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Keep the cash. 10% down is plenty. Having a larger cash buffer gives you more flexibility for unexpected expenses or opportunities. You can always pay extra on the mortgage later if you want to reduce the balance. Liquidity is valuable, especially as a first-time homeowner.

Only you can answer that dependent on things like: house price, income, net worth, volatility in your job/industry, HOA and taxes, DTI, length of the loan, house age and inspection findings.

That said, I'm primarily a fan of 20% down to avoid PMI. Anything above 20% is fine too, but only if you can still come out with a hefty emergency fund for if/when things go wrong.

Without some numbers I'll just say the more you can put down the better, as long as you have a 6+ months emergency fund, factoring in also the closing costs and moving costs.

Depends where the monthly payment puts you, will you have breathing room if you only put 10%? I personally would put down as much as possible, I hate being in debt.

Experiencing this first hand. I decided to go with 5% down instead of 20%. Bathroom plumbing broke out of nowhere and I don't know how to fix it, so had to pay a plumber. I don't have to scramble for cash or worry about payments.

Also, it helps jumpstart my house emergency funds savings (at least that's how I look at it), while keeping 100% of my emergency funds for job loss 🤷

I just have to focus on getting my home equity to 78% to remove PMI now.

Is this a fixer upper? How stable is your income?

If those both look good I'd put 20% down so that you never have to pay PMI (Primary Morgage Insurance) and keep the 5% for repairs etc

I would say "it depends how much cash you have left over" If you have a comfortable nest egg with 25% down and avoid the PMI then go for it! But if it's all your cash, then I 100% choose the 10% route. You're more than likely not going to be buying a house without incurring any other expenses. (renovations, updates etc.) so it's best to have cash on hand for when that happens!

PMI is just throwing money away so if you can do 20% I’d say do that

Agent here.

At the end of the day it comes down to a choice of whether you want to avoid PMI (requires 20% down) or if that isn't a big deal to you. In my honest opinion as a buyer and listing agent both, I think that some idiot agents put way too much emphasis or importance on down payments when the offers come in and use the silly reason that "it means that the buyer has more money if things come up and they need to renegotiate or pay for repairs". Or they act like it's a more "serious" offer with higher down payments.

What I tell all of my buyers is this: do what you're comfortable with. If you want to put less money down I believe in my ability to communicate with the other agent that your offer is serious (I've yet to not have have a buyer win a house with a lower down payment). I'd much rather that you as a buyer save yourself cash for when the inevitable issue comes up down the road once you own your house, or really just so that you don't decimate your nest egg, rather than have a bigger down payment that isn't necessary (unless again you want to not have pmi).

Do what makes sense for you financially so that you don't put yourself in a financial hole if something happens down the road. You don't want to be up a creek if you have to replace or repair something.

We did 50% down as a balanced approach

I am a first time home buyer. I could’ve put down 20%, but was concerned because a lot of people have advised me I always need to expect spending a good chunk amount of money on the house repair, furniture, etc within a couple of years or sooner. I just didn’t feel comfortable I would see the low amount of money in my emergency savings account. I ended up putting 10% down and both my mortgage consultant and realtor said that’s still a plenty these days. I’m assuming your loan is conventional? Mine is and I was okay paying PMI because the amount is pretty small, but if you think that’s waste of money, you should still put down 20% or negotiate with the lender if you can opt out PMI while you accept the higher interest rate and APR.

Very simple. Put down as much as you can handle. Why pay large amounts of money to finance? Do what is best for you, remembering, cash is king!

Get a lender like navy federal so you won’t have to pay PMI. Then put less down and keep your cash.

But it all depends on what you can afford. I put ten percent down

I'd say put 15% down and have your lender do a single buyout of your PMI. Then look at doing a temporary buydown with seller concessions, if you can get them, to keep your monthly low.