Should I put 20% down on a house?
Putting 20% down reduces the loan amount and generally avoids conventional PMI, but it requires much more cash upfront. Whether it is the better choice depends on your reserves, your monthly budget and what else that cash could do.
Down Payments · Written by Anil Aggarwal, Realtor® | Mortgage Loan Officer · Updated August 8, 2026
At 20% down a conventional loan usually carries no private mortgage insurance, so the monthly payment drops both from the smaller loan and from removing PMI.
The trade-off is liquidity. Cash in the house is hard to reach; cash in the bank covers repairs, job changes and emergencies. PMI is also not permanent — on a primary residence it generally must be terminated when the scheduled balance reaches 78% of the original value.
Run both versions of your own scenario. Compare the extra cash required against the monthly savings and the interest difference over the years you actually expect to stay.
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