Builder giving away house at Eagles game

It's the fourth quarter, the clock is running, and your team needs to score big to stay in the playoffs.

It might be time for the "Hail Mary" pass, but in this case the team is not the Philadelphia Eagles but Pulte Homes Inc.'s Delaware Valley Division. It will give away a $300,000 home - or that amount toward the purchase of one of its more-expensive houses in one of its 17 communities - during the Browns vs. Birds game at Lincoln Financial Field on Dec. 15.

To win, all you need to do is throw a football through a model of a Pulte-built house set up on the field at halftime at the Monday night game. Three fans will be making the attempt, but only one can walk away a winner - not counting the Internal Revenue Service, which will receive lots of cash when the winner files a 2008 tax return.

More than 4,000 Eagles fans registered on the Eagles' Web site to be one of three picked at random to toss a regulation NFL football through a hole in the miniature of Pulte's Hampton model from 20 yards away, said Eric Ford, Pulte's regional land-acquisition manager.

The miniature was on view for three hours before most Eagles' home games in the preseason and regular season.

Eagles' senior vice president Mark Donovan said the contest was a way for the team to say "thank you to our fans."

The need for builders to do

something

isn't hard to understand. New-home sales in the region were down 41.5 percent from the same period in 2007, and unsold inventory is hovering at 28,000 units - singles, townhouses and condos.

The fourth quarter of this troubled year is not looking promising, as credit remains tight and unemployment rises. In fact, Gopal Ahluwahlia, vice president of research for the National Association of Homebuilders in Washington, yesterday described the new-home market everywhere as "close to dead."

Still, stock prices for home builders were boosted yesterday after reports that mortgage applications surged as rates fell in the aftermath of last week's Federal Reserve decision to buy $600 billion in Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac debt and mortgage-backed securities and that California's huge backlog of unsold homes had dropped dramatically.

For example, Pulte, based in Bloomfield, Mich., gained $1.32, or 13.44 percent, to $11.14 in trading yesterday.

That said, Toll Bros. Inc. will officially report results today for its fiscal fourth quarter that are 41 percent below the same period last year. Beazer Homes USA Inc., another major national builder, just reported its eighth consecutive quarterly loss.

Ahluwahlia said he had never heard of another builder actually giving away a house in such a way in three decades with the NAHB.

"Lotteries, in which someone buys a $500 chance for a house, yes," he said. "But I don't think anyone else has tried" what Pulte is doing.

The same is true regionally.

"Yikes," said Marshal Granor, a principal in Granor Price Homes in Horsham. "I have seen free cars - in the old days, it was a Yugo; now I've seen ads for a free Porsche or Mercedes," but never a whole house.

"I guess Pulte believes the positive vibes from the freebie will generate enough traffic for their salespeople to catch a few undecided buyers," Granor said. "I think it is a big gamble, but it is innovative."

Granor and at least two other builders, Westrum Development Co. in Philadelphia and Beazer Homes in New Jersey, turned to auctions to create buyer interest earlier this year.

In all those cases, prospective bidders had to register to participate, just as Eagles' fans did for the Pulte contest. Some of the disappointed bidders turned into buyers for the builders' other houses - in Beazer's case selling out an entire community in North Wildwood.

Wayne Norris, regional sales manager for Hanley Wood Market Intelligence, which tracks new-home sales, said Pulte's effort did not surprise him, although it seems to be less of a market-driven incentive than a contest - "like a hole-in-one at a golf outing."

The tax implications are a serious consideration for anyone who does get a shot at the house.

"It is taxable if it is a 'win,' and is similar to game-show winnings," said CPA Alan Leibovitz at Sklar, Carmosin & Co., of Jenkintown. The taxable amount would be based on the value of the house.

Still, the publicity Pulte will reap from national television exposure and among Eagles' fans is probably worth several times the builder's outlay.

"It is a very difficult market," Granor said. "We sell them one at a time. I feel for the big guys and the little ones. I hope this works well for Pulte."