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We don't really assign our savings to specific things, but I would not feel comfortble buying a house if I didn't have at least six months of living expenses left in savings AFTER all the up front costs have been paid (down payment, furniture, lawn care items, etc).

Maybe a couple thousand? Our savings was mainly our down payment and escrow money.

Most people on HB wouldn't do it that way. We only put 3% down on our house and bought a very modest home that we could make payments on with just one salary. Since we both work, our savings has come up significantly and we have bit more now.

We choose the amount of our down payment to leave us with about $15,000 in our savings, in case something went horribly wrong with the furnace/roof (I was paranoid about that, even though our inspection guy said they both looked fine - it was the most expensive repair I could imagine.) I think the only thing unexpected expense that first year was the refrigerator going out (which we would have replaced eventually anyway since it was clearly older and didn't match the other appliances in the kitchen.)

I'll be honest, we didn't have much, maybe 10k or so in savings. Real estate in our area had gotten so hot that we had to go above our original budget to get any house at all, which meant we put more into the down payment than we originally budgeted. That being said, we both had good, very stable jobs and we also knew that my dad had money to lend us if need be. We didn't have kids at that point or other major expenses so we figured we'd be ok. As it turned out, we had a plumbing issue pop up literally the day after we moved in, so I don't really suggest doing what we did. The next time, we will have more in savings before we move.

@MaryM: your situation was the same as mine, when I bought my townhouse before I met DH. I also had very little leftover after downpayment, but I knew I had $8000 coming my way for the first time homebuyer's credit.

I ended up sitting on that cash until I rented out the other room, and then once I had more cash flow, I used a biiig chunk of that money on nice furniture. No big housing emergencies until this year, 5 years later.

DH is much more responsible though. When he bought his (our) first condo, he put 25% down, but still has enough in savings and investments to cover a year of him being unemployed.

@cmomma17: next to nothing. I was 18 and totally naive. Thankfully nothing catastrophic happened!

Not a penny! We emptied everything out to buy our house.

We haven't bought anything yet, but are looking to do so towards the end of summer/early fall. We won't have much leftover, maybe a couple thousand, and will plan to do projects as needed. We're looking at the sweet spot of not buying a total fixer, but not something completely updated and move-in ready, either. I can deal with old appliances, a run-down yard, and all that fun stuff until we have the money to take care of it. We're not looking for anything huge--2 bedrooms is enough for us since we don't have children yet, but plan to sooner rather than later. We'll probably only do 3% down, but our credit union has some no down-payment offers as well--we'll just have to see what works for us.

We try not to think in larger than 5-year increments, and for the next 5-years we really only need something modest. We're lucky that we live in a city with a relatively low cost-of -living. Don't feel bad if you don't have gajillions of dollars leftover after buying a home. I'll at least be there with you

We had none!

We don't really specify funds but we like to keep an 8 month emergency fund in our savings.

Not much! Most of our money went into the down payment and paying closing costs. But we negotiated some things based on the home inspection and our house was fairly newish (6 years old), so we felt comfortable with it.

I think it all depends on the house (condition) and other savings you may have. We had some other funds we could dip into and at the time we bought we didn't have a lot of our income tied up in other bills. Our house had a 1 yr warrantee with it so that helped for peace of mind.

My first place, none. But I was 21 years old. I think it should be an amount you are comfortable with in case something happens. I think they say 6 months living expenses.

Nada! We had a line of credit if we needed it but we got married and bought a house in the span of 6 months so we were broke.

After buying our house, furnishing it, and setting up everything in a new country, we were left with £25K in the bank (about $40K in US dollars). It's not specifically earmarked for anything, it's just there for whatever costs may come up. We didn't buy our first home until later in life though (in our 30s) as we were moving around a lot with DH's work and weren't ready to commit to a place long term before then.

We are about to close on our first house. We aren't really super concerned about having a house-specific emergency fund - but we tend to live extremely frugally and our monthly budget isn't really going to change as a result of buying a home. We bought a modest house that we can float on one income. With the mortgage tax deduction its the same or cheaper than our current rental (which was also a modest place), and we have no debt other than our student loans, which we overpay on every month. We have a one year home warranty, we bought a house from the original owners that was impeccably cared for, the HVAC was replaced 2 years ago, and we're 17 years into a 40 year roof, so chances are that whatever might pop up isn't going to be insane. We need to do some minor renovations (paint, fixtures, bathroom counters, tile, etc.) and need to buy a washer, dryer, and fridge, but we're going to do that all in cash. We've been buying good furniture one piece at a time since we got married, so I don't think we'll need anything new other than a patio set, which isn't urgent.

We generally keep a $2000 cushion in our checking account at all times because that's what a "bad" car repair might be on our Jeep, so we'll probably keep something similar to that for the house. The plan is the replace the old stove, dishwasher, and microwave over the next year as money comes in, but if one of those things craps out, it wont be that bad to replace.