If your Wilmington house is getting showings but no offers, a seller-paid rate buydown usually moves more buyers than the same money spent on a price cut. If it is getting no showings at all, the price is the problem, and no buydown will fix that.
This question comes up in almost every price-reduction conversation we have right now, because sellers hear buyers complain about the rate, not the price. Both tools cost you the same thing at closing: money off your net. What differs is how much payment relief the buyer feels, and whether the buyer ever sees your house in the first place.
Here is the part most sellers have not been shown: the payment math, with today’s numbers, on a house at the county median.
What the two options actually do to the payment
Take a New Hanover County house at $464,000, the median sale price for the three months ending September 2026 (Redfin county pages, read October 17, 2026). Say the buyer puts 5 percent down, borrowing $440,800, at the 30-year fixed average of 7.40 percent for the week ending October 15, 2026 (Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey). Principal and interest come to about $3,052 a month.
Now spend about $10,500 two different ways.
- Baseline payment: about $3,052 a month in principal and interest on a $440,800 loan at 7.40 percent Our math, Freddie Mac PMMS rate, week ending October 15, 2026
- Seller-paid 2-1 buydown: the buyer pays as if the rate were 5.40 percent in year one and 6.40 percent in year two, cutting the payment about $577 a month in year one and about $295 in year two. Cost to you: roughly $10,459 Our math on the same loan and rate
- Price cut of the same $10,459: the payment falls about $69 a month, and it stays there Our math on the same loan and rate
- Price cut of $20,000: the payment falls about $132 a month Our math on the same loan and rate
- New Hanover County days on market: 61 for the three months ending September 2026, up from 34 a year earlier Redfin county pages, read October 17, 2026
That is the whole argument in one block. Ten thousand dollars as a price cut buys the buyer about $69 a month. The same ten thousand as a 2-1 buydown buys them about $577 a month in the year they are also buying a refrigerator, a lawn mower and blinds. For a buyer stretching to get in, the first year is the year that hurts, and that is the year the buydown attacks.
The rules that cap what you can give
You cannot simply write any number into the contract. On a conventional loan, seller contributions are capped by the buyer’s down payment, and a temporary buydown counts against that cap.
Fannie Mae’s limits for a principal residence are 3 percent of the price when the loan-to-value ratio is above 90 percent, 6 percent between 75.01 and 90 percent, and 9 percent at 75 percent or less, and “temporary (or permanent) interest rate buydowns” are included in that calculation (Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-4.1-02, dated May 7, 2025). On our $464,000 example with 5 percent down, that is a ceiling of $13,920. A 2-1 buydown fits. A 3-2-1 buydown plus closing costs does not, and if you promise it anyway, someone is restructuring your contract three days before closing.
The buydown itself has rules too: the rate reduction cannot exceed 3 percent, the rate cannot step up more than 1 percent a year, and the buydown period cannot run longer than three years (Fannie Mae Selling Guide B2-1.4-04, dated August 7, 2024). VA buyers have their own ceiling, with seller concessions limited to 4 percent of the loan amount (VA Home Loan Guaranty Buyer’s Guide, April 2022).
When a price cut is the only honest answer
A buydown is a closing-table tool. It does nothing for a house that buyers never walk into. If you have had a listing live for three weeks with almost no showings, your price is outside the band where your buyers are searching, and the fix is to get inside that band.
Search filters are blunt. A house at $474,900 is invisible to every buyer whose maximum filter is $450,000, no matter what you were willing to pay toward their rate. Moving from $474,900 to $449,900 is a $25,000 cut, but it puts you in front of a group of buyers who literally could not see you before.
The showing count is the test we use with our sellers. Showings but no offers means the house is priced close enough to be considered and something at the table is stopping people, which is where a buydown, a closing cost credit or a repair allowance earns its keep. Few or no showings means price, photos or both. Our post on listing now versus waiting until spring covers the timing side of that decision, and the New Hanover County market update shows where the current pace sits.
Remember who you are competing with
If your house sits in Leland, Hampstead, Bolivia or anywhere else with active new construction nearby, you are not only competing with resales. You are competing with builders who are already doing exactly this, with their own lender and a bigger budget.
As of October 17, 2026, Mungo Homes was advertising a 2/1 buydown through its preferred lender at 3.49 percent in year one, 4.49 percent in year two and 5.49 percent after that on eligible homes, or up to $20,000 in savings instead. Logan Homes was advertising rates as low as 5.75 percent for first-time buyers, or up to $5,000 toward buyer fees. HHHunt was offering a $1,500 Hometown Heroes credit (builder terms as listed on our mortgage update page, October 17, 2026). Those offers move monthly and require the builder’s lender, but they set what the buyer walking through your kitchen has already been quoted. We wrote about handling that head-on in selling a Leland home against builder incentives.
A buydown is temporary, and anyone who tells you it is a rate is misleading you. The lender still qualifies the buyer at the note rate, not the bought-down rate (Fannie Mae Selling Guide B2-1.4-04, August 7, 2024), so a buydown does not help a buyer who cannot afford the house in year three. It also does nothing for an appraisal problem: if the house does not appraise, you are back to the price. And a concession only works if the buyer’s lender will apply it the way you intended, so get the lender on the phone before you sign the counteroffer rather than after. If your situation is simply that the house is priced above the market, we will say so plainly instead of dressing up a cut as a credit.
Related questions people also ask
Does a rate buydown help a buyer qualify for more house?
No. For a fixed-rate loan with a temporary buydown, the lender must qualify the borrower at the note rate without considering the bought-down rate (Fannie Mae Selling Guide B2-1.4-04, dated August 7, 2024). The buydown lowers what the buyer actually pays in the early years, which helps cash flow and comfort, but it does not stretch their approval amount. A buyer who needs a bigger approval needs a different price, a bigger down payment or less debt.
How much does a 2-1 buydown cost the seller?
The cost equals the total payment relief the buyer receives, so it scales with the loan size and the rate. On a $440,800 loan at a 7.40 percent note rate, the average for the week ending October 15, 2026 in the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, a 2-1 structure runs roughly $10,459 by our math. On a smaller loan it costs less, and on a larger one it costs more. Ask the buyer’s lender for the exact figure in writing before you agree to it.
Which hurts my net more, a concession or a price cut?
Dollar for dollar they hit your net the same way, because both come out of your proceeds at closing. The difference is what each one buys. A concession or buydown is aimed at a buyer who is already interested, while a price cut changes which buyers can find your listing at all. One other wrinkle worth knowing: a price cut lowers the recorded sale price that the next appraisal in your neighborhood looks at, while a concession leaves the price intact, though appraisers are expected to account for concessions when they are disclosed.
Before you decide, pull two numbers: how many showings you have had in the last fourteen days, and what the three closest comparable sales actually closed at. Those two numbers tell you whether you have a price problem or a payment problem, and they point to different fixes. If you want us to run them for your address and put the buydown math next to the cut, talk it through with our team.
Sources: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ending October 15, 2026; Redfin county housing-market pages, read October 17, 2026, via our New Hanover County market update; Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-4.1-02, Interested Party Contributions, dated May 7, 2025; Fannie Mae Selling Guide B2-1.4-04, Temporary Interest Rate Buydowns, dated August 7, 2024; VA Home Loan Guaranty Buyer’s Guide, Version April 2022; builder incentive terms as listed on our mortgage update page, October 17, 2026; payment figures are our own calculations from the loan amounts and rates shown.
