photo credit: ralphunden

The weekly poll is saving up for a down payment for a house. Go help it find extra change in the couch cushions.

This week’s poll topic is about down payments and specifically how much money you put down when you bought your last home. I asked this question a long time ago, but with the upcoming FHA guidelines changes that will up the minimum down payment for some buyers (yes, I’m still stuck on that topic), I’m once again curious about how much change you guys coughed up at the closing table.

So what about you? Did you buy your home in the good/bad old days when you didn’t have to put a dime down? Or did you do it the old fashioned way with a nice, big 20% down payment? Or maybe you did something in between? Cast your vote and let me know!

You may need to save up for your down payment to buy your home, but you don’t need a penny to get the latest information on the Knoxville real estate market.  Just have it delivered straight to your feed reader or inbox by subscribing to All Around KTown today!

This week’s poll is loitering over in the side bar. Go over there and click on it before it gets itself in trouble.

This week, former Bush Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neil said that in order to protect our financial system long-term, all future home loans should require a 20% minimum down payment. And that got me to thinking: even though we all know that it was a lot of no money down loans that got us into the mess we’re in now, is 20% down on every home realistic? And how many people would that knock out of the home buying market?

So, here’s my question this week – exactly how much money did you put down on the last home you bought? Could you have bought your last home if you had had to put 20% down or would you still be a renter today? I’m curious to see how many folks come in under 20% – I bet it’s a lot.

100% financing may have gone the way of the dinosaur, but you can still get the latest news on the Knoxville real estate market with absolutely no money down. Subscribe to All Around KTown in a feed reader or by email today!

photo credit: Leo Reynolds