Mortgage buydowns are making a comeback as interest rates remain high - USA TODAY

A recent report from RedFin found a record number of seller concessions – offers like mortgage rate buydowns that help reduce costs – in the fourth quarter, especially among cooling “pandemic boomtowns” like Phoenix and Las Vegas.

"About almost 100% of the clients that I've had the opportunity to work with since the fourth quarter of last year, even now, are exercising that interest rate by concession from the seller," said San Diego-based real estate agent Andre Mejia of Connect Realty.

"Sellers don't want their houses to sit on the market," said Bud Kawa, a Detroit-based realtor at Brick and Stone Real Estate.

“We still have some demand, but houses are staying on the market significantly longer than what people were used to,” Washington-based real estate agent Howard Veal of Home Realty Ventures at Keller Williams Puget Sound told USA TODAY.

(A buydown) keeps money in your pocket so you can invest in things that you as the homebuyer think that you might need to do,” said Bill Banfield, executive vice president of capital markets for Rocket Mortgage.

According to RedFin, metro areas with the greatest share of home sales with concessions in the fourth quarter include: