One of the biggest problems for people who are trying to save enough money to purchase a home is the dreaded down payment. With many people around the country paying 40 percent or even upwards of 50 percent of their salary for rent every month, saving around $50,000 dollars (the average down payment in the first quarter of 2016 is currently $49,839) can seem nearly impossible. But, there is good news for anyone who is struggling to come up with this amount of cash, as the latest LendingTree national down payment report identifies the 10 cities with the lowest down payments as a percent of total mortgage in the country.
According to MarketWatch, the average down payment as a percentage of the total mortgage was 16.64 percent in the first quarter of 2016, down from the 17.46 percent seen in the fourth quarter of 2015 and the 16.98 percent seen in the first quarter of 2015.
Shreveport, La. has the lowest average down payment as a percent of the total mortgage at 11.93 percent. Birmingham, Ala., Toledo, Ohio, Dayton, Ohio, and Roanoke-Lynchburg, Va. rounded out the top five at 12.3 percent, 12.8 percent, 12.82 percent, and 12.88 percent respectively. The majority of the cities on the list were located in the South with El Paso being the farthest West.
Conversely, New York (19.74 percent), California (19.56 percent), Hawaii (19.44 percent), New Jersey (19.29 percent), and Washington, D.C. (18.50 percent) were the states with the highest down payments as a percent of the mortgage.
To view the entire list of the best cities for a lower down payment, click the link below.
