> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://truenorthboulder.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Mortgage Rate Went Up While Under Contract in Colorado - URL: https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/mortgage-rate-went-up-under-contract-colorado/ - Published: 2026-10-13T09:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-17T18:43:09.000Z - Description: On Colorado's current contract, a higher rate on its own can end the deal only on or before the New Loan Terms Deadline, if your contract dates that row. The contract never mentions a rate lock and never holds the rate: only your lender's lock does, and it has to reach the Closing Date. - Author: Daniel Hsieh - Tags: Buyer Guide, Financing, Buying, Colorado Law If your mortgage rate goes up while you're under contract in Colorado, the rise by itself can end the purchase up to one date, and only if your contract prints it: the New Loan Terms Deadline, a row in your contract's Dates and Deadlines table. Until then, the current Commission form leaves the rate to your judgment. After it, the contract treats you as having accepted the terms, rate included, and it never mentions a rate lock. What holds the rate itself, before that date and after it, is your lender's lock, if you have one; it lives on a different document and ends on a date your contract doesn't print. Freddie Mac's weekly survey put the average 30-year fixed rate at 6.71% on September 3, 2026 and 7.28% on October 1: 0.57 of a point in four weeks. It printed 7.40% on October 8\. If you signed in that stretch without a lock, the new quote raises two questions fast: can you still walk away, and what happens to your earnest money if you try? Two lines tell you where you stand: the New Loan Terms row in your contract's Dates and Deadlines table, and the Rate Lock line at the top of page 1 of your Loan Estimate. ## Can a rising mortgage rate get you out of a Colorado contract? > **The short version:** Yes, on or before the New Loan Terms Deadline, if your contract has a date in that row. The current Colorado Commission form makes the loan's "payments, interest rate, conditions and costs" yours to judge, and a written notice to terminate that the seller receives by that date ends the contract. After it, the rate alone stops being a ground the form recognizes. Section 5.2.1 of the current Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate “…this Contract is conditional upon Buyer determining, in Buyer’s sole subjective discretion, whether the proposed New Loan’s payments, interest rate, conditions and costs or any other loan terms (New Loan Terms) are satisfactory to Buyer. This condition is for the sole benefit of Buyer.” The rate is named, and the judgment is yours. What this section gives you is an exit, not a rate. Your lender quotes the rate and your broker explains the form; neither one decides. If you've read that you need a financing contingency with a capped rate to be protected, look at the form first: what national articles call a financing or mortgage contingency is split, on Colorado's form, into separate rights to terminate, among them New Loan Terms and New Loan Availability. The current Commission form prints an interest-rate ceiling in one place: section 4.6, for assuming a seller's existing loan. A new loan's rate rides on section 5.2.1, which already has its own row in the table. A rate cap inside the contract itself would take a provision negotiated into it, and it would give you an exit at a number, not hold the rate; your broker can tell you whether yours has one. Two things decide whether you still have the section 5.2.1 exit. The row has to be dated: under section 3.2, a deadline "left blank or completed with 'N/A', or the word 'Deleted,'" is not applicable, and the provision containing it is deleted. And the notice has to arrive. If you're out of state, count on Colorado's clock: the form's "day" ends at 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time, unless a Time of Day Deadline in the table sets an earlier hour for the Objection, Resolution, Examination and Termination Deadlines it names; whether that row reaches your New Loan Terms Deadline is your broker's read. Under section 24.1, if the notice isn't received by the deadline, the party holding the right "accepts the specified matter, document or condition as satisfactory and waives the Right to Terminate under such provision," and a late notice "is ineffective and does not terminate this Contract." The next loan exit won't hear a complaint about the terms. Section 5.2.2, New Loan Availability, says so: the buyer "does not have a Right to Terminate based