Do I really need 20% down to buy a home?
No — that's the myth that delays more buyers than any other. Many put down 3%–5%; eligible VA and USDA buyers can do 0%. What 20% actually buys is no PMI and a smaller payment — real perks, not an entry fee. Waiting years to hit it often costs more than it saves.
No. The 20% figure is the most persistent myth in home buying — a leftover from older lending norms that today functions mostly as a reason good buyers wait longer than they need to.
Where the number actually comes from
Twenty percent is simply the line where conventional loans skip private mortgage insurance. That's a genuine benefit that got misremembered as a requirement. The real minimums sit far lower — 3% to 5% for many buyers, 3.5% FHA, zero for eligible VA and USDA buyers — and the full down-payment breakdown covers who qualifies for what.
What waiting for 20% really costs
On a $350,000 home, 20% is $70,000. For many households that's years of additional saving — years spent paying a landlord's mortgage instead of your own. That's not a prediction about prices or rates; it's just the arithmetic of rent. The PMI you'd pay by buying sooner is often a fraction of the rent you'd pay by waiting, which is why the "avoid PMI at all costs" advice so often costs more than PMI.
When a bigger down payment is right
The honest flip side: if you have 20% available comfortably — cushion intact, no scraping — it buys a lower payment, no PMI, and equity from day one. Nothing wrong with that. The mistake isn't putting 20% down; it's treating 20% as the ticket price of homeownership. And if your real constraint is cash at the low end, the zero-and-near-zero paths are the better read.
Run your real numbers with a lender before assuming you're years away. "Sooner than you think" is the most common outcome of that meeting.
This answer is general education, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Your situation is unique — let's talk through the specifics together.