% down, that works out to roughly $51,000 off the price.
2. The temporary layer. The 2/1 buydown cuts the rate to 3.875% in year one and 4.875% in year two. Compared with the permanent 5.875% payment, that saves about $5,500 in year one and $2,750 in year two. It's real money, but it's gone after 24 months.
3. The cash layer. M/I will pay up to 1% in allowable closing costs on contracts signed between September 22 and October 11, 2026, and it adds a 65-inch television.

The first layer accounts for most of the value. A buyer comparing this home with a resale home should use the year-three payment, because that's the number that lasts. The year-one payment appears first in the promotion, but it's the one that matters least over the life of the loan.

Why builders cut the rate and leave the price alone

There's a simple reason a builder would subsidize a mortgage instead of lowering the price. M/I lists one home at Retreat at Friendship at $644,990. If a home like that closes at full price with a rate subsidy attached, the deed shows the full price, no matter how much the builder spent on the buyer's rate. That recorded price becomes a comparable sale for the next home in the same community. A price cut would follow the builder into every appraisal after it. A rate subsidy doesn't.

The national builders say openly how much they rely on incentives. Lennar reported that its average sales price of $371,000 in the quarter ended May 31, 2026, included about 12.9% in incentives, along with "base price adjustments necessary to sustain volume." It called 4% to 6% the normal level. PulteGroup said incentives on its closings were 10.4% in the second quarter of 2026, according to Benzinga. D.R. Horton said in July that it expected incentives to stay elevated through its fiscal fourth quarter.

None of these companies reports an incentive level specifically for Apex. Their national figures do show how big the gap between price and actual cost has become. When a large builder spends more than a tenth of a home's price on incentives, the listed price tells you much less about what the home costs.

Resale sellers are setting prices against a payment

An owner selling a 10-year-old house in Apex usually can't arrange a 5.875% rate from a captive lender. Resale sellers can offer price reductions and closing-cost credits. Builders with an affiliated mortgage company can offer a below-market payment.

The News & Observer reported this gap in December 2025. A Tri Pointe Homes Raleigh executive described 2/1 buydowns as buyer support that resale homes typically don't offer. By March 2026, WRAL was quoting local agents who said builder incentives and rate buydowns were putting downward pressure on resale prices in Wake Forest, Knightdale, and Wendell. The same story listed Apex with West Cary and Holly Springs among the Triangle's areas that were still hot. So the resale pressure WRAL described elsewhere hadn't been reported in Apex as of last spring. Apex does have the same setup, with builders offering financing that resale sellers can't match on the same streets.

Here's how that plays out for a buyer. Picture an Apex resale home and a new build listed at about the same price, with the new build carrying M/I-style financing. The resale home is effectively the more expensive one every month for 30 years. To match the payment with no rate subsidy, the resale seller would need to take a price cut in the tens of thousands of dollars. Many resale homes are priced competitively by sticker and still lose to new builds by payment.

The two Apex offers side by side

D.R. Horton is going after the same buyer at Horton Park in Apex, where the community's starting price is listed at $581,490. One home there is listed at $613,840 for 2,471 square feet. Its financing works differently from M/I's.

On D.R. Horton's ARM, the first adjustment after year seven is capped at 5 percentage points. Later adjustments are capped at 1 point every six months, with a lifetime cap of 5 points. The disclosure lists the fully indexed rate today as 6.380%. So D.R. Horton's payment holds steady longer than M/I's at the start, but its long-term payment isn't fixed. M/I's payment rises twice and then stays put.

Both offers depend on the calendar, which is the main friction for buyers. The D.R. Horton disclosure requires closing by October 30, and today is October 5. That leaves too little time to build a home, so in practice the offer favors homes that are already built or close to it. M/I's December 18 deadline also requires a loan application within 48 hours of signing the contract. A buyer who still needs to sell a current home probably can't meet that schedule. Each disclosure also says its offer can change or end without notice, which is common for programs like these.

Lennar is the builder planned for Veridea's single-family homes

The incentive competition is likely to last, because the pipeline is large. In its first phase, Veridea, RXR's 1,100-acre project, is planned to include 1,500 apartments built by RXR and 1,100 single-family homes and townhomes built by Lennar. The News & Observer reported in May 2026 that the 291-unit Summit House apartments were under construction and that full buildout could reach 8,000 homes by 2035. Lennar's own incentive level was 12.9% last spring. If the market still requires incentives when its Veridea homes go on sale, Apex will get another large builder that discounts through financing.

Rental supply is growing too. Wood Partners and Marcus Partners have started building Altera Heights, a 280-unit project north of US 64 in Apex, with completion expected by the end of 2027. TWG Development's proposed Elevation Apartments, up to 132 income-restricted units, is still early in town review. The News & Observer reported tentative Planning Board and Council dates of December 14 and January 12.

None of these projects will deliver housing this fall. Taken together, they suggest Apex builders will keep competing on financing for a while, and resale sellers will keep pricing against new-build payments they can't match.

Questions buyers ask about these offers

If I refinance later, do I lose the builder's rate? Yes. The 5.875% rate on M/I's offer belongs to the loan you take out at closing. If rates drop and you refinance, you give up the rate the builder paid for, and the new loan is priced at whatever the market rate is then.

Do I have to use the builder's lender? To get the advertised rates, yes. D.R. Horton states plainly that buyers aren't required to finance through DHI Mortgage, but they must use it to get the advertised rate. M/I's offer is tied to M/I Financial. It's still worth getting a loan quote from an outside lender so you can see what the subsidy is worth.

How should I compare a resale home with one of these offers? Compare them by monthly payment. Use the payment in year three of the builder's loan, or year eight for the ARM, against the resale home's payment at market rate. Then factor in HOA dues, taxes, and the price of finishes and upgrades the model home shows. The M/I disclosure notes that taxes, insurance, and HOA dues aren't included in its payment figures.

Is this financial advice? No. These are the published terms of specific offers as of early October 2026, plus the arithmetic they imply. A licensed loan officer can tell you how they apply to your situation.

If you're choosing between a resale home in Apex and a new build with builder financing, Dana can help you line up both payments, read the deadlines in the disclosures, and work out what the incentive is worth for your loan and your timeline. Reach out to Dana Cantrell Realty before you sign a builder's contract, while the offer you're looking at is still available.