Say goodbye to the 20% down payment. Zillow says you’ll need to put down roughly 35%

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Thinking about buying a home? You might be in for a rude awakening: a 20% down payment is no longer enough for most people to afford monthly payments—not when home values are 45% higher than before the pandemic, and mortgage payments are roughly 115% higher, according to Zillow. 

“Down payments have always been important, but in the current market, where interest rates remain high and volatile and home values are stable or rising, boosting the amount you put down can make the difference between a home that’s affordable and one that’s not,” Zillow’s chief economist, Skylar Olsen, wrote in an analysis yesterday.