The Case for Now: Why This Is the Ultimate Buyer's Market

Low mortgage rates in 2020 looked like the gift of a lifetime. They were actually a trap dressed up as a deal. In the pandemic frenzy, buyers waived inspections, skipped appraisals, bid tens of thousands over asking, and took on payments they could barely write a check for — all to win a bidding war. That tradeoff quietly ruined far more people than it helped, especially now that prices have softened and those over-ask offers sit underwater.

Today's market is the mirror image of that chaos, and it's the opportunity serious buyers have been waiting for. Rates are higher, so the bidding wars have cooled. Inventory has piled up, sellers are offering concessions at a record-high pace, and prices are softening in many metros. After more than a decade writing mortgages, I can tell you the cards have not been stacked in buyers' favor like this since before the pandemic. The window to act is now, while it lasts.

The Illusion of Low Rates

Low rates were never the whole story in 2020 — they were the bait. When mortgage rates fell to historic lows, demand exploded and bidding wars turned every home into an auction. Buyers who wanted to win had to play a losing game: offer $20,000, $40,000, even $80,000 over asking, waive the home inspection, and promise to cover any appraisal gap out of pocket. The quality of the home barely mattered; the only question was who would stretch furthest.

That stretch came back to bite people. A waived inspection meant discovering a cracked foundation or failing roof months after closing, with no seller on the hook and no repair budget left because the purchase had drained every reserve. An appraisal gap meant paying your own cash to cover the difference between what the bank said the house was worth and what you agreed to pay. And the over-ask price itself became a liability: as prices have softened, many of those pandemic purchases are now worth less than what buyers owe — trapped by a mortgage they can't refinance and can't sell without losing money.

Today's market forces none of that. Buyers negotiate from a position of strength rather than panic, which changes every decision for the safer. The lesson of 2020 wasn't that low rates make buying easy. It's that buying out of desperation is what ruins people — and desperation is exactly what higher rates have removed.

Inventory Is Your Superpower

The single biggest reason to move now is the sheer volume of choice. August was the strongest buyer's market in Redfin records dating back to 2013, with more homes for sale and fewer buyers competing for them (Redfin). There are now about 47% more sellers than buyers in the U.S., which flips the entire psychology of the search (Redfin).

More inventory means you can be picky — and you should be. Instead of settling for the one house your budget could win, you can tour ten, reject the ones with awkward layouts or dated kitchens, and hold out for a home that actually fits how you live. Pickiness prevents buyer's remorse, the quiet regret that so many 2020 purchasers felt when they realized they'd overpaid for a property they never truly loved.

Choice also does something subtler: it gives you negotiating power. A seller with three competing buyers holds all the cards; a seller whose listing has sat for weeks knows every offer counts. Nationwide, home sellers gave concessions to buyers in 44.7% of U.S. home sales in August, the highest share for that month since at least 2020 — and roughly 1 in 7 homes that sold had a price drop on top of the concession (Redfin). That asymmetry is what makes this moment different.

The Art of the Concession

With leverage on your side, sellers are willing to pay real money to close the deal — and that money comes straight out of your total cost. In Denver, sellers gave concessions in 63.3% of home sales in May, one of the highest shares among major U.S. metros and far above the national average (Redfin). A concession is recorded when a seller provides something that reduces your total cost, from money toward repairs and closing costs to covering your mortgage-rate buydown.

This is where the 2020 comparison flips hardest. Three years ago, asking a seller to fix a roof leak would have gotten your offer tossed in the trash. Today, that same request is reasonable, and often granted. You can reasonably ask for: inspection items (a leaking roof, aged HVAC, electrical issues) to be repaired or credited; closing cost credits to cut your upfront cash; a home warranty; or seller-paid rate buydowns that lower your payment for years. The sellers who remember 2021 are pricing too high and often end up making the largest concessions just to secure any buyer at all.

The key is to ask for what matters, not everything under the sun. Experienced agents report that buyers who are picky but reasonable — requesting the repairs that a real inspection flags, the credits that make your closing numbers work — win more often than the buyers who ask for a blank check. Negotiation in a buyer's market is collaborative, not adversarial, and sellers would rather pay a concession than watch their listing sit on the market another month.

Buydowns: The Bridge to Affordability

The one figure that still scares buyers off is the monthly payment. Higher rates mean a higher payment on the same home, and that gap is the real obstacle standing between hesitant buyers and homeownership. Temporary buydowns are the bridge across it — and in this market, the seller or builder often pays for them.

A temporary buydown lowers your interest rate for the first one to three years of the loan, then returns to the full rate on your note; your loan balance and term never change (Movement Mortgage). Two structures dominate. A 2-1 buydown drops your rate by 2% in year one and 1% in year two before settling in year three. A 3-2-1 buydown drops it by 3%, then 2%, then 1% across the first three years (CrossCountry Mortgage). On the table above, a 2-1 buydown on a $450,000 purchase with a 20% down payment and a 6.5% rate can save roughly $450 in the first year's monthly payment alone — and the seller typically funds that savings as a concession.

That is the entire point: the savings land exactly when you need them, at a time when moving costs, furnishing, and repairs tend to stack up. And because a lender qualifies you at the full note rate rather than the reduced one, you can be confident the later payment still fits before you sign (Movement Mortgage).

A temporary buydown is a timing tool as much as a rate tool. If you have expenses you know will disappear in the next two to three years — childcare, a car loan, or student loan payments — a buydown keeps your early payments comfortable while those bills still exist, then the full payment lands right as they roll off. You ease into the mortgage instead of swallowing it whole.

Permanent buydowns work differently. Instead of a temporary discount, you buy down the rate for the entire life of the loan, usually paid for with upfront discount points. This is more expensive to fund — which is exactly why sellers and builders offer temporary buydowns far more often as incentives. Permanent buydowns make the most sense when you plan to stay put for many years and want the lower payment to last.

The smart play in this market is to ask for a buydown as part of your negotiation, let the seller or builder fund it, and treat it as a bridge: if rates fall later, you can still refinance into a lower permanent rate. You get relief today without giving up the upside tomorrow.

Are you selling a home before you buy your next one? A temporary buydown eases that transition, too, softening your new payment while your current home sits on the market and you carry two mortgages at once. I walk through the numbers — and the seller credits that make a one-time move possible — in my post on Buying before you sell in the 2026 Colorado market.

The worst advice in this market is the chorus telling you to wait. The negativity in the media makes every headline sound like a reason to stand still — but standing still costs you the leverage, the inventory, and the concessions that buyers haven't seen since before the pandemic. The time to take advantage is now, while the numbers are on your side.

Let me help you see exactly where you stand and how the numbers work for your budget and your life.