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Even as its competitors duke it out for first-time buyers, Centex Homes is launching a new line of homes that will more than triple the number of houses it hopes to sell to that market.
With its Fox and Jacobs series, Centex will focus a third of its business in Charlotte on homes priced at less than $150,000, says Jerry Smith, the company's director of sales and marketing.
Last year, less than 10% of the builder's business was in that price range, he adds.
Already, Centex has three communities under way that will total 1,100 homes for the new series.
The move puts Centex in the middle of an already-fierce battle for market share. In recent years, builders such as HomeLife Communities Group, Colony Homes and Crossmann Communities have spied a gold mine in the first-time buyer market and set up local divisions.
Other builders also have seen strength in that market, particularly as interest rates plunged, allowing people to turn their rent dollars into mortgage payments. Builders who traditionally built homes for people moving up to second and third homes began introducing new product lines with lower price tags.
"We certainly have a boatload of competition down there," says Chuck Graham, a real estate analyst with Newton Graham Consultants. "I wouldn't say it's necessarily a feeding frenzy, but it is a production frenzy"
About 49% of the new homes in the Charlotte area are priced under $120,000, says Ed Dunnavant, director of American Metro/Study Corp.'s North Carolina division. "It's obvious over the last 18 months the Charlotte new-home market...