Typical Down Payment Falls 9.2% From a Year Ago to $27,100

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Homebuyers put more money down this spring than they did during the winter, but considerably less than buyers were putting down a year earlier.

The typical down payment on a primary residence reached $27,100, or 13.7% of the purchase price, in the second quarter, according to a new Realtor.com Economic Research analysis. The dollar amount was down 9.2% from a year earlier, while the share of purchase price fell from 14.3% in the second quarter of 2025.

It was the lowest second-quarter down payment since 2021.

The annual decline arrived even though down payments rose seasonally from the first quarter, when the typical buyer put down 12.9%.

A softer market is changing the cash buyers bring

Realtor.com tied the year-over-year decline partly to a housing market with more inventory and greater negotiating room for buyers. Its August data showed active listings 3.6% above a year earlier and median list prices down 1.3%.

At the same time, higher mortgage rates are changing who remains in the market. Rate-sensitive households can be pushed to the sidelines, leaving a pool of buyers that includes households with more cash or accumulated home equity.

That creates an unusual split: down payments are lower than a year ago nationally, but buyers in expensive markets can still choose to put substantially more cash into a transaction to reduce the amount financed.

The long-term change is still enormous

Today’s down payments remain far above pre-pandemic levels despite the latest annual decline.

In the second quarter of 2019, the typical buyer put down $14,000, or 11.2% of the purchase price. By the second quarter of 2026, the dollar amount had increased 93.6% and the share had risen 2.5 percentage points.

Realtor.com’s analysis says asking prices rose 34.4% over that seven-year period, while the typical existing-home sales price rose 53.5%.

The cash hurdle is therefore still much higher than it was before the pandemic, even before a buyer confronts today’s monthly mortgage payment.

Monthly payments remain the bigger affordability problem

Realtor.com estimates that a typical buyer’s monthly payment is 74% higher than in 2021 and 3.5% higher over the past year. That helps explain why a decline in the upfront down payment does not necessarily translate into easier overall affordability.

The report also highlights sharp geographic differences. Buyers in expensive markets can use larger down payments to cushion monthly costs, while smaller down payments in softer markets can amplify the effect of higher rates on monthly payments.

By July, the typical down payment had risen to an annual high of $28,800, or 14.0% of the purchase price. Even then, the dollar amount remained 7.5% below a year earlier and the share was half a percentage point lower.

The national trend is therefore not simply that buyers are putting less down. It is that a cooler market is reducing some of the pressure to bring outsized cash to closing, while high mortgage rates continue to make the monthly cost of owning a home the harder affordability constraint.