No More Perfect Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 I am curious as to how much people actually put down on their homes? I know there are so many variables and I'd love to hear those, as well. We are hoping to be first-time home buyers at some point but honestly, I am unsure as to whether or not we will ever have enough for down payment. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whereneverever Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Our first home we had a first time homebuyer loan. We put 5% down. We are in the process of buying again and will be pittmg about 15% down. On a conventional mortgage if you put less then 20% down you have to pay pmi. Once you pay 20% of the principal that drops off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bettyandbob Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 we put down enough to not pay PMI on our first home. I think we put down more on our second home--that was 15 years ago Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 20% Purchased on a 10 year, will be paid off in October...3 years early. No PMI due to the larger downpayment and actually, for whateve reason, our homeowner's insurance premium was also lower due to the downpayment. Faith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joker Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 We have a VA loan and put zero down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 First home we put down about 10%. This home we put down about 30% because our CA house brought us some equity and we used almost all of it towards the purchase of this house in NC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama Geek Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Our last home we put down 5% because we had an 80 15 5 loan. The current house we bought outright, it was a foreclosure and it was much less than our last house and in a much different area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynn Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 I don't know if mortgage rules have changed but it use to be that you had to pay PMI in addition to your mortgage payment if you did not put down 20% or it was your responsibility to know when you had 20% of your loan paid off and to call the mortgage company and have PMI taken off and it was not an easy thing to do. I may be wrong but this is how it was explained to us so we always put down over 20% Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 I likely scewed the results as we paid cash outright for our new house. We thought got bought out by the state to put a highway through our last house which was paid off. I think we only put $500 down on our last house and assumed the mortgage. It was an FmHA house so payments were based on our income........but initial interest was 8% back 20 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 I likely scewed the results as we paid cash outright for our new house. We thought got bought out by the state to put a highway through our last house which was paid off. I think we only put $500 down on our last house and assumed the mortgage. It was an FmHA house so payments were based on our income........but initial interest was 8% back 20 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UrbanSue Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 We borrowed an 8% down payment from family. We used a local urban homeowner's program and didn't have to have pmi. I know we're really fortunate, there. We kind of had to buy in an emergency and I would much rather have paid 20% down but we are repaying the entire down payment as well as a good bit of student loan and car debt over the first five years of owning our house (two years in, now) so we're doing well. We don't know if this is our last house and I'm looking forward to having more potential buying power once our debt is gone. ETA: we also had closing costs half covered by the seller. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama Geek Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 The 80-15-5 loan didn't require us to pay PMI. It was 2 loans, 1 was 80%, 1 was 15% and 5% down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tita Gidge Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Our first home was gifted to us, so we put 0% down. :thumbup: Instead we put 25% down on an investment property, taking advantage of our situation at the time (dual-income, pre-kids, no house pymt.) It paid off, in spades. I recently took a temporary work assignment in another state. It's long enough (and in a good enough market) that I decided to buy instead of rent. I used a VA loan, paid the lending fee upfront, and put 0% down. Then I began looking for a local investment property. I'm actively looking for the right one, and will have 20% to put down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pippen Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 42%. Those were back in our two income no kids days. No way that we could do that now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 First house we were under 20%, but I can't remember how much exactly. We were probably between 15% and 20%. I know that when we had owned the house 1 year we paid to have it appraised and it had gone up in value enough that we were at 20% and could drop PMI (real estate was booming then). When we bought this house we put it the proceeds from the first. Again, I don't remember details but it was probably more like 40% by then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retiredHSmom Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 We put down 37%. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ailysh Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 We put down 0% and our selller paid closing costs. That was in 2006 before the market dropped. Our home value went wayyyy down. But thankfully we bought well within our means and didn't do any fancy financing. Just a straight up conventional 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 7.1% with pmi. We had to pay pmi until we had 20% equity. We refinanced last year for a 15 year fixed rate at 3% with no pmi. We should have it paid off in the next couple of years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeannie in NJ Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 we had received $50,000 from my mom's life insurance. We used $11,000 to adopt our first child and put the rest on the house so put $39,000 down on a $170,000 house.Could not have done either one without this money. We felt this was a last gift from my mom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrissiK Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 This is our second home. We put about 40% down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinder Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 About 1/3 down. Our first house, though, was a 0 down VA loan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seasider Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Most recently, about 45%. But our first house? Five per cent. We had an FHA loan and tons of paperwork to sign at closing. It was a stretch but we made it work. Soon afterwards we sold it for about 20% above what we paid for it, so we put 10% down on the next one. It's nice to get above 20% equity because you can drop out of paying MPI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 When we bought at the end of '09, we were unable to find a lender willing to do <20% on the mortgage size we needed. We did a re-fi last fall and to get approval for the lowest rate, we had to bump up our equity stake to 30% of the then-appraised value. Fortunately we had the savings to do that, and given that the re-fi knocked off $500/mo. from our mortgage payment, it was only about a 2 year period before we'd start coming out ahead. Now that prices are rising again, it may be easier to find lenders