On First Texas Homes' Oaklawn community page in Van Alstyne, a Grant F quick-move-in home shows a crossed-out price of $330,450 and a current price of $320,950. A Hamilton F is marked down from $348,635 to $336,950. Both cuts are real, and neither one is the biggest discount on the page.
The biggest discount is in the banner above them, which advertises a promotional rate "as low as 3.49%" on a 5/1 ARM, or up to $20,000 in Flex Cash. Both offers apply to select inventory, require the builder's preferred lender, and can change without notice. In mid-October 2026, that financing offer sets the bar for any Van Alstyne resale home in the same price range, and a seller listing an existing house has no matching tool that does the same work.
The payment math on one Oaklawn home
When the Grant F banner went up, the national average 30-year fixed rate was 7.40%, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week of October 8, 2026. A year earlier it was 6.30%. That one-point jump is why a builder's rate offer now carries more weight than a price cut.
Here is a simple illustration. It uses a round $300,000 loan, principal and interest only, amortized over 30 years. These are our own calculations, not a lender quote. Taxes, insurance, and any HOA dues come on top.
| Scenario | Rate | Approx. monthly principal and interest |
|---|---|---|
| 30-year fixed at the Oct. 8, 2026 national average | 7.40% | about $2,077 |
| Builder-promoted 5/1 ARM, initial rate | 3.49% | about $1,345 |
| Gap per month | about $732 | |
| Gap over the 60 months before the ARM's first adjustment | about $43,900 |
To bring a fixed-rate payment down by $732 a month at 7.40%, you would need to borrow roughly $105,000 less. No resale seller in Van Alstyne is cutting $105,000 to win a buyer. That figure overstates the case, though, because the builder's rate is an adjustable-rate teaser. The fairer comparison is the five-year window, where the gap comes to roughly $44,000 in payments. That is still several times larger than the $9,500 to $12,000 price cuts posted on the same Oaklawn listings.
The other builders in town are doing the same thing. Risland Homes' Mantua Point page advertised "Fall Savings" alongside a 3.99% financing offer in October. Windsor Homes' River Ranch showed two completed homes marked down from about $547,000 to $499,990 and from about $570,000 to $524,990. Windsor's larger "up to $100K in savings" promotion, which paired a 1% temporary buydown with roughly $2,500 in lender credits, required a contract by September 30, 2026, so it is closed to anyone shopping now.
What happens in year six
The table stops at 60 months because that is where the 5/1 ARM's terms change. A 5/1 ARM holds its starting rate for five years and then adjusts on a schedule set in the loan documents. The builder's page does not publish those adjustment terms. It directs buyers to a sales consultant for details. Freddie Mac also stopped publishing a weekly ARM average in November 2022, so no public weekly benchmark exists for comparing a 3.49% teaser.
This matters when you compare homes because the two payments are built differently. A fixed-rate payment on a resale house stays the same for the life of the loan. A builder's ARM payment is low for five years, and after that it depends on whatever the loan terms and rates bring. A buyer comparing a Hamilton F at Oaklawn with a resale house down the road is choosing between two payment schedules, and the sticker prices hide that. Loan terms, adjustment caps, and whether an ARM fits a household's plans are questions for a licensed lender. This post is general information, not financial advice, so please confirm your own numbers with a mortgage professional before you rely on them.
Why the county median can't fully see the competition
This is where the public market data gets misleading. The NTREIS Monthly MLS Summary Report for September 2026, produced by the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M, states that "sales by outside sources like home builders and non-NTREIS members were not included." It does count new homes that sell through the MLS.
Some of the competition setting resale prices never shows up in the numbers buyers use to judge those prices. A rate buydown also never shows up in any sale price. A new home that closes at $320,950 with a 3.49% starting rate lands in the data as a $320,950 sale, the same as a resale home that closes at $320,950 with a 7.40% loan.
Van Alstyne doesn't get its own city row in the September report. The closest read comes from Grayson County and the US-75 cities on either side. Here are Grayson County's single-family numbers for September 2026:
- 172 closed sales, down 15% from September 2025
- Median price of $295,543, down 7% year over year
- Median of 86 days on market
- Sold-to-list price ratio of 90.9%
- 7.3 months of inventory
The Texas Real Estate Research Center's Grayson County dashboard shows the month before. In August 2026 the county had a $290,000 median price, 1,483 active listings at month-end, and 7.17 months of inventory.
Reading 90.9% against the cities down the highway
The sold-to-list ratio is the clearest sign of the pressure. In Grayson County, September 2026 sales closed at about 91 cents for every dollar of list price. The report doesn't say whether that ratio uses the original list price or the final one, so it is best read as a general sign of how much room sellers are giving up, not as a precise discount.
Compare the same September 2026 figures for single-family homes in the cities around Van Alstyne:
| City | Sold-to-list ratio | Median days on market | Months of inventory |
|---|---|---|---|
| McKinney | 93.6% | 54 | 3.5 |
| Melissa | 93.6% | 70 | 4.7 |
| Anna | 92.5% | 67 | 5.9 |
| Sherman | 91.8% | 78 | 6.7 |
| Denison | 88.2% | 120 | 7.7 |
Inventory climbs as you head north on US-75, and the sold-to-list ratio falls in step. That fits the payment story. The farther a market sits from the Collin County job base, the more a buyer can weigh price against financing. And a county with more than seven months of supply has plenty of new homes whose sellers can offer a lower payment.
What this changes when you compare listings
For a buyer, the useful number for each home is its likely monthly payment at the terms actually available on that house, plus the total of any concessions. A resale listing that looks $15,000 cheaper than a builder's quick-move-in home may still cost more each month for the first five years. In year six, the builder home's payment depends on how its ARM adjusts, which a sticker price doesn't show and a median price doesn't either.
For a resale seller in Van Alstyne, the comparison to plan for is the one a buyer's lender will run, and that buyer may have just toured Oaklawn or Mantua Point. A price cut gets compared against a buydown offer, and the September data shows sellers across Grayson County already giving up close to nine percent of list. Knowing which builder offers are live this week is part of pricing a resale home correctly. Builders can change those offers at any time, so the snapshot here reflects what their pages showed in mid-October 2026.
A few questions that come up
Do resale sellers ever offer rate buydowns too? Seller concessions toward a buyer's closing costs or rate are a common negotiating tool in Texas transactions. How much is allowed depends on the buyer's loan program and lender, so the details belong with the buyer's loan officer.
Is Van Alstyne's own market softer or firmer than the county's? The September 2026 NTREIS report doesn't break out Van Alstyne as its own city. The county figures and the US-75 neighbors in the table above are the closest public comparison.
Will the 3.49% offer still be there next month? The builder's page says the promotion can change or end without notice, and Windsor's September offer has already expired. Treat any rate you see advertised as accurate only on the day you see it.
If you own a home in Van Alstyne and want to know what it can realistically sell for against this fall's builder incentives, Texas Life Real Estate can put your house next to the new-construction payments buyers are seeing right now. Request your free home valuation, and we'll show you the payment comparison along with the price.
