A buydown is a bet on future rates, and spending real money to solve a problem you may not have is the instinct worth questioning. We lean against paying points as a default. Take the two kinds separately. - Permanent buydown (points): a sunk cost. The break-even often lands in the four-to-five-year range depending on pricing, and if rates fall enough that you refinance before then, the money you spent on points is gone. Unless you are confident you will hold this exact loan past break-even, the odds of coming out ahead are poor, and nobody can promise rate direction. - Temporary buydown (2-1, 3-2-1, and so on): you are pre-funding an account that subsidizes your early payments rather than truly saving money, and if the seller pays for it, that subsidy generally got priced into what you paid for the house. One real difference: if rates drop and you refinance early, the unused portion of a temporary buydown effectively comes back to you, while permanent points are money you cannot recover. Neither is right or wrong on its own. The call turns on your rate outlook and how long you keep the loan, and none of us has a crystal ball. If you can comfortably afford the note rate, a buydown comparison is still something some people want to see, and we will run that side-by-side for you. The decision stays yours; we just want it made with the break-even on the table.