Mortgages

I was talking with someone recently about the necessity of owning a home and he said it would be impossible to save up enough to buy one outright. I personally managed to save up 20% over a couple of years fairly easily. But I do have a fairly decent paying job also.

However, I came across this article on the web recently: Understanding the Mortgage Payment Structure. It says the government created a mortgage program in 1934. "Before the creation of this mortgage program a 50% down payment was required to purchase a home." Though I couldn't answer him then, it seems fairly clear to me now that our culture recently only believes that such a thing is not possible. In fact, there are programs where you don't even need a down payment. Our culture is so "I need it, and I need it now," that people no longer believe that they can do great things financially.