My credit score is 750. I have 20% to put down. I don’t want to put that much down. In these economic times, I’d rather put the least possible down and have cash available JIC.
When I bought my house in Carmel Valley in ’91, I put 20% down to avoid the PMI. And the real estate slump that followed thereafter ate through my 20%. I try to block out those days, but if I remember right, I think I ended up paying PMI after all. Not sure, though. Those were bad times. It would’ve been nice to have the cash I put into the house to help ride it out. I was struggling back then.
I was lucky enough to somehow ride it out, but now I’m hesitant to put 20% down if I can avoid it. If I found a house I really wanted that made sense to me, the very act of buying in a declining market makes me a knife-catcher and I’ll be helping to bring the comps down by buying. I know I will be losing equity down the road.
I’m ok w/that if I really like the house, but if times continue to get worse, that 20% in cash would be a nice cushion.
