[eth]

I agree with you on the down payment but from a slightly different POV. There are cases where even saving up to 20% to avoid PMI doesn't also help - particularly states like NJ where you could own a "modest" $300k house but still be out $10k + per year in property taxes.

In order to get mortgage + taxes down to a reasonably "affordable" amount (approx. 40% of take home spent on housing) you need to be looking at up to 40% down to offset the tax expense.