I always believed in 50% Down and that's how I bought my home

Reason I did it (20% down) was to save me from having to pay Mortgage Insurance, for those that don't know what that is, check out your mortgage details...as for me, I have always done it right and legal and at 56 years old born in 56 and 13 is my number, I no longer will work for tha man again. I can do it and WILL !!

It's definitely the way to go if you have the money for it, but if you don't it's not the end of the world.

We didn't... and if I had to go back? I would have. Not only are you stuck paying PMI until your loan matures, but you are also paying interest on that money for 30 years. I would have gone back to work for the soul suckers for a year and socked all of that into a down payment. It was a good time to buy, we got a great rate, nice house, etc. but we could have done better with more planning.

We put down 10%, and paid PMI for a few years.

10% down and are paying PMI for a while, but with low interest rates we won't be paying all that long (and maybe, just maybe, this house will go up in value vs the one we bought in 2006 and had to sell in 2012)

10% was all we could muster, but we're done with PMI now and living fine!

we put down less than 10%, but we put our extra cash into the house, It needed a new roof(gambrel style on a 3000 sqf house), chimney and gutters. In the grand scheme of things I think the new roof was a good investment.

We put almost 80% down. We moved from CO to NC so it was easy-peasy

10%, in 2006. Biggest mistake I ever made. I need to pull out my SCUBA gear every time I pay my mortgage.

I paid cash for my home.

30% and went with a 15 year mortgage because it was $100 a month more and a whole lot less in interest.

I BOUGHT MY OWN LAND & WAS MY OWN CONTRACTOR WHEN BUILDING MY HOME. TOOK OUT A BUILDING LOAN,SO THERE WAS NO MONEY NEEDED TO PUT DOWN.

10% was all I could afford when a place that was perfect in many ways became available, along with some other changes that made it a good decision to buy even with PMI.

Had the country's financial problems not occured, I'd likely have been able to appraise out of the PMI after three to four years. Instead, I refinanced and now my payment with PMI is less than my payment alone before, and no additional years of PMI were added.

I am very much looking forward to NOT paying PMI though, especially since it will coincide with one less tuition payment. Once that graduation party is paid for, it will almost be like having won a small lottery.

As above, no mortgage insurance. But had sold previous house and had the cash. Next home will be 100% down, no mortgage.

No down payment. I built my first home myself, borrowed the money through an equity loan against my parents house. When I finished, I took out a refinance mortgage to pay off previous loan off.

We got a VA loan for 100% financing and no PMI. I'm glad we did because the money we would have had to put in as a down payment allowed us to update the house and give us equity.

Could not have put 20% down in a million years.

We bought the land live in a trailer. When it was all paid off we built a basement house. The we got an inheritance and built the upper house. It wasn't bad doing it in stages, now it's all paid for.

I bought mine outright, so I guess that's 100% down. After inheriting my mom's mortgage and fighting with them over paying it off, I didn't want to deal with that again. :-(

I put like 2% down, but in 94. I Was able to finance privately, so no PMI. You cant buy stock if you dont have funds available for a margin call... same with a house. It's stock. You have to invest cash and cant trust in the values maintaining now.

People who bought at the height of the market say they got screwed, but if you were not trying to sell the house after the crash, the decrease in value meant nothing. If you took and ARM, you got what you asked for. A house you could not afford the payment on to start with.

In your group of answer choices your second one shoull have read, ..thank God... rather than ..thank god...

Thankfully, my mother-in-law bought our house outright for us. She was a wonderful m-i-l and I still miss her everyday

Charlie, don't derail the conversation. That's sacra-woot-less.

I was lucky enough to have a VA loan (no PMI) and smart enough to only buy a house that was at or below my means in '06. Since then, I have paid down the mortgage at least past 20% anyway just out of principle....the thought of those greedy bankers reaping thousands of dollars from my children's potential college fund! (I don't have kids yet).

TMI?

We inherited the old thing and are hoping to build a new one.

I would have loved to have been able to put down 20%, but I was just 2 years out of college with $50k in student loans, so minimum was all I could afford (I think 5% or 6%).

I assumed someone's mortgege and they paid all the expences.

I owned the ground that I build the house on, so I used the ground as collateral so I didn't need to put down 20% and I didn't need to pay PMI.

charliecarroll wrote:In your group of answer choices your second one shoull have read, ..thank God... rather than ..thank god...

Your God is another mans god. And yet another mans waste of time...

For those who are currently paying PMI: Check your PMI rules now, and your mortgage balance every time you pay. In most cases, when the amount you owe falls below the PMI requirement amount you can drop the PMI.

Also, putting a bit extra toward the principal each month can make a big change in how quickly you pay off your mortgage, or in how long you have to pay PMI.

Also also, when you figure your house-buying budget, plan to put an additional 1% of the purchase price each year (divided monthly or paycheckly or whatever) into an interest-bearing account as your repairs and upkeep fund. That way, when you need a new water heater or roof or so on sooner or later, you're part or all of the way there already.

House #1, assumed a mortgage and paid nothing down (only way we could have bought at that time).
House #2, we put down 20% to avoid PMI
House #3, put down 3% (FHA) and spent a good chunk in fixing up. Refi for that same house, 0% down (VA), 15-year note. The goal is to have no mortgage payment by the time we both retire.

10% down but no PMI through my credit union, and only $520 in origination charges from the CU. It was fantastic dealing with the CU; they only do about 4 or 5 first mortgages a month so I was able to call up and speak with my loan officer any time I needed. They also have a policy of never selling a mortgage to another finance company. Go local if you can!

i sold my old home for enough that I ended up putting down 50% of my home, and using the balance for improvements.

I just wished I chose better contractors!

I've done it all. This is my 6th home purchase. I've assumed, put 5% down, put 20% down, paid cash, put 75% down and I'm back to 20% down but intend to pay it off within 10 years. The last one was a timing problem. I had to close on my new house 2 days before the old house. After all this, the big reason to put down 20% is to get rid of PMI. It's a racket.

charliecarroll wrote:In your group of answer choices your second one shoull have read, ..thank God... rather than ..thank god...

The god of my mortgage prefers lower case. We aren't all monotheists, yanno.

My down payment was almost 50%, and it was the dumbest damned thing I ever did. Now I'm stuck here in a house with a severely downgraded value that was only supposed to be a temporary waystation before I moved where I really wanted to be. The appraised value is now less than what I used as a down payment.

thumperchick wrote:We didn't... and if I had to go back? I would have. Not only are you stuck paying PMI until your loan matures, but you are also paying interest on that money for 30 years. I would have gone back to work for the soul suckers for a year and socked all of that into a down payment. It was a good time to buy, we got a great rate, nice house, etc. but we could have done better with more planning.

I think there may be differences in state PMI rules but in many cases the mortgage lender can/will drop the PMI after your loan is less than 80% of the home value. It means you must get an appraisal. The sad part is the greedy lenders will gladly continue to collect the PMI for the life of the loan.

I sold a house in NY so I was able to pay for my house in NJ in full.

I financed through my credit union. They "hold" their loans and don't sell them. They do not require PMI. Instead of 20%, I put 10% down and used the remaining 10% to upgrade the property with new flooring, granite countertops, and more. It was a win-win, no PMI, and the upgrades immediately increased the value and sell-ability of the property.