Builder Revives Gimmick to Try to Boost Sales : Development: Barratt American offers home buyers mortgage protection. The practice was common during the 1981-82 recession.

IRVINE — Home sales have been so lousy that an Orange County builder has revived a gimmick popular during the last recession: If a buyer loses his or her job within a year of buying the home, the builder will assume the mortgage payments for up to 12 months.

Barratt American is a British home builder which--like other Southern California builders--has taken it on the chin since the housing market went sour in late 1989. The company has begun to offer buyers mortgage protection, which hasn’t been available since the 1981-82 recession.

Such deals were common the last time the economy went in the tank, but few builders have tried them this time around. For one thing, it could turn out to be expensive if, indeed, a number of home buyers lost their jobs in the next year.

In fact, Barratt says it is probably the only builder in Southern California now offering the insurance program. It seems to be the sort of measure that’s called for to move houses these days.

“The feedback from the salespeople was that potential customers were walking into the projects and telling them: ‘I’d buy if I knew I’d still have a job next week,’ ” said Joe Anguiano, a spokesman for the company.

“This is one way for Barratt to jump-start consumers’ confidence in the economy,” Anguiano said.

The problem is, there may be a reason why few if any other builders are offering such a program: It may not work all that well.

“Builders found during the last recession that what attracts buyers the most is an old-fashioned, straight-ahead price cut,” said Alfred J. Gobar, a respected Brea real estate consultant.

“That’s why we haven’t seen that many fancy gimmicks this time around,” he said.

Barratt acknowledges that the unemployment insurance program is nothing new. What’s novel this time, the company says, is pairing the program with other buyer inducements at some of the company’s slower-selling projects, such as Pacific Hills, a master-planned community in Mission Viejo. For instance, Barratt will take some customers’ old homes in trade if they can’t sell them.

Barratt builds moderately priced homes, and a number of builders have moved into that relatively strong niche in the last few years. Barratt’s homes sell for up to $250,000 in Orange County and less than that in markets farther inland.

Sales for the American subsidiary dropped by half in the past two years, and the British parent, Barratt Developments, recently dumped some of the unit’s top managers. The American unit, which operates mostly in Southern California, has laid off about 100 workers in the past year, leaving about 100.