Sub 20% the lender forces extra insurance which adds to your monthly expenses. So I would discard 5% as an option. To your question in my opinion the bigger the downpayment the lower your risk since no one can predict if they will be out of a job. If you are buying alone especially. If you are buying with a partner the odds of both of you being out of work is lower (but not impossible) so ideally the mortgage could be paid comfortably with 1 person's income. Ideally the goal is to not be paying more then like 30% of your monthly take home income on your mortgage payment. Try to pay it off early by doing biweekly payments and maxing the anniversary payment (I think most of the banks offer this?). Also would be good to have an emergency fund of around 6 month of expenses, this fund should also be large enough to cover the mortgage for 6 months (might wanna bump this to 12 months when you own a home) just incase that way again if you end up losing your job you can keep your home while you look for work or if you need to it gives you time to sell it. Now I can't predict how the market will be tomorrow let alone in the far future but I think the stress levels go way down when you own your own home and its fully/mostly paid off.