[0xffff2]

Mortgage insurance is required for nearly all sub 20% down mortgages in the US too. Most banks won’t do straight 0% down either, but will do ~3%. A notable exception to both of the above are VA loans, which will finance 100% with no PMI, but VA loans are only available to a very small segment of the population.

[zdragnar]

3% is typically only available for a primary residence if you haven't owned in the past X years. Otherwise, it's pretty much impossible to find anything less than 5% down.

That's not a terrible thing either. If you are not able to save up for 5 or more % down, odds are good you will be house-rich and money-poor, which can really suck a lot of enjoyment out of owning a home.

Say, for example: a $300k home with a 285k mortgage will work out to around $2,000 per month. Add in a vehicle payment or two, maybe a higher bill if you have high property taxes, phone, internet, paying down credit cards, whatever, and you're easily in the 3-4k per month just in bills. If you can afford that and not feel financially constricted, then you can afford to wait a bit, get more saved up to put more down, and you'll have more available for vacations, repairs, additions, appliances, etc.

[MR4D]

3% should be outlawed. If you sell your house for exactly the price you paid for it, you would have just lost at least 6% to realtor costs. Even more when you consider expenses like title insurance, taxes, and other fees.

Anything less than 10% is insane, and less than 20% means you can’t afford it.

[rconti]

Jumbo loans have no such requirement in the US (anything over 650ish-thousand dollars).

Instead of Private Mortgage Insurance, the banks (typically?) require that you have a certain amount of cash in the bank as reserves. x% cash, y% investments discounted at 30%, z% retirement discounted at 40%, and so on. More at 10% than at 20%. And so on. But I don't think these are required; there's no reason a bank couldn't just decide to let you go without. And while they require pretty extensive documentation, you can still game the system.

When we bought (2015), interest rates for jumbo loans were LOWER than confirming loans, and no PMI requirement. win/win.

[Waterluvian]

Interesting, thanks.

I'm curious if it's that most banks "won't do" or "legally cannot do"?

[refurb]

“Won’t do it”.

PMI doesn’t protect the buyer, it protects the bank. If the buyer stops making payments and housing prices are dropping, the bank could be screwed.