Many would-be buyers think that in order to make their dream of homeownership a reality, they need to have 20 percent of the home’s purchase price to put down as a down payment. But, that’s just not true. The truth is, the vast majority of first-time buyers are buying their homes with significantly less.

According to Genworth Mortgage Insurance’s recent First-Time Homebuyer Market Report, a whopping 80 percent of first-time homebuyers (473,000) used a low down payment mortgage product to buy their home, in just the third quarter of 2019 alone.

In fact, the majority of low down payment mortgages go to first-time buyers (for example, in 2018, 88 percent of purchase loans with a 3 percent to 5 percent down payment went to first-time buyers—as did more than half (53 percent) of the 5 percent to 10 percent down payment loans).

The Takeaway:

What does this mean for you? If you’ve been waiting to buy your first home until you have a 20 percent down payment in the bank, you might be able to become a homeowner with a much lower down payment than you think.