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5% down. Couldn't afford 20% but it was time for us to purchase and we were happy regardless of PMI. No regrets.
Pro
Same for me!
10%....my PMI was 70 a month, but ended up paying more toward principal and in 2 years dropped PMI. Just run #’s in diff scenarios and see what you’re comfortable with. I had no regrets. Just did the same on my 2nd place
Rising Star
3% because I'm an auditor and poor as fck. I would recommend 20% if you can to avoid mortgage insurance.
Make sure you put enough down to avoid PMI.
you can also refinance to get rid of the PMI once you have enough equity. even if rates increase, it could be worth it if the PMI is high.
20%
I put down 5% and wrapped PMI into my interest rate so I have a higher mortgage interest rate as a result. However, I'm almost at 20% now and plan to refinance soon since the interest rates are so low (and hopefully will be at 20% to remove PMI altogether). Just saying that you can avoid PMI with a higher interest rate - they're so low now that it would still probably be competitive.
Enthusiast
I did this as well!! I opted for a 4% interest and paid an extra $225 a month to principle. When I refinanced 18 months later my LTV was 74% and no PMI and 3.5% interest 💃🏼
We put down 12% and got PMI, which is really not very high. We could have done 15% with no PMI but wanted to have extra cash in the bank given the current situation and are okay with paying a bit extra for that cushion. With appreciation of the property/prepayment when we get a chance, we expect to not pay it for more than 2 years. We live in an area where properties are really expensive and it would have taken a couple of more years until we would get to comfortably pay 20% + closing costs and have money left over. So no regrets at all!
I put down 20% but, I would suggest that you focus on making sure you are comfortable with the monthly payments and that you will still have an emergency fund after you buy rather then the % you put down.
Lol I put down 3.5%. 10% sounds like a dream
Pro
Yes I am sure this is a common question on here but couldn’t find a similar post. If you know of one please share it!
https://www.kitces.com/blog/eliminating-private-mortgage-insurance-pmi-principal-preayment-downpayment-80-ltv/
TLDR: generally speaking, you’re better off putting down as little as possible and taking that capital and investing it. Your ROI on the extra down payment to avoid PMI is low, especially considering you can get out of PMI via refi after a few years depending on appreciation
20%
Whoops, I meant to put this under my 20% response lol
I put 6% down but could’ve done 15%. PMI wasn’t a big deal to me and I wanted to do some renovations ASAP. Rather take the cheap money from the bank over 30yrs than need to take out a personal loan for renovations.
Pro
With rates so low right now just lock in. With them being so low it’s shaving off a lot of interest in your monthly payment right now that usually requires a ton more down. We’re getting in at only 3% because it’s what we got. I don’t think I’d do more unless I had 20% down but I def wouldn’t be able to have that for a while
If you find a great value near the top of your price point don’t be afraid if you’re under 20% down. If it’s a great value you likely have high upside come time to sell.
Otherwise if it’s a home you are confident would be your forever/long-term home, I wouldn’t be too worried if I was under 20% (going to stay there a while, salary should continue to go up to allow you to pay more than required each month to kill PMI, etc)
Personally put 10% down on my first place to buy a foreclosure at the top of my budget. I sold a little over 3 years later for over 40% more than I bought it for.
Enthusiast
Nope! I think we put 5% down and now we are just putting a little more down on our payments
Rising Star
20% down, no PMI. Finding that the higher down payment is resulting in fewer problems now that I want to refinance
Just had this conversation with my spouse. We still are paying PMI 2.5 years after buying our house and though it is a lot and adds up. We are still happy that we bought when we did with what we could put down and that we had money to furnish the house how we wanted instead of putting extra down. It’s up to you and what’s best for you. There is no wrong answer.
Rising Star
Same... my pmi is almost 300 per month so it's quite a bit.
Always try for 20%
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30%