Countless builders are stuck with newly constructed homes they can’t sell. It’s not because their product isn’t good. It’s because many folks can’t buy due to ridiculous unaffordability — or won’t buy because of market uncertainty.

To snap potential buyers out of this trance, builders are dangling the carrot of mortgage incentives. Take CountryWide Homes, for example. It’s pitching three-year mortgage rates at just 2.34 per cent. That’s less than half the standard market rate.