For most of the past decade, a Puget Sound buyer who asked a seller for anything beyond the keys was politely ignored. That era is over, at least for now. According to the latest NWMLS data, there were 24,965 active listings across the region in September, up 24.5% from a year earlier and the most since September 2014. Pending sales fell 15.1% to 6,231, the steepest drop of the year, and the month ended with 4.4 months of inventory, a level the region had not seen since February 2014. 

Buyers have leverage again. What they do not have is a comfortable monthly payment. 

The 30-year fixed rate averaged 7.40% in Freddie Mac’s weekly survey for October 8, up from 6.30% at the same point last year. Prices have barely moved to compensate. The regional median slipped 0.9% to $625,000 in September, and King County’s median was flat at $850,000. A buyer shopping this fall is looking at roughly the same price tag as last fall with a rate more than a full point higher, which is why the more useful question for agents is no longer whether to ask for a concession. It is which one. 

Take a King County buyer at the $850,000 median who puts 20% down and finances $680,000. Among the posted mortgage rates in Washington that Lower listed on October 8, the 30-year conventional rate was 7.25%. At that rate, principal and interest come to about $4,639 a month. Posted rates assume a specific borrower profile and discount points, so an individual quote will differ, but the figure works as a baseline. 

Now run the two concessions side by side. 

A seller-funded 2-1 temporary buydown drops the buyer’s effective rate by two points in the first year and one point in the second. On this loan, the first-year payment falls to about $3,755, a saving of $884 a month. In year two it is about $4,187, or $452 less than the full payment. In year three the payment returns to $4,639 and stays there. The cost to the seller is simply the sum of those 24 monthly differences, roughly $16,000, or about 1.9% of the purchase price, deposited into an account at closing and drawn down each month. 

Put the same $16,000 into a price reduction and the result is far less dramatic. The loan shrinks by $12,800, and the monthly payment drops by about $87. 

That gap is the whole argument. For a seller, a credit and a price cut of the same size net out to roughly the same proceeds. For a buyer, one of them takes $884 off the payment during the most expensive year of homeownership, when moving costs, furniture and deferred repairs all land at once, and the other covers a streaming subscription or two. 

The buydown has real limits, though, and agents who pitch it should know them cold. It is temporary, so the buyer has to be able to carry the full payment in year three. It also does nothing for a client who is struggling to get approved, because Fannie Mae requires lenders to qualify the borrower at the note rate, not the bought-down rate. A buydown improves cash flow. It does not improve purchasing power. 

There is also a ceiling on how much a seller can contribute. Under Fannie Mae’s contribution limits, seller-paid financing concessions on a primary residence are capped at 3% of the price when the loan-to-value ratio is above 90%, 6% when it is between 75.01% and 90%, and 9% at 75% or below, measured against the lower of the sale price or the appraised value. A seller-funded buydown counts toward that cap. In the example above, the limit is $51,000, which leaves plenty of room for a $16,000 buydown plus help with closing costs. A buyer putting 5% down on the same house has a $25,500 ceiling, and a buydown stacked on top of closing cost credits can get close to it quickly. FHA and VA loans follow their own rules, so the conversation with the lender needs to happen before the offer is written, not after mutual acceptance. 

When does a price cut still make more sense? Mostly when the buyer expects to stay put and has no plan to refinance. An $87 saving is small, but it lasts for 30 years, and a lower price also means a smaller down payment and less exposure if the appraisal comes in light. Buyers in that position may be better served by a third option: asking the seller for a credit toward discount points, which lowers the rate for the life of the loan rather than for two years. How much rate a point buys varies by lender and by the day, so it is worth pricing both structures on the same loan estimate. 

If rates do come down and the buyer refinances early, unused buydown funds are not necessarily lost. Depending on how the buydown agreement is written, the remaining balance is typically credited toward the payoff or returned to the borrower. That detail belongs in the agreement, and it is worth a line in the offer. 

Listing agents have their own reason to pay attention. Stephen Bourassa, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research, described the current market in commentary on the September numbers as showing “downward stickiness” in prices: Sellers who can afford to wait tend to wait rather than accept less. A seller in that frame of mind, facing a second or third reduction, may find a credit easier to accept than another cut to the list price. It costs about the same, it keeps the recorded sale price intact for the next set of comps, and it gives the listing something concrete to advertise in a market where 24,965 other properties are competing for attention. 

Median prices across the NWMLS region have sat at or below year-ago levels every month of 2026. Inventory is at a 12-year high heading into the slowest months of the year. Rates are the highest buyers have seen in three years. None of that is likely to resolve itself before the holidays, and the agents who close deals between now and then will be the ones who can show a client, in dollars, what a concession is worth.