[silicon2401]

I'm very interested in a low down payment, not to buy a house beyond my budget, but instead to avoid locking in more cash than I have to. Could you recommend any guidelines or important factors for me to determine whether I should prefer minimal down payment vs standard (>=20% iirc)?

[pitaj]

Are you planning on living there for a short period of time (<~5yrs)? It may end up being cheaper overall to pay minimum down and go with the private mortgage insurance and a 30-year mortgage so you pay as little as possible while you're living there. But if you're planning on staying there long-term, a 15-year mortgage may be a better option.

How good is your credit? If it's good and you have a high income to debt ratio, your PMI will likely be pretty minimal. If so, you may end up netting better if you invest what you'd put down and let that money grow instead. Or you can put some of that into points for lower interest rates.

These things are pretty easy to figure out if you know what your home budget. There are a few places you can get rough estimates based on your credit score.

[silicon2401]

What would a "pretty minimal" PMI look like? My partner and I both make pretty good income and have zero debt. I've heard about places like Ally where you can get a mortgage estimate without a hard credit pull; is that the kind of thing you mean?

[pitaj]

I wasn't talking about an actual estimate just a rough listing of your options like this [1]. A pretty minimal PMI could be like $50/month depending on the cost of the property, and there are some calculators for that too [2].

[1]: https://www.bankrate.com/mortgages/mortgage-rates/?mortgageT... [2]: https://www.hsh.com/calc-pmi.html

[sjg007]

You should do the research. First, check with a local bank within your state. Then check out of state lenders.

While you are doing that, see if you can get a Naca loan.

https://www.naca.com/purchase/