Arkansas Averages Some of the Smallest Down Payments

Potential home buyers consistently regard saving for the down payment as one of the greatest barriers to buying a home, and who can blame them? Although the exact dollar amount required up front by the lender depends on the type of mortgage and purchase price, buyers generally need to come up with several tens of thousands of dollars in order to take out their home loan. Of course, as is true with any statistic, there is a wide range of averages observed across the nation's fifty states, and both down payment amounts and percentages follow this rule. With that in mind, LendingTree sought to determine which state's mortgage borrowers were offering up the largest and smallest down payments in Q3. They found that Arkansas buyers paid some of the smallest amounts up front, both in dollars and as a percentage.

Overall, LendingTree found that the dollar amount of the average down payment for conventional 30-year, fixed-rate purchase mortgages dropped nearly 10% from Q2 to Q3, falling from $52,480 to $47,265. However, the down payment as a percentage of the purchase price stayed essentially unchanged, rising 0.03 percentage points from 18.02% to 18.05%.

Which state's buyers are paying the most up front? It will come as no surprise to learn that California topped the list, both in terms of percentage (21.44%) and dollar amount ($97,809) of the average down payment. Here are the top five states in terms of percentage, along with the dollar amount of their average down payment:

1. California: 21.44% ($97,809)
2. Hawaii: 21.32% ($69,923)
3. Delaware: 21.29% ($51,678)
4. Colorado: 20.44% ($78,605)
5. New York: 19.85% ($90,318)

And here are the five states whose buyers put the smallest percentage down on average:

1. Alaska: 15.41% ($36,476)
2. West Virginia: 15.44% ($21,415)
3. Mississippi: 15.78% ($22,964)
4. Iowa: 15.80% ($37,367)
5. Arkansas: 15.90% ($21,707; 2nd-smallest)

You can learn more and see the complete ranking by going to LendingTree.com.