The median down payment in Boston in 2019 was $76,500, but that doesn't have to be how much you bring to the table.
The median down payment for a Boston-area home was $76,500 as of the tail end of 2019, according to a report from real estate listings and research site Realtor.com.
The finding highlights one of the biggest hurdles for many in buying a condo or a house in the region. The price tags are one thing—the same Realtor.com report pegged the median home sale price at $472,000, including southern New Hampshire, and other reports have pegged it much higher—but the initial down payment is something else entirely.
To underscore that, the new report showed how much a prospective buyer would need to save per month to afford the median down payment in one, three, and five years. In five years, it would be $1,219 a month; in three, $2,070; and, in one, $6,323. (These could be seen as essentially second rent checks every month.)
The savings sums—and the down payment median itself—are high compared with many of the other metros that Realtor.com tracked. To afford the median down payment in New York of $71,600, a buyer would need to save $1,141 a month over five years, $1,937 over three years, and $5,918 over one year.