Posted on Sat, Oct. 17, 2009

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Garden Plain offers credit on new houses

BY DAN VOORHIS

The Wichita Eagle

Asecond town has decided to institute incentives to encourage people to buy new homes. Garden Plain this week passed a new policy to give buyers of new houses there a credit of $3,000 to $6,000 off their water and sewer bills.

The action comes two weeks after the city of Maize enacted a similar policy to drive sales.

Garden Plain Mayor Tony Flax said he proposed the measure because, until very recently, the city hadn't had a single new house built in the city this year, despite having two new developments.

"We've got to try something and this was the most feasible for the city to do," he said.

The credit is $3,000 for new houses between $100,000 and $150,000; $4,500 on houses between $150,000 and $200,000; and $6,000 on houses over $200,000.

He said that a local construction supply business has said it will add to the rebate.

"So this may be starting to grow some legs," Flax said. "Maybe this will become truly a community initiative."

In Maize, the effort ties in with the Parade of Homes, put on by the Wichita Area Builders Association.

The city has put in place credits ranging from $2,000 to $6,000 on city water and sewer bills, but developers and builders say they will match that, said Deputy City Administrator Rebecca Bouska.

In effect, she said, homebuyers could get up to $6,000 off a lot, up to $6,000 off a house and up to $6,000 off their utilities for a house valued at over $500,000.

"The economy is bad and we know we have to compete with a bunch of houses that aren't moving right now," she said.

But it's short-term, she said. A contract for the house has to be signed by Dec. 1. If the buyer just purchases a lot, the house must be started within a year.

Since the program started Oct. 10, one buyer has bought a house and lot, and one bought a lot.

New-home sales in Wichita have been hammered this year by job anxieties and tighter credit. Through September, homebuilders have sold 783 homes in the area, according to the Wichita Area Association of Realtors.

That's down 36 percent from the 1,225 houses sold during the first nine months of 2008.

Reach Dan Voorhis at 316-268-6577 or dvoorhis@wichitaeagle.com.

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