on the New Loan Availability if the termination is based on the New Loan Terms…". Whether a higher payment that later stalls your approval counts as a complaint about the terms is a separate question, taken up below. If a timely notice ends the contract, section 24.2 says the earnest money "must be timely returned to Buyer…". Two other sections survive the termination: section 10.4, under which you still pay for inspections and other work you ordered and for any damage or liens that work causes, and section 21, which awards legal fees to the winning side if a dispute reaches arbitration or court. Section 5.2.2, the New Loan Availability paragraph, ends in capitals: "IF SELLER IS NOT IN DEFAULT AND DOES NOT TIMELY RECEIVE BUYER'S WRITTEN NOTICE TO TERMINATE, BUYER'S EARNEST MONEY WILL BE NONREFUNDABLE, except as otherwise provided in this Contract (e.g., Appraisal, Title, Survey)." Whether that sentence reaches your deposit depends on your own dates, which is the question [our guide to when earnest money is actually at risk](https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/colorado-earnest-money-when-at-risk/) answers. For the table's other rows, see [the Colorado contract deadlines guide](https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/colorado-contract-deadlines-boulder/). ## What holds your rate while you're under contract? > **The short version:** A rate lock with your lender, and nothing in the contract: the word "lock" doesn't appear in it. Your evidence is the Rate Lock line at the top of page 1 of your Loan Estimate, which shows whether the rate is locked and the date and time the lock ends. What the contract does do is point you at the document that records a lock: section 4.5.4 notes that "the lender generally must provide Buyer with a Loan Estimate within three days after Buyer completes a loan application." The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says a locked rate won't change "as long as you close within the specified time frame and there are no changes to your application," and lists the usual changes: your loan amount, credit score or verified income, or an appraisal that "came in higher or lower than expected." Without a lock, "it can change at any time." To see which you have, the CFPB's instruction is short: "Check at the top of page 1 of your Loan Estimate to see if your rate is locked, and for how long." Federal disclosure rules require that line to be labeled Rate Lock and, where the rate is locked, to show "the date and time (including the applicable time zone) when that period ends." If you lock after your first Loan Estimate, and before the Closing Disclosure is issued, the lender must send a revised Loan Estimate within three business days. That revised page is your dated record. If you were told on a call that you'd locked and that page hasn't come within three business days, ask your loan officer for it. Freddie Mac adds: "Always get your lock-in agreement in writing." | Where you are | What can end the deal over the rate | What is holding your rate | | ------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Before the New Loan Terms Deadline, if your contract dates that row | A written notice to terminate under section 5.2.1 that the seller receives by the deadline | Your lock, if you have one. If not, nothing: an unlocked rate "can change at any time" | | New Loan Terms row blank or marked N/A | Nothing in section 5.2.1; section 3.2 deletes it | Your lock alone | | After the deadline, lock still in force | Nothing on the rate alone; section 5.2.2 bars a terms complaint under Availability | The lock, until the date and time on your Loan Estimate | | After the deadline, never locked, or lock ended before closing | Nothing on the rate alone | Nobody. The rate can move; if a lock is running out, extending it may cost a fee | | The Closing Date moves | Nothing on the rate alone; a new date needs both signatures | The lock, only if its end date reaches the new Closing Date | ## Why your lock has to outlast the Closing Date > **The short version:** If the lock ends before you close, the rate can move again, and once your New Loan Terms Deadline is behind you, the printed form has no exit for the rate itself. The CFPB's guidance is to make sure your lock agreement "is long enough to cover the time until you close on your loan." Locks, the CFPB says, "are typically available for 30, 45, or 60 days, and sometimes longer." So the date to hold the lock against isn't only the New Loan Terms Deadline. It's the Closing Date, further down the same table. ![True North Boulder infographic titled "Who is holding your rate?" Two tracks run left to