If you are buying a home in today’s housing market, there are a great deal of conversations about mortgage rate buy downs. They are a particularly popular concession from home builders who are hesitant to discount prices and are choosing to provide other incentives to prospective buyers. There are two general types of buy downs.

Simplistically, your debt-to-income ratio (DTI) is all your monthly debt payments divided by your gross monthly income. This number is one of the key considerations in determining how much of a mortgage you can qualify for. It is a measure of your capacity to repay the money you intend to borrow.