25 things vanishing in America, part 2: No-down-payment home loans

As the housing bubble inflated, you saw hundreds of programs about how to buy a house with 0% down. Don't expect to find that strategy will work for you today. While you may still find some foreclosure deals that allow 0% down if the bank wants to cut you a deal to get rid of its inventory, you won't find that type of deal on traditional resales. I have seen some builders offering no down payment deals, but they probably are paying significant fees to the bank or a private investor to get those deals for their customers.

No down payment homes always came with some stiff penalties, such as high closing costs and higher interest payments, so even in their heyday they didn't make sense for someone who was planning to stay in the house a long time. They did make sense for flippers who thought they could buy a house one day and flip it about a month or two later for significant gain. But those days are long gone.