right on one timeline marked Under contract, New Loan Terms Deadline, Lock ends and Closing Date. The top track, labelled "What can end the deal over the rate," is a green bar reading "Your contract: an exit, not a rate, §5.2.1" that stops at the New Loan Terms Deadline, followed by a dashed line reading "after the deadline: no exit over the rate alone." The bottom track, labelled "What is holding your rate, the only thing that ever does," is a gold bar reading "Your lender's lock, if you lock," with a faded left edge captioned "starts the day you lock, before the deadline or after it." The bar runs to Lock ends, and a hatched copper segment labelled "Nobody" fills the rest up to the Closing Date. Below, three small bars show three ways into that gap: never locking, the lock ending before closing, and a scheduled closing moving past the lock. True North Boulder, eXp Realty lockup at bottom right.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/7c/ec/7cec6ddd-8aeb-4e8c-923a-e353e04b082d/content/images/2026/10/mortgage-rate-under-contract-colorado-infographic-v3.png) Who is holding your rate? Not your contract. Up to the New Loan Terms Deadline it gives you an exit, not a rate, and only if your contract has a date in that row: under CBS1 §5.2.1, whether the loan's payments, interest rate, conditions and costs are satisfactory is yours to decide, in your "sole subjective discretion," on or before that deadline, and a row left blank or marked N/A deletes this exit (§3.2). After the deadline, the printed form gives no exit over the rate alone, and §5.2.2 keeps a terms complaint out of the New Loan Availability exit. Before it and after it, the only thing holding your rate is your lender's lock, which starts the day you lock. The word "lock" is nowhere in the contract; your record is the Rate Lock line on page 1 of your Loan Estimate, which shows yes or no and the date and time the lock ends. Even locked, a rate "can still change if there are changes in your application" (CFPB). If the lock ends before you close, nobody holds the rate: "If your rate is not locked, it can change at any time" (CFPB). There are three ways into that gap. You never lock: nothing holds the rate at any point, and once the deadline passes the form treats the terms as accepted while the rate is still free to move (§24.1). The lock can end before the Closing Date, because a lock holds only "as long as you close within the specified time frame" (CFPB). Or the Closing Date can move past the lock: a new date needs both parties' signatures (§25), and the Commission's printed amend and extension forms say nothing about a lock or its cost. Read two lines together, the New Loan Terms row in your contract's Dates and Deadlines table and the Rate Lock line on your Loan Estimate, then hold the lock's end against the Closing Date. Whether and when to lock is between you and your loan officer. Sources: CBS1 §§3.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.2, 24.1 and 25 (current Commission form, mandatory January 1, 2026); 12 CFR 1026.37(a)(13); CFPB. Schematic; widths are not durations. General information, not legal, lending or financial advice. As of October 2026. Running out can cost money even when the delay isn't yours. The CFPB warns: "If you don't close before your rate lock expires, even if it's because of the lender's processing time, you might have to pay a fee to extend your rate lock." A late re-price has a second consequence. If the new rate makes the Closing Disclosure's APR inaccurate (as a general rule, off by more than an eighth of a percentage point), you must receive a corrected one at least three business days before you sign, which can leave too few days before the Closing Date. What that does to your contract date is a question for your broker. A purchase that waits on the sale of your current home can run longer than a short lock, and Freddie Mac notes that "usually, a longer lock period will have a higher fee." ## Who pays for the lock when the closing moves? > **The short version:** The printed Commission forms don't say. The two forms used to move a date print nothing about a rate lock or its cost, so any arrangement between you and the seller would be a negotiated term written into the amendment's blank "Additional amendments" line. That negotiation runs through your broker. First, who can move a date. Section 25 says no change to the contract is valid "unless made in writing and signed by the parties," and the Commission's Agreement to Amend/Extend Contract expires "unless accepted in writing by Seller and Buyer as evidenced by their signatures below…". You can't push the New Loan Terms Deadline or the