While some homebuyers pay 8% mortgage rates, others are wrangling steep discounts—and it's creating a surprising surge in new home sales

Builders are offering major incentives for buyers otherwise locked out of the housing market. (Credit: Getty Images)

Buying a home is the least affordable it's been in decades amid 8% mortgage rates and rising home prices, preventing many prospective homeowners—particularly first-time homebuyers—from taking the plunge. 

Curiously, however, new residential home sales surged in September while existing home sales all but completely froze because owners are reluctant to move and buy another home at a far higher mortgage rate. New-home sales rose 12.3% to an annual rate of 759,000 in September, up from 676,000 in the prior month, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.