The Chicago Tribune reports on efforts of homebuilders to move the inventory. " For new-home buyers, it's time to be wooed: Up to seven months before first payments are due. A mortgage-rate program promising to save 'up to $83,000 over 30 years.' Up to $10,000 in free upgrades. $20,000 off the price of a home."

"These kinds of incentives long have been used to drum up business during the winter doldrums or to jump-start activity at a moribund development. But the frenzy of deals, which some national builders rolled out in late 2005, is snowballing into summer."

"As the business plummets, buyers, aware that they are in the driver's seat, are demanding, and getting, price breaks or special financing. Many local and regional builders have joined the major players to offer incentives right through the industry's key spring sales months, into the beginning of summer."

"'This is probably the first time we've seen them through the peak selling season. It's unusual that the incentives have continued all year,' said housing consultant Tracy Cross. According to Cross the relatively even-keel Chicago market has become more important to major builders as sales have slowed or plunged off a cliff in other parts of the country."

"'National builders look to Chicago as a stable market. They look to Chicago for help to bolster sales. You can't milk a cow that's dead in California or reduce homes by $200,000 in Washington,' Cross said."

"In Washington, D.C., Centex Corp. offered $100,000 off the sales price to those who bought a house within a 12-hour period. And Lennar Corp. is giving Tampa buyers a lowest-price guarantee. Traffic in suburban Chicago sales centers is off as much as 30 percent from a year ago, according to consultant Jim Colella."

"Slow sales forced Lennar to drop the tax assessment for a special service area at the Summerfield development in southwest suburban Minooka. Deer Point Homes has dropped prices by $20,000 for a limited time on all its homes at The Ponds of Bull Valley in northwest suburban Woodstock."

"The suburban sales strategies reflect 'the slow shift to a buyer's market,' said consultant Steve Hovany in Schaumburg. 'Nobody ever lowers their price in new homes, but an incentive, in effect, lowers the price,' said Hovany, whose firm advises builders and developers. With shareholders and Wall Street weighing on them, builders, especially publicly owned national companies, have 'to grow or die,' said Hovany. They 'are fighting the market share game.'"

"Feeling the heat of national competitors, several local builders, big and small, are hustling to match the special offers. Warrenville-based Neumann Homes has been advertising incentives competitive with some of the larger companies."

"Jim Colella said using incentives to keep or grab more market share is a desperate, risky game. 'Discounting is a last-case resort,' he said. 'It is a slippery slope. It's pretty tough to start discounting and then stop. Once you open it up, it's hard to close. Look at the automakers. They started discounting. It has diminished the product.'"

"Leigh Nevers, VP of marketing for Lennar's Chicago division based in Hoffman Estates, said her firm's aggressive June promotional package is aimed at trimming the company's unsold inventory of nearly 70 homes and keeping the builder near the No. 1 position in the market."

"'We stumbled a little bit in April,' she said. 'We want to get as close to No. 1 as possible, and we don't want to slip to No. 3. It is a cutthroat industry right now,' she said. 'We project starts and closings to Wall Street,' she noted. 'We need to stay on track in this market.'"

"Nevers conceded that the costly incentives are affecting margins, and expressed uncertainty about how long Lennar's strategy will last. 'The market will tell us how long this will continue,' she said. 'We can't afford not to be doing some kind of program.'"