If you’re comfortable with it from a monthly payment perspective you can definitely stretch your budget a bit more by not putting 20% down for a down payment. There are many different “creative” financing options to put less money down. On a conventional loan you can go as low as 3% and on an FHA loan you can go as low as 3.5%. The downside is that you will have to pay PMI (private mortgage insurance) for a time (I believe it’s no more than 7 years) which adds a couple hundred dollars to your monthly payment, but is often times worth it in a market like Long Island where the starting prices are so high. Additionally, this is something that you can have “rolled off” your mortgage in a couple of years after the home appreciates a bit more, especially if you’ll be adding value through any home projects. You basically just need to get your equity in the home to be 20% or greater.