No! You dont need 20% Down

Someone asked me an interesting question the other day. They wanted to know if they needed more than a 20% down payment. I know that the current economic conditions have people cautious but the facts are our oldest friends are still hard at work allowing home owners to purchase. FHA, VA are still alive and protecting people from extremes of the market.

It was sexy a short while ago to get a "stated income" interest only ARM but the facts are that is what created this entire mortgage industry mess. When the bubble broke people were stuck in loans that wouldn't help them  and the only option left was foreclosure.

Our old friends are still at work like they have since the great depression. How bad is a loan program with 3% downpayement at 5.75% financing that is not totally credit driven? That is our old Friend FHA hard at work making the housing industry secure so our average homeowner doesn't spend 20 years trying to get the downpayement together to buy that dream home.

Maybe the answer is to take the extra 17% and pay down those credit cards