One of the campaign promises Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has made if she is elected is to provide $25,000 in assistance to qualifying homebuyers to help them come up with the downpayment for their first home. Generous as the proposal sounds, it may not be sufficient in view of a new report from Redfin that found the typical downpayment for U.S. homebuyers in June was a record $67,500.

In fact, that figure was 14.8% higher than the $58,788 price tag established just a year earlier. It marked the 12th consecutive month in which the median downpayment increased. To put the current situation in perspective, the typical homebuyer's downpayment in June was 18.6% of the purchase price – the highest level in over a decade.

"Nearly three in five (59.4%) homebuyers put down more than 10% of the purchase price in June, up from 56.6% a year earlier," Redfin reported. This occurred even as the median home price jumped 4% to a record $442,525 in June 2024 compared to June 2023.