Two Moves That Can Get You Into Your First Home Sooner

For a lot of first-time buyers, owning a home feels permanently a few years away. Saving for a down payment takes time, rent keeps coming due, and the finish line seems to move every year.

The timeline is not fixed, though. Two decisions a buyer controls, what to buy and how much to put down, can move a first home years closer. Both come with tradeoffs worth understanding before acting on them.

How Long Buying Really Takes

First, one definition. "Breaking even" is the point where owning has cost about the same as renting would have over the same period. After that point, owning starts to come out ahead. Kara Ng, Senior Economist at Zillow, puts it this way:

"Buyers should think about not just when they can afford to buy, but how long they'd need to stay before owning makes more financial sense than renting."

According to Zillow, a typical U.S. household needs about 8.5 years to save a 20% down payment, then roughly 6.2 more years before owning costs the same as renting. Together, that is close to 15 years. That math rests on a few assumptions: a typical-priced home, a 20% down payment, and a household setting aside 10% of the area's median income each year.

Change the price or the down payment and the timeline gets shorter. Change both and it can shrink fast. It also varies widely by market, because local prices, incomes, and rents differ.

A Starter Home Can Get You There Twice as Fast

Zillow defines a starter home as the average home in the lowest third of home values in a given area. These are often condos, townhomes, or single-family homes that are a little smaller or older than others nearby.

Choosing one over a typical-priced home shortens both halves of the wait. There is less to save, and the gap between owning and renting closes faster. Zillow found that nationwide, a starter home takes about 7.2 years combined to save for and break even on, compared with renting. That is roughly half the typical timeline (see graph below):

That works out to about 4.6 years to save and 2.6 years to break even. It will not solve every affordability problem, but it can take years off the wait.

The tradeoff deserves an honest look. A starter home is, by design, a first step. A buyer who expects to outgrow it quickly should weigh that against the break-even math, because selling and moving costs reset part of the clock. The starter home that works best is one a buyer can live in comfortably long enough to come out ahead, not simply the least expensive option available.

You Usually Don't Need To Put 20% Down

Many first-time buyers assume 20% down is the price of entry. Most of the time, it is not.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers puts the median down payment for first-time buyers at 10%, compared with 19% for all buyers (see graph below):

The minimums go lower still. Some conventional loan programs allow as little as 3% down, FHA loans allow 3.5%, and eligible veterans or buyers in certain rural areas may be able to put nothing down through VA or USDA loans.

There is help with upfront costs, too. Down Payment Resource counted 2,833 homebuyer assistance programs nationwide in its third-quarter 2026 index, and some can be combined:

"Some homebuyers can layer multiple sources of assistance to reduce their upfront costs. Layering means combining more than one eligible source of funding as part of your home purchase."

A smaller down payment is not free. Putting less than 20% down on a conventional loan usually means paying mortgage insurance, and borrowing more means a higher monthly payment and a thinner equity cushion in the early years. Those costs are real. The question is whether they cost less than several more years of rent while saving. For many buyers the answer is yes, but that is a number to run with a lender, not an assumption to make.

What the Math Looks Like in Kansas City

The Kansas City metro is a useful place to test this, because price points vary widely from one county to the next. In September 2026, the most recent month in the local data reviewed for this article, the median sale price was $470,000 in Johnson County, Kansas; $340,770 in Clay County, Missouri; $285,000 in Jackson County, Missouri; and $235,000 in Wyandotte County, Kansas.

Here is what those medians mean for the cash needed upfront at three different down payment levels:

• Johnson County, KS ($470,000): 20% is $94,000. 10% is $47,000. 3.5% is about $16,450.
• Clay County, MO ($340,770): 20% is about $68,150. 10% is about $34,100. 3.5% is about $11,900.
• Jackson County, MO ($285,000): 20% is $57,000. 10% is $28,500. 3.5% is about $10,000.
• Wyandotte County, KS ($235,000): 20% is $47,000. 10% is $23,500. 3.5% is about $8,200.

Two things stand out. First, the down payment decision matters as much as the location decision. A 10% down payment on a median-priced Johnson County home is $47,000, the same as a 20% down payment on a median-priced home in Wyandotte County. Second, moving from 20% to 10% cuts the savings target in half in every county on the list. Under Zillow's assumption that a household saves a fixed share of its income each year, half the target means roughly half the years spent saving.

These are medians, not starter-home prices. The lower third of each county's market sits below these figures, so a true starter home in any of these areas would require less cash upfront than shown here. Closing costs and cash reserves come on top of the down payment, so treat these totals as a starting point for planning, not a full budget.

A Better Question Than "Can I Afford To Buy Yet?"

A more useful question is this: what combination of price, location, and down payment gets a buyer into a home they can hold long enough to come out ahead? Framed that way, the decision breaks into three parts:

• How long will this home realistically work? A starter home that fits for seven years is a very different decision than one that fits for three.
• What does a lower down payment actually cost each month? Mortgage insurance and a larger loan should be priced out with a lender, then compared with current rent.
• Which assistance programs apply? Eligibility often depends on income, location, and first-time buyer status, and it is worth checking before deciding how much more to save.

This is the work Munkel Real Estate Solutions focuses on with first-time buyers: translating a national rule of thumb into the actual price points, inventory, and tradeoffs in the specific part of the Kansas City metro a buyer is considering, so the plan is built on local numbers rather than headlines.

Bottom Line

A first home may not be as far off as it feels. Nationally, a starter home alone cut Zillow's timeline roughly in half, and a down payment below 20% can shorten the savings stretch further. The right mix depends on how long a buyer plans to stay, what a smaller down payment costs each month, and what the local market actually charges. Run those numbers first, and the path to ownership is often shorter than expected.

Sources: Zillow; National Association of Realtors (NAR), 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers; Down Payment Resource, Q3 2026 Homeownership Program Index; Heartland MLS and the Kansas City Regional Association of REALTORS® (KCRAR), September 2026 Local Market Updates for Johnson County, KS; Clay County, MO; Jackson County, MO; and Wyandotte County, KS.