Closing Date out on your own. A lock "may be expensive to extend if your transaction needs more time," the CFPB says, and your Loan Estimate "will not provide you with information about how much it would cost to extend the rate lock." Your lender can quote the price, so ask for it before you sign a new date. The Extension or Termination of Contract form pairs a request to extend with a fallback: if the extension isn't signed and accepted by a date on the form, Part II "serves as" a notice to terminate, and one of the buyer's boxes reads "New Loan Review (§ 5)." How that date must sit against your New Loan Terms Deadline is a reading of two provisions together; take it to your broker before anyone signs. ## When does a higher payment become an underwriting problem? > **The short version:** When it moves your debt-to-income ratio past your lender's line. On a loan run through Fannie Mae's automated underwriting, an interest-rate increase sends the file back when the recalculated ratio now exceeds 45%, or rises 3 percentage points or more while staying at or below 50%. Resubmission isn't a denial. Your debt-to-income ratio, in the CFPB's words, "is all your monthly debt payments divided by your gross monthly income," and a higher rate raises one of those payments. Say you went under contract in early September on an $875,000 home with 20% down, hadn't locked, and were borrowing $700,000 on a 30-year fixed loan. At 6.71%, principal and interest come to $4,521.59 a month. At 7.28%, $4,789.49: $267.90 more, about $38 a month for every $100,000 borrowed. Say your gross income is $15,250 a month and your other monthly debts, with taxes and insurance, total $2,200\. Your ratio goes from 44.08% to 45.83%, past the 45% line at which Fannie Mae's guide requires a file run through its automated underwriting to be resubmitted. About these numbers The loan, the income and the debts are illustrative, not a quote and not anyone’s file; payments are principal and interest only. The rates are Freddie Mac’s survey averages for a 30-year fixed loan on September 3 and October 1, 2026, which measure conforming loans with 20% down, so a jumbo loan or your own credit may price differently. We won’t print a lock or lock-extension price: no primary source we can cite publishes one, and the Loan Estimate itself doesn’t show it. The rule also stops short of a jumbo loan, where the lender and whoever buys the loan, not Fannie Mae, decide what a rate change does to the file. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and their regulator "set a maximum amount for loans that they will buy": for 2026, $879,750 for a one-unit home in Boulder County, with Larimer and Weld at the $832,750 baseline. At 20% down in Boulder County the line falls at a price of about $1.1 million, so a purchase across [Boulder's three neighborhood price tiers](https://truenorthboulder.com/boulder/living-in-boulder/) can land on either side of it, and above it, the CFPB notes, "the cost of obtaining a jumbo mortgage may be higher than the cost of obtaining a conforming mortgage." Here the contract stops answering. If a higher rate is why the loan stops working, is that a New Loan Terms matter, which section 5.2.2 bars from the Availability exit, or a New Loan Availability matter, which the form ties to "the lender's review and underwriting of Buyer's New Loan Application"? Which one governs isn't something a general guide can settle. Get the facts first, and before your New Loan Terms Deadline if it's still ahead: ask your loan officer whether the new payment changed your file's approval, and ask for the reply by email. Then take that answer and your contract to your broker or a Colorado attorney. ## Selling while you buy? Your buyer may hold the same rate exit If you're selling your current home to buy the next one, run the same check on the sale. A buyer financing with a new loan holds the same section 5.2.1 right on your sale, on or before the New Loan Terms Deadline in your sale contract, if that contract dates the row, and a separate New Loan Availability right to its own date in the same table. After a 0.57-point rise in four weeks, the New Loan Terms row can be live on both contracts at once. On your sale, as on your purchase, the form leaves the judgment on the loan's terms to the buyer alone, and it reads the same on every offer. And if you ask your buyer to move their closing, their lock may need extending too; who bears that is negotiated. How the two contracts' dates chain together, and what happens when the appraisal on the house you're selling comes in short, are in [our guide to a low appraisal when you're selling and