Realtor.com: 2024 Down Payments Notch Record
(Image courtesy of Any Lane/pexels.com)
Realtor.com, Santa Clara, Calif., reported down payments reached an average of 14.4% of the total home purchase price, with a median down payment of $29,900, in 2024. These were the highest numbers recorded since the firm began collecting the data.
In 2023, buyers paid a 14.2% share, or $27,200.
Homebuyers paid 14.4% of the total home purchase price in the fourth quarter. In terms of total dollars, that’s an average of $30,250.
While both those metrics were down from the 2024 Q2 historical peak of 15.1% and $32,700, that’s also a new Q4 record.
Down payments in the quarter were 3.4 percentage points higher than pre-pandemic. Buyers paid 125.5% more as a down payment in Q4 2024 compared with Q4 2019, reflecting a larger percent down on a higher priced homes.
The analysis also looks at the “30th percentile down payment amount.” There’s a wide range of down payments, and trends at the median may not reflect those making more modest down payments, including first-time buyers or those taking advantage of government-backed loan options such as FHA or VA programs.
In the fourth quarter of 2024, the 30th percentile down payment was $8,200, up 6.5% year-over-year. This particular measure of down payments peaked in Q2 2022 at $10,300, but in pre-pandemic 2019 was around $4,600.
Primary residence down payments lag investment property and second home down payments as a percentage of sale price.
Investment properties saw down payments of 27.4% in Q4 2024, 0.6 percentage point lower as a percentage of purchase price than Q4 2023. Second home down payments were 28% in Q4, down 0.8 percentage point from Q4 2023.
Realtor.com analyzed down payment trends at the national- and top-150-metro-level through Q4 of 2024 using Optimal Blue data.
