Guild Mortgage has introduced a new 1% down, 1% one-year lender interest rate buy-down program.
The program, 1% Down Payment Advantage, allows homebuyers to make the smallest possible down payment, with Guild covering the remaining 2% to bring the payment up to its 3% minimum requirement.
Guild is offering a lender-paid temporary rate buydown as part of the program. Consumers can then refinance with Guild later with no lender fees.
Leaders at Guild say they are committed to helping Americans tackle the three main components of owning a home: the cost to get in it, the cost to stay in it, and the ability to handle unexpected emergencies in the first five years.
“No matter what is happening in the housing market, we want to get people into homes and help keep them there,” said Mary Ann McGarry, Guild CEO. “With our new 1% Down Payment Advantage program, we are meeting our clients where they are and addressing head-on the accessibility challenges so many Americans are facing in today’s housing market.”
Guild joins other lenders who are trying to entice buyers back to the market with temporary buydowns. Major industry players like Rocket Mortgage, Guaranteed Rate, and UWM have introduced their own programs this year.
“Temporary rate buydowns have been around for a long time, but they’re really only relevant in a market like this, where rates are flying off the handle,” says Dan Catinella, chief lending officer at Total Expert, told Bankrate.
San Diego-based Guild Mortgage is an independent mortgage lender providing residential mortgage products and local in-house origination and servicing. Its 2022 originations in California totaled $1.9 billion.
The company has about 4,000 employees across 300 branches in 49 states.