Hellobee Boards

We put down 15% and would have put down 20% I'd we has had the cash. With 20% we could have gotten an even netter rate than we got. I agree with Ksnow though, with interest rates where they ate, no need to tie up 50% (unless you really have the cash to spare).

We wanted to make the monthly payments about equivalent to what we had been paying in rent and in order for that to happen we put down 40%. We live in New York so it's very expensive. The majority of our monthly payments is made up of the property tax amount so that kinda stinks.

You guys are killing me, haha. We put down 3.5%. With conventional loans, I believe you need to put down at least 10%. Once you hit 20%, you don't have to pay PMI anymore. We got an FHA loan, which allowed us to just put down 3.5%.

I think 20% is a fantastic down payment. If you can comfortably put down 50%, there's also nothing wrong with that, but it's really not necessary. However, I'd definitely recommend putting 20% down, and then keeping the rest as a buffer in your savings. From what I know, the higher your down payment, the better interest rate you can get....but I'm not sure it would improve much after hitting 20%.

As for us. Hubby put around 20% down on our current home, and we have a 15 year mortgage. I have to say, if you can afford it, it's an amazing thing to know we'll have our mortgage and heloc paid in full sometime between age 35-40. On our investment property, we're putting down 20% again, but really just because all the banks require it

We put down zero percent, because we were young and had hardly any savings, but this was almost 5 years ago. My how things have changed in the housing market! Although at least we were smart enough to get a 30 yr fixed and not some crazy ARM.

We put down 20% so that we would have some money for renovations. It depends on your financial situation, but it may be good to talk to a financial adviser before deciding. We have a few friends who are advisers by profession so it was free. Also, you can usually go on finance advice sites like Charles Schwaab or Fidelity for some general tips.

We put down 0%...The area we bought in was doing incentives to get people to move there. The sellers paid the closing costs and we took ownership of the house a month before they moved out. So, they paid us rent for a month.

So, we actually made money when we bought our house.

We hope to put down 10%. I think it depends on where you live- there is NO way we could afford 50% where we live. I think 20% is the perfect amount.

@Looch,

Its great you are thinking of these things! We’ve had several friends/cousins get in trouble because they spent all their savings on a home (or purchased where they could afford to make the mortgage, but not make mortgage + save each month), and get into trouble with the home repairs you describe.

What we do, which might work for you, is we have a separate bank account just for the home. We put about $3k in it to start, and then we deposit a set amount from our paychecks each month, so there is always a cushion of money that is strictly for the house. If something big were to come up, we know we have money set aside specifically for that issue, and don’t have to worry about how to come up with the $, or worry about wiping out other savings.

Good luck with your search!

Totally know what you mean, I would not want all/almost all my money tied into my home. I guess you guys just have to find the happy medium between 20% and 50% - or find a way for that extra 30% your husband wants to put down to make additional interest, so it makes financial sense not to dump it into the home via the downpayment!

We put down 5% I think, Plus closing costs and everything, it added up to one pretty penny! But now we're screwed paying PMI until we get to around 22% equity.