This is a personal-comfort call, and we cannot make it for you. The anchor is simple: you have to be able to make the payment comfortably every month, indefinitely. If the payment does not feel sustainable, you have two levers: wait for affordability to improve, or put more money down. Know how little the second lever moves things. As a rough illustration at an elevated rate, an extra $10,000 down lowers the payment by about $65 a month. You would be trading $10,000 of liquid cash, which you cannot easily retrieve without a refinance or home equity line, for a modest monthly saving. Only you can say whether that trade is worth it. On waiting for rates: nobody can promise a direction, up or down. What we can say is that the two numbers age differently. A rate can be refinanced later if the market improves. The purchase price is fixed forever the day you buy. So make the decision about the payment you can live with, on your timeline, and leave the rate guessing out of it.