Curious About Down Payment

We're not ready to buy a house just yet, but I was wondering whether it's always better to put a larger down payment on a house. If you can afford somewhere between 10 and 20% for a down payment, is it better to put down 10% and have a decent amount of $ in the bank or is it better to use a lot of your savings to put down 15-20%?

Re: Curious About Down Payment

various factors go into down payment.

1. what is your mortage company gonna give ya and how much is it going to be.

2. how much does the owner want to hold the property?

3. how much can you afford?

4. do you want to furnish your new home with new stuff?


For us, we tried to put the least amount of cash down so we can keep some of our savings and furnish the home.

Don't fall into the trap that you have to put money down as many people do 90 - 100 % financeing....

Re: Curious About Down Payment

I think it's really a personal choice. It depends on too many factors - all of which have to work for the both of you.

Do you want to pay PMI or take out another loan (piggyback)?

A lot of sellers want the buyer who is going to put the most $$ down...so factor that in when it comes down to a house that you really love.

You don't need to furnish your house right away...but you should have $$ in the bank to fall back on, imo.

Since you're not ready to buy just yet, I would just bank as much money now that you possibly can so that you have a few options once the time comes.

Re: Curious About Down Payment

You should ALWAYS put down as much money as you can on your house.

The more you put down = the less interest you pay = the more money you save in the end.

If you are worried about having an emergency fund... immediately open a HELOC after you close. Once the HELOC is opened... you can pull money from it whenever you want regardless of your financial condition (you don't have to be employed to pull from your HELOC).

Re: Curious About Down Payment

Re: Curious About Down Payment

Re: Curious About Down Payment

Thank you djpill!

Re: Curious About Down Payment

It was importatnt to us to put down enough to avoid PMI. Since I'm expecting, we knew we'd need a little extra cash in hand to furnish a nursery in addition to the rest of the house. We plan to pay more on the mortgage every month as well.

Re: Curious About Down Payment

For us....we want to put down as much down as we possibly can. FOr us low mortgage payments and NO PMI was top priority.

But we do have a separate saving account that allows us to feel comfortable in that if something major was to happen we can cover ourselves.