A temporary buydown lowers your payment for the first one to three years, then it reverts. Our lean: rarely worth it when your own money is funding it. Mechanics first. With a 2-1, the payment is calculated as if your rate were 2% lower in year one and 1% lower in year two, then it snaps back to the real rate. A 3-2-1 runs three years: 3%, then 2%, then 1% lower. Your actual note rate never changes. Someone pays a lump sum upfront that sits in a separate escrow account (separate from your tax-and-insurance escrow) and gets drawn down each month to cover the gap between your real payment and the discounted one. It is a subsidy with an expiration date, and it is not cheap; a 3-2-1 can run close to four points. A buydown is never free money. When a seller funds one, they usually would have been willing to cut the price instead, and a price cut becomes lasting equity rather than a three-year subsidy you eat through. If you believe rates will fall, you are often better off negotiating the lower price, taking the market rate now, and refinancing later, with no promise that rates cooperate. One upside worth knowing: if you take a temporary buydown and refinance before the escrow runs out, the leftover money goes toward your closing costs or principal. Between us, we have talked buydowns through with hundreds of buyers and closed almost none, because most people run the math and would rather keep the money. A permanent buydown (paying points for a permanently lower rate) is a separate decision that hinges on how long you keep the loan. We lean against points as a default, and the side-by-side is something some people want to see, so we will run that comparison for you on a Roadmap conversation.