if you put down 20% you get a lower payment that you recoup in 10 years.
so, first, you are gambling that you stay there 10 years, and second, you are gambling that inflation doesn’t eat up any savings in the to-be-returned money. In other words, you wait 10 years to get back your down payment, but the money you get back in 10 years might be worth much less than the money you forked over today, so…it takes much longer perhaps than 10 years to really get your down payment back. that’s a gamble, isn’t it?
Either way you are gambling. Your 20% down is a statement that you think money is going to be stable in value for 10 years.
How is that sure thing?
it seems like what you’re saying is, 20% is riskless, anything else is risky?
But how is giving a bank your actual money, getting a cheaper payment, and being repaid in savings that might be rendered meaningless by inflation not taking a chance as well?
isn’t it fair to say that no matter which way you go, you are speculating?
also, i still haven’t seen the refutation of my thought that 20% down might actually be MORE EXPENSIVE than 20%. if the equity on an fha gets to i think 22% or so in 5 years on the FHA loan, the penalty for the PMI is removed.
So here’s my basic question inmaking this decision: is it or is it not possible, that I could actually end up paying MORE with 20% down? I pay my 20% down i get a cost savings over FHA, but the FHA payment gets lowered 5 years in, and i never get my payment advantage with the 20% down.
what am I missing? I have the 20% down on every place we look at, i’d really like to make a rational decision. If there is a chance I might end up paying more with the 20% down (in other words, I put my 20% down, I get a temporary payment savings versus the fha loan, but it doesn’t last long enough to equal the 20% I put down), then I really want to think about that and analyze that in terms of potential. For obvious reasons.
I think it’s disingenuous to say the decision to put 20% down is not a “gamble” and putting the 20% elsewhere is a gamble.
there is no such thing as not gambling when you are talking about where you put your money. even the decision to park it in the bank is a gamble with risks and benefits.