You probably do not need 20% down

Where the number came from

Twenty percent is the threshold above which a conventional loan generally does not require private mortgage insurance. That is the entire origin of it. It was never a minimum to buy a house — it is the point at which one particular cost falls away on one particular kind of loan.

Somewhere it became folk wisdom, and now people who could have bought years ago are still saving toward a number nobody ever required of them.

What is actually available

Qualifying first-time buyers can see conventional programs starting far below twenty percent. FHA is built around a lower down payment. VA, for an eligible veteran, frequently requires nothing down and carries no monthly mortgage insurance at all. USDA can be zero down on an eligible rural address, and eligibility is set by specific address rather than by town.

Whether any of these is available to you depends on your credit, income, the property and current guidelines. That is a conversation with a licensed loan officer, not something a website can settle.

The better question

Not “how do I avoid mortgage insurance” but “what does waiting cost me?” Those are different questions and people almost always ask the first.

Waiting has three costs that rarely get counted. You keep paying rent, building equity for someone else. You miss whatever the house appreciates meanwhile, and in a rising market the target moves faster than most people can save. And you are betting rates will not move against you.

Against that, mortgage insurance is a monthly cost that on a conventional loan comes off once you have built enough equity. Sometimes the math says wait. Frequently it says the opposite.

General information only. Nothing here is a commitment to lend, an offer of credit, or a rate quote — those come from a licensed loan officer after a complete application, and everything is subject to credit approval and underwriting.