--- title: Here's Where Homebuyers Are Spending the Most (and Least) on Down Payments description: Homebuyers are putting down record amounts. See where down payments are highest and lowest across the U.S. housing market. authors: - name: Pete Grieve role: Lead News Reporter url: https://money.com/author/pete-grieve/ bio: Pete Grieve is a personal finance reporter at Money who frequently covers news stories about housing topics including home buying, mortgage rates and homeowners insurance. education: University of Chicago, BA Political Science at_money_since: 2022 articles: 600 covers: - Housing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://twitter.com/pete_grieve - https://linkedin.com/in/pete-grieve-b5aa02138 - https://www.facebook.com/petegrieve4 editors: - name: Katherine Peach role: Associate Editor url: https://money.com/author/katherine-peach/ bio: Katherine Peach is an associate editor with a focus on news and email at Money. She didn’t always intend to write about money. She’s a classically trained pianist who dreamed of becoming an archaeologist. However, in 2007 Katherine began working in financial publishing as an editor for Agora Inc. (Apparently, unearthing ideas about improving your personal finances isn’t such a bad career alternative!) Katherine’s writing and editing work has been featured in Investing Daily, Clever, Investor Junkie, The Palm Beach Letter, Truth & Plenty, Independence Monthly, NICHE, AmericanStyle, AntiqueWeek, Millennial Money, Money Done Right, TheStreet, Sure Dividend and many others. Katherine holds a Bachelor of Arts in Ancient Studies with concentrations in Archaeology and Ancient Languages and a minor in Literature from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. education: University of Maryland, Baltimore County at_money_since: 2025 articles: 14 covers: - Housing - Banking - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Federal Reserve Rate Cuts - Health and Wellness - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes published: '2025-04-10T16:23:14.000Z' modified: '2025-04-10T16:23:14.000Z' section: Housing tags: - News word_count: 509 canonical: https://money.com/highest-lowest-down-payment-cities/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![San Diego, California](https://img.money.com/2025/04/News-Cities-Down-Payments.jpg) Down payments have climbed to record levels as home shoppers contend with high prices and [mortgage rates](https://money.com/current-mortgage-rates/) still averaging nearly 7%. At the end of 2024, buyers were putting nearly 15% down, on average, and the median down payment was over $30,000. It's not like that everywhere. In affordable and less competitive housing markets such as El Paso, Texas, or Augusta, Georgia, buyers are generally making down payments of less than $7,500 (which is also less than 10% of the purchase price), according to new data from [Realtor.com](https://www.realtor.com/research/down-payment-report-march-2025/) showing how much buyers are putting down in 150 U.S. housing markets. In the fourth quarter of last year, buyers were making down payments averaging 14.4% of the purchase price. The typical down payment in the fourth quarter of 2024 ($30,250) was 125.5% higher compared to the fourth quarter of 2019 ($13,400). ## Which markets have the highest and lowest down payments? Out of all the metro areas analyzed, the top nine with the lowest median down payments are in the South. Notably, the three cities with the the lowest down payments are in Texas, which along with Florida has seen the biggest declines in down payments in since 2023, according to Realtor.com. The top five metros with the highest median down payments are all in California. Seattle is the lone metro in the Pacific Northwest in the top 10, which also includes three East Coast cities: New York, Boston, and Bridgeport, Connecticut. Typical down payment amounts are well into the six-digit range in the cities with the highest medians. These tend to be areas with high-earning and wealthy home shoppers who are more likely to make all-cash offers. In markets like the Bay Area, where down payments are highest, Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com, describes "severe housing supply gaps due to low construction relative to buyer demand." Softening in down payment amounts is more likely in less competitive markets in the South and West. "Buyers who can afford higher down payments will likely remain dominant in competitive regions, but