re: #770 Afrocity

But isn’t that what caused the mortgage crises? People not putting 20% down and getting mortgage companies that would allow them to get around that?

Not really. The real trouble was:

1. giving mortgages to people with lousy credit, who could not reasonably be expected to make the payments, and

2. interest-only mortgages, where the monthly payments covered only the interest and never started to pay down the principal, and

3. adjustable-rate mortgages, so that after a certain period, the nice low interest rate would jump drastically, and the buyer would be hit with monthly payments waaaay higher than he’d been paying before - and a lot of people had bought ALL the house they could afford at the lower payment, and had no financial room to handle the increase.

If you have good credit and sufficient income to make the payments on a 400K mortgage, the lack of a down payment is not necessarily a deal breaker. However, do take care to factor in the property tax to your annual costs. And you’ll need to set aside money for repairs. Which reminds me: Get the place inspected before you agree to purchase!