buying](https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/appraisal-gap-move-up-boulder/). ## Read your Rate Lock line before the New Loan Terms Deadline passes Set those two lines side by side: your contract's New Loan Terms row and your Loan Estimate's Rate Lock line. Is there a lock, and when does it end? If there isn't one when the New Loan Terms Deadline passes, the form treats the terms as accepted while the rate is still free to move. If there is, set that end date beside the Closing Date in the same table. A lock that ends on the Closing Date itself covers it only if nothing moves. If the lock ends first, nothing's holding your rate across that gap. Whatever the line says, four of the CFPB's own questions for a lender fit this moment: - “What rate lock time frame does this Loan Estimate provide?” - “Is a shorter or longer rate lock available, and at what cost?” - “What if my closing is delayed and the rate lock expires?” - “If I lock my rate, are there any conditions under which my rate could still change?” Whether and when to lock is between you and your loan officer. What the contract lets you do with what you find is your broker's read, and the decision under section 5.2.1 remains yours. If your loan's still in underwriting, [our guide to buying a home in Boulder County](https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/buying-a-home-in-boulder-county/) names what else has to clear before closing, from your lender's final loan conditions to title insurance. *This page is general information, not legal, lending, or financial advice; confirm loan terms with your lender and contract questions with your broker or a Colorado attorney.* Common questions ## Frequently asked Can I back out of a Colorado home purchase if mortgage rates go up?+ On the current Commission form, yes, on or before the New Loan Terms Deadline, if your contract has a date in that row. Section 5.2.1 leaves the loan's payments, interest rate, conditions and costs to your judgment, and a written notice to terminate that the seller receives by that date ends the contract, and section 24.2 then says the earnest money must be timely returned to you; your obligations under two other sections survive: paying for inspection work you ordered, and legal fees if you lose a dispute that reaches arbitration or court. A blank or N/A row deletes the provision, and after the date a late notice is ineffective. Do I lose my earnest money if my rate goes up after the New Loan Terms Deadline?+ The form answers with conditions, not a yes or a no. Its earnest-money sentence closes the New Loan Availability provision, not the New Loan Terms one: if the seller is not in default and does not timely receive your written notice to terminate, your earnest money will be nonrefundable, except as otherwise provided in the contract, for example for appraisal, title or survey. Whether another right still applies turns on your own dates and facts, which is your broker's or a Colorado attorney's read. What does Rate Lock on my Loan Estimate mean?+ It's the line at the top of page 1 that says whether your interest rate is locked and, if it is, the date and time, time zone included, when the lock ends. If it says no, the rate can change at any time. If you lock later, and before your Closing Disclosure is issued, your lender must send a revised Loan Estimate within three business days. What happens if my rate lock expires before closing?+ The rate can move, and past your New Loan Terms Deadline the printed form doesn't give you an exit on the rate itself. The CFPB says you might have to pay a fee to extend it, even if the delay is the lender's processing time. A re-price that makes the Closing Disclosure's APR inaccurate also means a corrected one at least three business days before you sign; what that does to your Closing Date is your broker's to read. Who pays to extend a rate lock when the closing is delayed?+ The Commission's printed forms don't say. The two forms used to move a date print nothing about a rate lock or its cost, so any arrangement between you and the seller would be negotiated and written into the amendment, and your Loan Estimate won't show the price; your lender can. Who bears it is a point your broker negotiates, not one the form decides. Sources & notes - **The contract.