affordability concerns may drive more shifts in 2025," Jones said in a release. ## Highest down payments Here are the 10 metro areas with the highest median down payments: 1. San Jose, California: $283,950 (27.2% of the purchase price) 2. San Francisco: $226,669 (24.8%) 3. Oxnard, California: $167,416 (22.9%) 4. Los Angeles: $161,876 (21.7%) 5. San Diego: $150,407 (21.2%) 6. Seattle: $131,479 (20.1%) 7. Boston: $111,959 (20.9%) 8. New York City: $107,867 (20.8%) 9. Sacramento, California: $106,672 (20.9%) 10. Bridgeport, Connecticut: $94,962 (20.0%) ## Lowest down payments Here are the 10 metro areas with the lowest median down payments: 1. El Paso, Texas: $5,058 (6.1% of the purchase price) 2. San Antonio: $5,388 (7.4%) 3. McAllen, Texas: $5,644 (6.2%) 4. Lakeland, Florida: $6,489 (8.0%) 5. Augusta, Georgia: $7,290 (9.3%) 6. Virginia Beach, Virginia: $8,142 (9.2%) 7. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: $8,161 (9.6%) 8. Memphis, Tennessee: $8,251 (9.6%) 9. Columbia, South Carolina: $8,577 (10.6%) 10. Scranton, Pennsylvania: $9,712 (10.1%) ## Buy your home with more convenience and less hassle ![View Rates](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/38130/medium_29a2a129-cf1d-4fcb-a92d-901b0c9bf0f6.webp) Our Partner [View Rates](https://money.com/go/05a94a4c29fd?bidid=4059670955&pmeta=p129-c488-u36862&ptid=665392115&ptoken=6032d0b4b7519164a507d21d6c167e6d) ![View Rates](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/39711/medium_85521de9-b6c5-4b35-a129-169c217d0287.webp) Our Partner [View Rates](https://money.com/go/afbe6202b8ab?bidid=4059670961&pmeta=p129-c488-u36862&ptid=665392115&ptoken=1c800939281e7017280fb0be4b0792e9) ![View Rates](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/34120/medium_4ba40e39-00f6-4f3e-9a12-67943aa4166f.webp) Our Partner [View Rates](https://money.com/go/542014866f29?bidid=4059670959&pmeta=p129-c488-u36862&ptid=665392115&ptoken=2f6880ad9b3b5ac30620c934372ea014) ![](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/26681/medium_57f09f10-efb8-487d-a73e-5f7d605144eb.png) Imagine finally owning your dream home — Rocket Mortgage (NMLS #3030) can help! [View Rates](https://money.com/pr/t39f99e0e0ab?ap_referrer=%2Fhighest-lowest-down-payment-cities%2F) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/highest-lowest-down-payment-cities/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Housing", "item": "https://money.com/housing/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Home Buying", "item": "https://money.com/home-buying/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Here's Where Homebuyers Are Spending the Most (and Least) on Down Payments" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/highest-lowest-down-payment-cities/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/highest-lowest-down-payment-cities/", "name": "Here's Where Homebuyers Are Spending the Most (and Least) on Down Payments", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2025-04-10T16:23:14.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/highest-lowest-down-payment-cities/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/highest-lowest-down-payment-cities/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2025-04-10T16:23:14.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Here's Where Homebuyers Are Spending the Most (and Least) on Down Payments", "articleSection": "Housing", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2025/04/News-Cities-Down-Payments.jpg", "width": 2880, "height": 1920, "caption": "News-Cities-Down-Payments" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Pete Grieve", "url": "https://money.com/author/pete-grieve/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/pete-grieve/#author", "description": "Pete Grieve is a personal finance reporter at Money who frequently covers news stories about housing topics including home buying, mortgage rates and homeowners insurance.", "image": "https://img.money.com/2023/02/peter.png?w=350&h=430&crop=1", "email": "peter.grieve@money.com", "jobTitle": "Lead News Reporter", "alumniOf": "University of Chicago, BA Political Science", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/pete_grieve", "https://linkedin.com/in/pete-grieve-b5aa02138", "https://www.facebook.com/petegrieve4" ], "worksFor": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2025-04-10T16:23:14.000Z", "description": "Homebuyers are putting down record amounts. 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