Down Payments Plunge to 4-Year Low as Buyers Gain More Leverage

House hunters planning to move this summer may not need as much cash for a down payment—a welcome break for buyers finally catching a bit of good luck.

A new report from Realtor.com® economists shows the median down payment fell to $23,400 in the first quarter of 2026—down 19% from a year earlier and marking the lowest level in four years. The shift signals that buyers don't necessarily need the biggest down payment to make the winning bid.

"I have clients win houses all the time without having a massive down payment," real estate agent Casey TeVault of Casey Buys Houses in Chino Hills, CA, tells Realtor.com. "Having a big down payment was much more crucial in the past than it is today. When the majority of buyers were putting 20% to 50% down, you lost your competitive edge as a buyer when you came in with 5%. But that's no longer the case."

From January through March, the down payment that buyers had to shell out was an average of 12.8% of the purchase price, down 1.2 percentage points year over year.

In the first quarter of 2026, the median down payment was more than $4,000 below the fourth quarter of 2025 and more than $5,000 below one year prior.

Why are down payments dwindling?

Rising inventory and slower price growth are easing pressure on buyers to put more money down upfront.

Realtor.com senior economic research analyst Hannah Jones says, "Active listings rose year over year for the 28th consecutive month in April 2026, while home price growth continued to cool, a combination that is giving buyers more negotiating room and reducing the pressure to lead with an outsized down payment."

At the peak of the market during the pandemic, Anthony Askowitz, broker at Re/Max Advance Realty II in Miami, tells Realtor.com that "buyers often felt pressured to come in with large down payments, waive contingencies, and present extremely aggressive terms just to compete"

Askowitz says at that time, sellers were receiving multiple offers within days, and buyers needed every possible advantage to stand out.

"A substantial down payment signaled financial strength, reduced perceived financing risk, and gave sellers greater confidence that the transaction would close smoothly and quickly," he explains.

Since the median time on market has now climbed to 52 days, the landscape looks much different.

“I recently worked with buyers who successfully secured properties without putting down massive amounts upfront because sellers are becoming more focused on certainty of closing and overall deal structure rather than just the size of the down payment," real estate agent Jessica Julian of Douglas Elliman in Palm Beach, FL, tells Realtor.com. "Strong financing, clean terms, and qualified buyers are carrying more weight again, even in traditionally cash-heavy markets like Palm Beach.”

Washington real estate agent Craig Walker says down-payment-assistance loans are also winning deals. "I just closed two, back to back with zero down," the strategic real estate adviser at Real Estate Bees tells Realtor.com. "With the seller providing closing cost assistance in the last deal, the buyer is receiving a refund from an earnest money overpayment."

The analyst Jones says government-backed loans are often filling the affordability gap.

FHA loans and VA loans—which often require little to no money down—now account for more than a third of all purchase mortgages.

According to Jones, FHA's share of purchase mortgages has held above 24% for five consecutive quarters, its most sustained elevated stretch since 2016, while VA loans surged to 11.7% in early 2026, their highest share in over a decade.

Sellers making more concessions

The Realtor.com 2026 Spring Seller Survey found that nearly 40% of potential sellers now expect to make concessions to close deals, up sharply from 30% in 2025.

"This is a signal that even sellers recognize buyers have reclaimed some footing," says Jones.

Askowitz says that he is seeing more and more sellers make concessions these days—and the ones who are willing to do so are typically the ones securing deals faster.

"We are seeing sellers contribute toward closing costs, offer mortgage rate buydowns, agree to repair credits, extend inspection periods, and in some cases include furnishings or additional incentives to help buyers move forward," he says. "Flexibility has become much more important in today’s market."

Cara Ameer, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker in Florida and California, tells Realtor.com she recently was able to get a buyer $50,000 off the price of a home as a result of inspections.

"The buyer could apply the $50,000 reduction any way they wanted," she says. "They opted to reduce the price by $25,000, and the balance was applied towards their closing costs and prepaids with any balance left to reduce the purchase price."

Some sellers are even doing repairs themselves to get a deal done.

"We're seeing more sellers replacing roofs prior to closing or completing the actual repair work if it's potentially a project with unknowns," Megan Gallagher Weinberg of NEXT MOVE GROUP at Douglas Elliman in Austin, TX, tells Realtor.com. "Buyers are hesitant to take on a project, even if they have a quote for the work today, because there is still uncertainty around future pricing on that work, materials, or what else may come up during the work."

Homebuilders are also ramping up incentives to attract cost-conscious buyers, according to real estate agent Stacy Miller of Re/Max Fine Properties in Arizona, forcing resale sellers to keep up.

“Resale sellers are having to compete with new construction and are increasingly offering concessions as a result,” she says.