** Colorado Real Estate Commission, [Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate (Residential)](https://dre.colorado.gov/real-estate-broker-contracts-and-forms?ref=truenorthboulder.com), form CBS1, adoption date August 5, 2025, mandatory use January 1, 2026\. Quoted: § 5.2.1 *New Loan Terms*; § 5.2.2 *New Loan Availability*, including its closing sentence in capitals; § 3.2 *Applicability of Terms*; § 24.1 *Right to Terminate*; § 24.2 *Effect of Termination* (earnest money returned on termination, with §§ 10.4 and 21 surviving); § 3.3.1 *Day* (11:59 p.m. Mountain Time; a Time of Day Deadline, if set, governs the Objection, Resolution, Examination and Termination Deadlines); § 25 (modification in writing, signed by the parties); § 4.5.4 *Loan Estimate – Monthly Payment and Loan Costs* (which says “three days”). § 4.6 *Assumption* is the only interest-rate ceiling printed in the form. The word “lock” does not appear in the form’s text. The Division’s forms page lists the Commission forms for use on and after January 1, 2027; the residential contract is not on either 2027 list. Section numbers change between editions, which is why this page names each provision. - **Moving a date.** Same Commission, Agreement to Amend/Extend Contract (AE41) and Extension or Termination of Contract (ET35, adoption date August 5, 2025, mandatory for use after January 1, 2026). Neither form’s printed text mentions a rate lock, an extension of one, or its cost. Quoted: AE41’s acceptance line and its “Additional amendments” line; ET35 § 4 and the buyer’s “New Loan Review (§ 5)” box. The Division’s forms pages refuse automated retrieval; the texts quoted here were read from the Division’s PDFs retrieved with a browser user agent. - **What a lock is, and its limits.** Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, [What’s a lock-in or a rate lock on a mortgage?](https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/whats-a-lock-in-or-a-rate-lock-en-143/?ref=truenorthboulder.com) (last reviewed May 2, 2023): the definition, the 30-, 45- or 60-day range, the reasons a locked rate can change, the six questions, the guidance on lock length, and the note that the Loan Estimate does not show extension cost. CFPB, “Choose a loan offer” (Owning a Home, updated December 12, 2024), for the line on lender processing time. CFPB, “What is a debt-to-income ratio?” (last reviewed August 28, 2023), and “What is a jumbo loan?” (last reviewed January 12, 2024, quoted for its definition and its cost sentence; its printed loan limits are out of date). - **The Rate Lock line and the disclosure timing.** Regulation Z, 12 CFR 1026.37(a)(13) (the Rate Lock statement on the Loan Estimate) and the CFPB’s model form H-24(G); 12 CFR 1026.19(e)(3)(iv)(D) and (e)(4)(ii) (a revised Loan Estimate within three business days of a lock, not on or after the Closing Disclosure is provided); 12 CFR 1026.19(f)(1)(ii)(A) and (f)(2)(ii) with 1026.22(a)(2) (a corrected Closing Disclosure and a new three-business-day wait when the APR becomes inaccurate; one-eighth of a percentage point is the general rule, and the section has further tests). Read on eCFR, point in time September 1, 2026. - **Lock agreements and lock length.** My Home by Freddie Mac, “Why You Should Consider a Rate Lock-In” (last reviewed May 21, 2026). - **Rates.** Freddie Mac, [Primary Mortgage Market Survey](https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms?ref=truenorthboulder.com), 30-year fixed: 6.71% (September 3, 2026), 7.28% (October 1, 2026) and 7.40% (October 8, 2026); the worked example uses the September 3 and October 1 readings. Per Freddie Mac’s methodology page, a national average of conventional, conforming purchase loans for borrowers with good to excellent credit and 20% down. - **Underwriting.** Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-2-10, *Accuracy of DU Data, DU Tolerances, and Errors in the Credit Report* (dated December 4, 2019): an interest-rate increase, on a DU loan, requires resubmission to DU when the recalculated DTI now exceeds 45%, or increases by 3 percentage points or more if the recalculated DTI is 50% or less. - **Loan limits.** Federal Housing Finance Agency, 2026 conforming loan limits (announced November 25, 2025): $879,750 for a one-unit home in Boulder County; Larimer and Weld counties at the $832,750 baseline. - **The illustration.** A $700,000 loan on an $875,000 purchase, 30-year fixed, principal and interest by standard amortisation: $4,521.59 at 6.71% and $4,789.49 at 7.28%. Debt-to-income on illustrative gross income of $15,250 a month and $2,200 of other monthly obligations: 44.08% and 45.83%. Not a quote and not a qualification. - **Deliberately out of scope.** Whether a buyer should terminate, lock, wait, or add any provision to a contract; whether a rate-driven underwriting failure is a New Loan Terms or a New Loan Availability matter; who should pay for a lock extension; any lock or extension price. Those are questions for your lender, your broker, or a Colorado attorney.