[willsmith72]

i hate that people can get a mortgage with as little as 5% upfront at the moment, it's a terrible financial decision

but to say that any mortgage should not be the norm i think is clearly wrong. history doesn't repeat itself, but through the past 100 years, the extra leverage you get from putting, say, 25% down on a 20 year mortgage has made it an amazing investment.

[swozey]

I got a $365k mortgage with 3% down at 3.2% when I made $180k and I had absolutely zero problem paying it.

If I'd done your stupid "wait till you have 20% deposit" thing that some 75year old told you they did 40 years ago to buy their first home - my first home would've been bought 20 years later because with the way the market prices are going up the length of time for me to save 20% vs buying now and reaping the reward of the 2019+ housing market.. And now I'd have at least an 8% APR.

Yeah, nobody listen to this warren buffet here.

[willsmith72]

because you made 180k at the time....

the people i'm talking about earn $60k and this is their only chance to own property. 1 interest rate change, unexpected expense, property market downturn, and they're literally broke.

[swozey]

If I made $180k and didn't have 20% and they required 20% I wouldn't be able to buy a house. That's what I'm saying. There are also people like me, a LOT of us, who buy house we can "afford" (technically speaking) but just doesn't make sense to wait another 5+ years to accumulate the 20% total.

I don't care at all about 20% now that I know PMI is only around $160/mo and can be removed. I wish I'd known that like a decade before I bought my first house, I would've bought WAY earlier.

I thought you HAD to have 20% until I was probabyl nearly 30 and could get anywhere near buying a house.