How much of a downpayment should I put into my house?

Question

How much of a downpayment should I put into my house?

Answer 1

no less than 10%  anything above 10% will cut monthy notes down. and what ever you do dont get the 30 year morgage deal, some offer 10 year 20 year and 25year plan.

if you do the 30 year, the finance charges will cost 110% more than the actual price of the house, so if the house is $100,000, for 30 years you'll actually pay around $210,000.

the 20 years for most people, but most fall for the 30 year, because all they look at is the monthly note.

if you go for the 20 year on a $100000 house you may pay $$145,000, and plus your monthy note will only be a about $125 more for a 20 year but you wont have to pay $65,000 extra in interest charges

one more most people that get a 30 year plan actually pay it of early anyway. but the is a penalty.: if you pay a 30 year mortgage off in 22 years YOU WILL STILL PAY THE FULL AMOUNT in interest charges, .

Answer 2

The question isn't how much you put down, it's how much you can afford each month.  It's cash flow.

People will tell you that you have to put 20%+ down.  A person that puts 50% down on too much house will have trouble if they can't pay the mortgage each month.

YOu shouldn't spend more then 25% MAX each month on your TOTAL mortgage payment.  This 25% is on your gross monthly income.

For example: if your yr income is 60k, your monthly income is 5k.  25% of 5k is 1,250 a month.  At 30 years fix rate, you should have a mortgage of around 180,000.  

Then put your down payment on top of this.  If you can find the house you want with FHA and 3% down, GREAT.  Otherwise you will need to pay the difference between the max mortgage and the sales price.

Remember this, for each $1,000 you put down, you only lower your mortgage payment by $6.00 a month.  (So if you put $5,000 down, you lower your payment by $30 a month).

DO NOT BECOME HOUSE POOR.

Answer 3

Don't listen to these fools!  Put down nothing!

Houses are free falling in prices right now.  If you put down a large chunk of change you will lose it all right now.  If you want to put down a big down payment you have to wait until the market bottoms out, and that won't be for at least 2 years.

A house is not an investment!

Answer 4

As much as possible.  If you can put 20% down, you will be able to avoid paying Private Mortgage Insurance.