How did you buy your house?

[changedname]

I put 18% down on my first house so had to pay the insurance.

This house we put down 20% to avoid the insurance.

Inheritance is the only way I see being able to pay in cash for a house around here.

[whitepicketfence]

We did a conventional mortgage and put 5% down.

We weren't planning to buy when we did so we didn't have much of a downpayment saved up. We had a family member offer to sell us his home for $25K less than it appraised for (he was going through a nasty breakup with his live-in fiance and just wanted out from under the mortgage). Since we liked the home and it was in the area we hoped to buy anyway, we went for it. We bought in 2009 and qualified for the $8K first-time homebuyer credit which helped to replenish our savings.

Our original rate was 5.75 and we've since refinanced to 4.25 without PMI.

[magpie]

We put 20% down on a 30 year loan, originally. Recently, we refinanced to a 15 year at a lower rate.

[jillybean222]

5% down, 30 year fixed. I think it was 5.75% at the time (4.5 years ago) but we refinanced late last year and our rate is 3.35% now. We are in a fairly high COL area but also a high income area so plenty of people we know have paid cash for houses.

[dexteroni]

20% down, conventional mortgage for the rest. Based on how much we saved per month toward our DP, if we had saved the entire purchase price in cash, we would probably just be buying now, 10 years later. And we would be out 10 years' worth of rent payments. IMO that's silly.

Buying a house with cash when rates are so low is not even really that smart from a financial standpoint. I think a lot of those people are part of the subset of Christians who don't believe in having any kind of debt, ever. Like the Duggars.

[LauraMoser]

Oh this tiny little thing? Cash of course. It was only $2M.

I kid, I kid.

We used a PHFA loan (specific to our state) along with a small grant IIRC that covered some of the closing costs/down payment. I don't remember what that program was called though. OOP, at the closing table, we forked over a whopping $3500 or so. If it weren't for the special programs that our awesome REA and Loan Officer helped hook us up with, we would have been waiting a few more years to buy.

Oh, and our 1-year anniversary in our house is this month! Can't believe its been a year already!

[M]

5% down, 30 year FHA. But we sold it a year later. If we ever decide to buy again it would have to be at least 20% down with a 15 year mortgage.

[anna7602]

Cash for the down payment (including the amount down required by our co-op board), mortgage for the rest.

[abramos]

We put about 7% down, 30 yr fixed conventional loan

[mrsjuleshs]

100% VA loan back in 2005. We bought it from my mom so we got it at about 70% market value.

[Deleted]

We were on the right side of the housing bubble. We bought in 2002 for $315k, 25% down (borrowed from our retirement accounts, and from the $ made selling my condo), and sold in 2007 for $555k. Unfortunately the house we bought in 2007 is still below what we paid- but we have significant equity. We could have paid off the first house entirely years ago, had we stayed there.

Average home price in my city s almost $500k so not many people buy their first home with cash here.

[nevermind]

0% down 80/20 loan. Stupidest thing we could have done. We refinanced and bought ourselves out from under water and put 3% down. It decreased in value even after that, so we still can't afford to sell.

Next house, the goal is the DR advice. Definitely at least 20% down. 15 year mortgage with payment < 25% of take home pay

[rugbywife]

purchase #1: condo, I was single, 5%

purchase #2: house, we are married, 10%

[imojoebunny]

We have 4 houses. We paid cash for one of them. It is a vacation house, and I did not want a house payment on a vacation house. I do not understand paying cash for your house with today's loan rates, unless you are retired or have a low income for the house you live in for some other reason.

[WOT?*]

First house was 80/10/10 and current was 80/5/15.

[FishChicks]

House #1, saved for a few years, put 20% down. Bought less than we could afford, so saved for another four years and pit down 20 on house two.

[dapotato]

conventional mortgage. pretty sure our (not huge %age-wise) down payment was more than the houses you are hearing of bought with cash.

[kwynn]

Before my husband passed, we were saving to buy a house with cash---that was always my husband's dream since he was very risk-adverse and hated debt. We had been saving for 5 years and needed only about 5 more to buy completely in cash and still have a good amount of cash reserves.

We were dual-earners in a cheap area and looking to spend about 150k or so.

My husband never wanting a mortgage is a big reason I'm hesitating to buy now--I feel it's going against his wishes for me to take a mortgage and I worry that he would think I was making a mistake--hence why I haven't been looking as seriously as I should for a home.

But at the same time, it's smarter now to take the mortgage since interest rates are so low. And I have assets but low income on a month-to-month basis.

So this has always been one of my dreams, to buy with cash.

[funnygirlglee]

20% down and the rest mortgaged.

[KaraOrNot]

We put 15% down.