How long did it take you

to save for your down payment?

any tricks you can tell?

it feels almost impossible to save a 10% DP, let alone 20%!

tia

Re: How long did it take you

We're only doing a 3% DP.
We already had it in the bank from the wedding.

ETA: Closing costs too.

Message edited 2/8/2007 3:34:50 PM.

Re: How long did it take you

10 months - 10% down + closing costs.

but FH and I lived at home (no rent) so I banked pretty much my entire salary + some of his.

we didnt go out, no vacation, big nite out was Chili's and a DVD - but its worth it!

Re: How long did it take you

Hey girl!

We are looking now and I think we'll have a nice DP. But for our condo, we did the 80/20 mortgage route and it has worked for us over the last year.

I think its so hard to get enough money down unless you get hit by a money truck OR you save for a year or two.

I think it's a good idea to have your closing costs but there are other options out there and my interest rate on both loands was pretty competitive!

Re: How long did it take you

DH has been saving since he was a child and never spent it. I spent my savings living in Ireland (I spent a summer abroad studying).

So, thanks to him, we had 20% down.

Re: How long did it take you

We saved for 16 months and cashed in some stock...put 20% down and had another 10% saved for renovations, etc (in addition to a separate savings acct). No tricks - we didn't cut back our lifestyle...we still travelled and went out. We stayed within our means and enjoyed ourselves - we still do

Good luck!

Re: How long did it take you

we did 10% down plus closing costs and had money left for a 'safety fund' - it was all my savings that I saved over the past 3 years (since graduating college)

Re: How long did it take you

on the first house, about 3 years
on the second 7 months but we used mostly wedding money-- get married LOL

Re: How long did it take you

10% we got from the wedding.....the other 10% we got from a settlement dh won yrs and yrs ago......thats what we will use when we finally find our home

Re: How long did it take you

majority from our wedding and some we saved in the last year

Re: How long did it take you

I wish I could say wedding but since we payed for our wedding ourseleves we pretty much broke even. We are on the plan where DH saves his entire salary and mine pays all expenses. So far so good. It really adds up as you go. Also although it doesn't make a huge difference put your money in high interest rate accounts or CDS. We plan to put 20% down, and not pay closing costs, (included in loan but forgiven after 10 years). Good luck living in this market really stinks!

Re: How long did it take you

Re: How long did it take you

I was fortunate because DH had most of the money saved for the down payment. I'm not really sure how long he was actually saving for - I think about a year or 2. I know he put his bonuses from work towards the down payment.

He also saved a set amount each month in a high interest savings account.

Something big that helped was that he always lived in an apartment that he could easily afford. He never rented an apartment at the top of his budget. This really allowed him to save extra money. I don't know what your current living situation is, but if you can, you may want to consider down grading your apartment for a year or so.

In the 6 months before we closed, we also really cut back on eating out and going out. You would be surprised how much food and booze adds up to be! We also brought our lunch a lot.

Finally, we also had a realistic goal for what we wanted to buy so we knew what we had to save. I am not sure what you are planning on buying, but definitely explore all of your options so you know how much you really need.

I hope this helps!

Re: How long did it take you

we both lived at home and we saved pretty much everything. we never ate out... we saved for almost a year We had about 10%to put down plus closing fees

Re: How long did it take you

we both had a lot in our savings when we met, then the rest came from wedding money. My inlaws are giving us the closing cost from money they invested that my DH gave them years ago for rent. We are not putting 20% down, more like 12% and keeping a big chunk in our savings.

Re: How long did it take you

Its unbelievable - that the housing prices here are so high that we are forced to live with parents in our 20's and 30's, to never eat out, etc. all to save in a lot of cases only 10%!!

Re: How long did it take you

I have a question-
Is there a big difference in the mortgage rates if you put down 10%?

Because form what I can figure, the difference in payment from putting down 10% and $5000 on a $40K house, is $200 a month.
I would rather have that $35K in the bank.

Re: How long did it take you

Message edited 2/8/2007 4:30:29 PM.

Re: How long did it take you

Re: How long did it take you

About a year and a half - we are putting 35% down. We saved money from our wedding, bonuses, I had bonds that I have been saving since I was born, we both had brokerage accounts that we opened before we knew each other. I think that is about it.

Re: How long did it take you

we saved for 2 years. Just saved. We put down 10%.

Re: How long did it take you

You're right - it is very difficult to save that much money. Ours was a "gift" of sorts (part of IL's estate planning....they pay for down payments on their children's homes and their grandchildren's education, which is a god send).

Re: How long did it take you

Like another poster said, the $$ came from what DH had saved before we met. He lived in his condo for 15 years, but paid off the mortgage pretty quickly so he didn't have rent or a mortgage payment for 13 of those 15 years! So he was able to save alot of $$. He also had a couple of brokerage accounts that he cashed out and used towards the downpayment. We were able to put down just over 30%

Re: How long did it take you

We used the gift money from our wedding

Re: How long did it take you

We are mainly using our wedding gift money and the money I saved before we got married.

I used to have a certain amount each paycheck automatically sent to a savings account. I pretty much didn't think of the money and it was the best way for me to save.

DH and I also took on second jobs before the wedding to help pay for that and save for a house.

ETA: We still only can put down 10% though. It kills me when I see all of my friends outside of NY buying brand new homes when their 20% down is less than my 10% in some cases!

Message edited 2/9/2007 10:39:22 AM.