<prompt> Human: My credit union has an incentive program that offers its members a no PMI mortgage option if you can only put down less than 20. Of course, there is a slightly higher interest rate on that loan. Question: is it ever a good strategy to put down less than 20, even if you had the 20?  <response>: If you dont have enough money to keep a reserve of cash for emergencies then that would be 1 reason to put less down. Then again if you dont have an EF I wouldnt really recommend buying a house. 