put down the smallest downpayment possible and invest the difference. always good to have cash ready and at hand. If you lose your job, you won't qualify for an equity line or cash out refi.

I wouldn't worry that you aren't diversified enough in that range of 20-30%, so I would find the house I want and put down 20%.

Whether you put down more is more a function of what you would do with the money and whether you think those other investment will earn more over a comparable time period. If the loan was manageable, I probably wouldn't more down just to have more equity.

We are relocating cross country this summer for work and trying to decide how much to put down on our primary residence. We are a single income household making about $125k per year (excluding investment/rental income). Our net worth is $1.1 mil. We are in our mid 30s with 3 small children 5 and under. We have never lived in the new city and could be there from 3 years to forever. We are very good at flipping houses so please no lectures on renting not buying. Plus, we always make sure our primary residence will rent high enough to cover all expenses just in case we need to rent it out (though never had too--rental income alluded to above is 100% from investment properties).

Anyway, I'd like to limit our exposure to $200k max but DH wants to go higher, up to $300k. Is there some industry standard/rule for down payments? What would you do? Any opinions are appreciated.