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For a mortgage down-payment, what percentage is sensible?
The typical down-payment was expected to be 20%.  The idea being that if one could not save 1/5 of the cost of a house, they were not responsible enough to ensure repayment of the loan. It is hard to say whether this is truly a relevant measure.  However, in the absence of other data points, it is pretty decent.  It typically requires a fair amount of time to amass that much money and it does demonstrate some restraint.  (e.g. it is easily the cost of a decent new car or some other shiny "toy.") Income is not necessarily a good measure, on its own.  I am certainly more responsible with my spending when I have less money to spend.  (Lately, I have been feeling like my father, scrutinizing every single purchase down to the penny.)