Bought a similar but pricier home for a lower rate instead of a cheaper home at a higher rate — should the cheaper home with a later refinance have been chosen instead?

There's no clean right or wrong here, so try not to beat yourself up over it. If you're holding for the long term, taking the lower-priced home and refinancing the higher rate later is often the better move on paper, because the price is permanent while a rate can change. But that assumes you could have qualified for, and comfortably carried, the higher payment at the time. If you couldn't, the lower-rate home was the only path that actually worked. And nobody can promise how soon a rate like the one you got comes back around. People live in the monthly payment more than the sticker price. That's part of why so many folks lease cars instead of buying them. Choosing the option whose payment fit your life was a rational call. Hold the home for the long run and either version of this decision tends to work out fine. If rates improve down the road, we'll look together at whether a refinance makes sense then.