With interest rates staying between 6 and 7 percent, it has become a common practice for buyers to demand and sellers to grant a concession by which the seller pays a fee to the buyer’s lender to get a lower interest rate for the first year or two, after which the buyer can hopefully refinance at a lower rate.
To see how pervasive this trend has become, I compared the statistics on Denver metro area closings over the past 90 days versus before interest rates began rising last year.
During the 90 days prior to this Monday, there were 4,512 closings of residential listings on REcolorado.com in which it was reported that the seller had provided a concession related to buyer’s closing costs. During the first 90 days of 2022, that number was only 2,675.
Jim Smith's Blog 