Average NYC down payments hit nearly $350K: report

New Yorkers’ down payments on their homes are about ten times the national average, according to a new report from RealtyTrac.

Home prices in New York far exceed the national average of course, but New Yorkers are also paying a higher percentage of the total purchase price upfront. While the national average down payment is $31,723, or just 14 percent of the total purchase price, the average down payment for the New York and New Jersey markets is $347,614, or 37 percent of an average home price of $935,000. In Brooklyn, buyers paid $163,537, or 28 percent, on an average home price of $580,000.

Overall, the average down payment for the nation’s top 25 housing markets — a list that includes New York — is $138,547, or 24 percent of the total purchase price, according to the report, cited by the New York Daily News.

The report shows that efforts by lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to spur millennials to buy homes with low-down-payment mortgage programs are not making much of a difference in the most competitive housing markets, which is where many millennials live. Low-down-payment loans, which can be offered for purchases with down payments as little as 3 percent, only accounted for 7 percent of home purchases in the top 25 housing markets, according to RealtyTrac.

The best cities for millennials looking to buy with a low down payment are Philadelphia, Nashville, Des Moines, Little Rock, and Columbus, according to the report. [NYDN] — Tess Hofmann