- Big home-price gains make a 20 percent down payment ever harder.
- Private mortgage insurance can be a better deal than an FHA-insured mortgage.
- In high-cost areas, a piggyback mortgage deal can be the ticket to buying.
Coming up with the cash to make a 20 percent down payment on a home is becoming increasingly impractical.
With home prices up more than 30 percent during the past five years — and nearly 7 percent in the past year alone — it now takes more than $40,000 to make a 20 percent down payment on the median priced home of $236,000, according to the National Association of Realtors. In high-cost metropolitan areas, 20 percent down is a six-figure undertaking.
Carla Fried | CNBC