$15,000 Off, or $15,000 Toward Your Rate?

The same seller concessions can buy you a lower price, a lower cash-to-close, a permanently lower rate, or a big cushion for your first two years. On a typical Denver purchase, $15,000 off the price saves about $87 a month. That same $15,000 aimed at a permanent rate buydown saves closer to $244, and a temporary buydown saves over $600 in year one. Which is best depends entirely on how long you'll keep the loan.

Denver is currently a market where buyers are negotiating $15,000 to $50,000 off the bottom line, with inventory at a 10-year high and the median closed price flat at $585,000. Sellers are motivated in a way they haven't been in years.

What I watch happen over and over... A buyer negotiates a concession, takes it straight off the purchase price because that's the obvious move, and leaves several hundred dollars a month on the table.

Seller concessions is a menu. Let's price out the options on the same purchase and see what changes.

The setup: $585,000 purchase, 10% down, roughly a $526,500 loan, 30-year fixed at about 6.65%. Principal and interest come to roughly $3,380/month. The seller has agreed to $15,000 in concessions.

Option 1: Take $15,000 off the price

Purchase price becomes $570,000. Your loan drops to about $513,000.

New payment: roughly $3,293. You save about $87/month.

The rule of thumb holds up, a price reduction saves you somewhere in the neighborhood of $60 per month for every $10,000 (or $6 per $1,000), on a 30-year loan at current rates.

You also put down $1,500 less, and your property tax basis is lower, which is a small but ongoing benefit that the other options don't give you.

Best when: you're tight on the appraisal, or you want the lowest total loan balance and plan to hold the mortgage a very long time.

Option 2: Take $15,000 as a closing cost credit

Your payment doesn't change at all, still $3,380. What changes is your cash at the closing table, you keep $15,000 in your pocket.

Buyers routinely drain themselves to the studs at closing and then face a water heater failure in month three with no reserves. Cash is king.

Best when: you're cash constrained, or you'd otherwise close with dangerously thin reserves. Never underestimate this one.

Option 3: Buy the rate down permanently

This is the option most first-time buyers have never had explained to them.

Discount points prepay interest. Each point costs about 1% of the loan and typically lowers your rate by roughly 0.25%, though it varies by lender and day. Fifteen thousand dollars on a $526,500 loan buys about 2.8 points — call it a 0.7% reduction, taking you from 6.65% to somewhere near 5.94%.

New payment: roughly $3,136. You save about $244/month.

That's nearly triple the price cut savings, from the same seller concessions. It's permanent, for as long as you keep that loan. Break-even math: $15,000 ÷ $244 ≈ 61 months. Stay past about five years and this option wins decisively. Refinance or sell before then, and you gave up value.

Best when: you're confident you're staying put five-plus years and you don't expect to refinance soon.

Option 4: A temporary 2-1 buydown

Here your rate is knocked down 2 points in year one and 1 point in year two, then returns to the original rate (6.65%) permanently.

• Year 1 at roughly 4.65%: payment near $2,715 — about $665/month in savings

• Year 2 at roughly 5.65%: payment near $3,039 — about $341/month in savings

• Year 3 onward: back to $3,380

The two-year subsidy costs about $12,000 of your $15,000, leaving a few thousand for closing costs.

This is the most front loaded relief available, and it's why temporary buydowns have become one of the most common concessions in the 2026 market. It also has a specific logic: if rates do fall and you refinance in year two or three, the front-loaded savings are the only savings you were ever going to capture anyway.

One caveat: your payment steps up. You have to qualify at and be able to afford the full rate, not the buydown rate. If the buydown is what makes the house work, the house doesn't work.

Best when: your income is likely to rise, you're absorbing moving and furnishing costs in year one, or you expect to refinance.

Two things that will trip you up

Concession caps are a thing. Loan programs limit how much a seller can contribute, commonly in the 3% to 6% range depending on loan type and down payment, with VA and FHA having their own rules. Anything above the cap is simply lost at closing. Ask your lender for your specific cap before you negotiate.

A buydown needs your lender in the room. The concession has to be structured correctly at closing and the lender has to approve it. Loop them in during negotiation.

Conclusion

Ask yourself one question: how long will I keep this loan?

• Under two years → take the cash, or the temporary buydown

• Two to five years → temporary buydown, or split it

• Five-plus years → permanent buydown, basically every time

You don't have to pick just one. Splitting a concession, some toward a permanent point, some toward closing costs, is common and often the smartest structure available.

The concession menu is one of the few places in this market where a buyer has quantifiable leverage. It costs you nothing to ask which options your seller will consider. It can cost you hundreds a month not to.