From: "Punch" 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: Determining down payment/house price
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 14:51:48 -0500


"MWright"  wrote in message
news:ff0ac06a.0404021047.45a00963@posting.google.com...
> I'm having a hard time determining how much cash I should lay out for
> a down payment on a house, mainly because I'm such a stickler for
> saving (a habit born of low-cash post-collegiate times).  Over time
> I've managed to put about $60K in savings.....annual income is about
> $85K......no debt at all, no loans.....credit score is around 760.
> According to the mortgage calculators, I could afford quite a bit more
> than what I'm comfortable looking at-- right now the homes I've
> looking at are $170K to $190K.  Have been looking at 30-year fixed
> rate loans at about 5.6%.
>
> So the question becomes how much do I put down?  Do I go for 20% down
> to avoid PMI, which would set my savings back down to near $15K or do
> I put less down and keep the liquid cash high?  I know a lot of it
> comes down to what each individual person is comfortable with-- but I
> honestly don't know what a "normal" amount of savings is.

avoid the pmi, and put down as much as you can, to save on interest
charge's, also if your lender allows pay accelerated bi-weekly, saves on
interest again, and don't go 30 yrs, that's to long.