Saving for a home has become a marathon, not a sprint, as prospective buyers now need an average of seven years to accumulate enough money for a typical down payment, according to new analysis from Realtor.com.
That seven years represents a drastic improvement from the recent peak of 12 years back in 2022 when home prices surged and savings rates plummeted. However, that seven years is roughly double the pre-pandemic norm.
"Saving for seven years for a down payment can really push back your timeline on buying a home," said Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst with Realtor.com. "Especially for first time buyers who maybe don't have that benefit of existing home equity that can help kickstart that down payment saving. It's much harder in this market."
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A 20% down payment is a commonly cited rule of thumb, but homebuyers can put down less if it means getting into home ownership earlier.
"In Q3 of 2025, we saw that the typical down payment was just about 14.4% of the purchase price, which is actually significantly higher than pre-pandemic and just a little bit lower than the peak a couple of years ago," Jones said.
When a home buyer puts down less than 20%, they typically pay Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI), which protects a lender if the buyer stops making loan payments.
Generally, PMI is removed when you pay your loan balance down.
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It's no surprise that in many coastal and high-cost markets, saving for a down payment can take decades – more than 36 years in an area like San Francisco.
In some regions in the South and Midwest, such as Atlanta, Memphis, and Virginia Beach, the savings timeline is often under five years.