willing to do a <20% loan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparkle Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 0% down when we bought and we didn't have to pay PMI either. We got a nice loan. Of course, now it's even better that we refinanced to a lower rate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostSurprise Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 We bought our house in 2000. We put 6-8% down (from dh's sign on bonus) on a 5 year ARM mortgage. That particular loan meant we didn't need PMI insurance and we refinanced before the end of the 5 year locked rate changed. At that point we had more than 20% down so we got a fixed 15 year loan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Excelsior! Academy Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 We put down 20%. Our first loan was 184. Our refi is conventional with equity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amber in SJ Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 It really does depend on where you live. Around here almost no one (barring lottery winners) can make the recommended 20% down payment. My neighbor just sold their little, 1200 sq ft, "first house" home for 659K ($50K more than their asking price.) How would anyone in the buying their first house position have 20%? That said we saved 5%, borrowed 5% from hubby's 401K to put down 10%. Our dual income, no kids years were spent paying off student loans that we had to take to get through school. We recently refinanced to a 15-yr/2.75% that will be paid off soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan in TN Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 We put 20% down on our first and second homes. We saved for quite a while for the first one (although once we were out of debt, the saving went much quicker). On our next home we put 20% down from the sale of our first home. Home prices in my area are very reasonable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyThreeSons Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 We had a bunch of equity from our house in CA. We paid cash for this house when we bought it -- the biggest check I've ever written, LOL. It was the quickest way to close on it. Shortly afterward, though, we took out a small mortgage to pay off the credit cards, which we had used to buy two vehicles when we moved here. Backwards, but it worked for us. In essence, our mortgage was only about 15% of the purchase price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Element Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 We are currently looking to buy and our CU requires 5% down. We will probably be putting 11-15% down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 20_30% Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 Spam by Martha639 reported Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 OTHER where is the other??? We didn't put anything down on our home, because we didn't have a home. we had land, and camped on it for a year while we saved up and built a very small cottage by ourselves. We then added to the cottage as we could afford it. example: we lived without electricity for 3 years. Slowly and surely have build a beautiful palace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 When we were first time home buyers (2006), we put $0 down, and got a 6% interest rate (which was great at the time), 30 year loan - FHA program for first time buyers. This time around, we put 3.5% down (30 year loan and got a 3.25% interest rate, which is awesome)... still FHA, but since we were not first time home buyers, we had to put something down. With FHA, you have PMI, so that is the trade-off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erin Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 We paid cash for our current house, too. Of course, ours was only $500, so most people could have paid cash. ;) However, we're paying cash as we go on the new house, too. It's nearly dried in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
planner Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 We put 23% down on our first house. The house we are in now we put 64% down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 We paid cash for our current house, too. Of course, ours was only $500, so most people could have paid cash. ;) However, we're paying cash as we go on the new house, too. It's nearly dried in. How'd you get a house for $500? :w00t: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erin Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 It's an older, single-wide trailer house. It's still in perfectly good shape, but it's dated. ...And SMALL. However, we bought it with the intention of being temporary while the new house is built, so it's working. :) Besides, it was $500! lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mona100 Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 I just bought a townhouse last month. I have a first time homeowner's FHA loan that required a 3% down payment but my state has a program were it will pay 2.5% of the down payment for youas a 2nd mortgage only a period of ten years. I went into closing expecting to write a check for less than $200 but for whatever reason got a check written to me for $77. They explained it to me but I still didn't get how that happened and the lender said she had only worked with this program for a short time. I told her if it comes back that I needed to pay back the $77 you know where to find me. I also had the seller pay all closing costs but I had to agree to go up $2000 in the asking price. I am also paying PMI. Even with all the extra costs (PMI, 2nd mortgage), it is cheaper than the rent I was paying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarlett Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 Paid cash. I would not buy a house if my payment was more than 25 % of our net income or longer than 15 years. I hope to never have a mortgage again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom2OandE Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 5 percent down, seller paid closing costs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No More Perfect Posted June 15, 2013 Author Share Posted June 15, 2013 Thanks for all the answers and replies. I've learned quite a bit! Can I just say that first-time home buying is one of the scariest things I have ever considered?! LOL :scared: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erin Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 Buy a $500 trailer house. It'll take all the fear away. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No More Perfect Posted June 15, 2013 Author Share Posted June 15, 2013 Buy a $500 trailer house. It'll take all the fear away. ;) Hehe, yeah, I imagine that would. :laugh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoot Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 We put down 30%. It was a good thing, our home was 100% paid off in our very early 30's. According to DH, we will live here until we die unless a lot of property falls in our laps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venia Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 0% down through the USDA Rural Development Program, but we covered closing costs. There is no "PMI", but there is a pretty small annual fee that is rolled into the monthly payments. I should add that this is our first home buying experience. It was a very stressful and frightening experience, but we would not change a thing. We love owning our own home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrixieB Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 20% down on my first home. 10% down on dh & my home. A year or so later the property values jumped so we refinanced to get rid of the PMI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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