with decent credit 35k down will get you into a 250k home very comfortably, in my area anyways!!! the great thing about a shitty economy is you have room to haggle with builders because they have to make a quota on how many homes they sell per year. my friends parents got into the home they wanted. before the economy really turned to shit the home (lot included) was 280k they signed the papers last month for 205k. most of the times if builders aren't willing to price down they'll eventually sell as "rent to own" which is a good thing for us non plat poor folk