More downpayment or higher mon. payments

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

First time home owners, combined income of $140,000k currently we pay rent of about $1200 and found a house that would cost us $2300 (everything
included) this is with PMI and 10% down. closing rolled into the
mortgage.

Now paying 10% lowers the mo payment which is what we want. Should we put in most of the cash we have in order to make that 10% down and get
a lower monthly payment or pay 5% down and have some cash in had and pay a
little more every month.

We are also thinking of paying out the PMI up front which will also help bring down the mo.payments.

Also, the SR told us that we both don't need to apply for the mortgage, just one of would be fine
to get approved.

He said that way, one of us will have no loan against it and if we wanted to buy another home we could.

Suggestions

[MovingForward_2012]

That's roughly how much my mortgage costs per month. I think you need to run the numbers. I think 5% more down alone will not reduce your payment very much but if you can eliminate the PMI with that 5% down, it will result in quite a bit more savings per month. My PMI is $346 out of the total mortgage payment which is a lot. But we needed the reserves more than we needed the lower monthly payment and we had to go FHA, which means we would be paying PMI regardless so different scenarios. If after you put an additional 5% down you have minimal reserves, then I would consider having ample reserves over a lower monthly payment. My rent was $1500 and my mortgage is $2387 per month so a lot of payment shock there. You will also have a large payment shock as well and would think reserves would be necessary to adjust. If you have the reserves after the additional 5% down and it considerably lowers your payment, I would go for it.

[In-A-Limbo]

We were going to put everything we got toward the down payment to keep out payment low but then we think about what if something come up later and we need to fix the house.

[Anonymous]

Yes our rent is currently $1200, it will be a shock in terms of payment going upto the $2300 range.

Yes, paying 5% more only makes the payment less by about $100, however paying the PMI upfront is more like $170 less in mo payments.

I am also worried becuae of credit score and PMI rate. different thiers have different rates. I calculated based on themiddel tier paying about .67 for PMI.