Anecdotally And Quite Reasonably, Many Buyers Seem To Be Making Larger Down Payments These Days

Yes, I know, this is just based on transactions I am observing, and perhaps even just those that lodge themselves into my mind more than others, but...

Home buyers seem to be making larger down payments these days -- and I can understand why.

Before... with 3% - 4% mortgage interest rates... there wasn't much of a motivation to make much of a downpayment.  Your mortgage payment would be so low, given low mortgage interest rates, that buyers would often finance as high of a percentage of the purchase price that their lender would allow.

Now... with 7% mortgage interest rates... buyers are motivated to make as large of a down payment as possible, to make their loan amount as small as possible, given the (relatively) higher mortgage interest rates.

This is not to say that all of a sudden all buyers are putting 20% down on their real estate purchases -- they aren't -- but the calculus of how much cash to put into a real estate purchase looks a bit different these days.

Home buyers are certainly still keeping some cash on the side for emergencies, etc., but they are often making larger down payments (and financing less) now than they were a few years ago.