If you went with another lender and the house appraised lower ... that just means you would have to come up with more cash ... it doesn't mean that your builder would automatically have to lower the price of the contract you signed.

That's just life. Sometimes you come out ahead and sometimes you don't.

If the builder is offering homes built at the same time as yours at a lower price, you can ask him to consider something for you. He is not obligated to do anything. You can ask.

Also, many new construction homes won't appraise for the cost to build them. The appraisal has nothing to do with what you pay. It just impacts how much the bank will loan you. I also don't really trust appraisals that much. In many cases, I see appraisers come up with a value that is just barely over what your Construction contract cost was. As an example, I had two appraisals on a new construction home done within 6 months of each other. The local market hadn't changed much, but the difference in appraised value was nearly 20%.