The tools to print a house have been around for years. The bank loans to buy one have not.
That gap is starting to close. Wells Fargo and Icon just made it real.
Wells Fargo is one of the biggest home lenders in the country. It is teaming up with Icon to write loans on 3D printed homes.
Buyers who use Wells Fargo loans on an Icon home will get a 50 basis point lender credit. That is a small discount on the loan.
Until now, 3D printed homes were stuck in a tough spot. Banks were not sure if the houses would hold their value.
They were not sure if the homes could be insured. And they were not sure if the loans could be sold to other firms.
So most buyers had to use the builder's own loan arm. At Icon's first big project with Lennar in Texas, Lennar's loan team did all the lending.
That project sold out fast. A bigger one is now in the works.
The first project is one reason home watchers point to 3D printing as a cousin to the BRRRR strategy for cutting build costs.
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Home prices are one of the biggest stories in the U.S. right now. Anything that makes a house cheaper to build matters to builder stocks and banks.
Serhat Oztop, who runs home lending at Wells Fargo, said the bank sees Icon's tools as a way to cut build costs. He said the goal is to help buyers who are getting priced out.
Icon CEO Jason Ballard said the deal shows big banks now see these homes as "ready for primetime." Icon is opening up the tech to other builders too.
Its new "Titan" 3D printer can build homes with more than one floor. Older models could not.
The Titan sells for $899,000. Wells Fargo will lend to builders who want one.
Ballard said printer sales are running at twice his goals, with hundreds reserved on $5,000 deposits. That is a faster pace than even some credit-driven consumer trends.
Icon and Wells Fargo's link is not new. The bank's foundation has worked with Icon for years on 3D-printed homes for people without housing.
But this is the first time the bank itself will write loans on Icon homes for sale to the public. Ballard said the next step is to get the tech in the hands of builders all over the world.
The big risk for any new build tech is whether the homes hold their value over time. Oztop said Wells Fargo has no reason to think Icon homes will rise in value any slower than ones built the old way.
That is the bet. A major U.S. bank is now standing behind it.
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