How much do Kentucky homebuyers need to save for a typical down payment?
Planning to buy a house in 2026? If you’re saving up for a 20% down payment on a typical Kentucky home, it’ll cost you roughly $21,000 more compared to a decade ago, according to one report.
In a July 6 report, “Where the Down Payment Burden Has Grown Most,” financial publication SmartAsset found Kentucky had the 24th-greatest increase in the change in time needed to save for a down payment from 2016 to 2026 at median household income, assuming a 10% savings rate.
A homebuyer must save $46,446.20 for a 20% down payment on a typical Kentucky home in 2026, according to SmartAsset’s report. In 2016, a down payment would run you $25,113.80.
That equates to 30.8 years of saving 10% of the annual income for someone making the commonwealth’s $7.25 minimum wage, which is the same as the federal minimum. That’s a 17-month increase compared to how long it would take in 2016, according to SmartAsset.
Saving 10% of a minimum wage income may not be possible for many, as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage calculator finds a Kentucky resident needs to make $20.21 per hour to afford basic necessities.
The cost of rent is also generally inaccessible to a single earner making minimum wage in Kentucky. The National Low Income Housing Coalition reports a Kentucky resident would need to work 96 hours per week to afford a modest one-bedroom rental home.
For those looking to buy a home in Kentucky at the commonwealth’s median annual household income of $68,068, it would take 6.8 years of saving 10% of your income to afford a 20% down payment.
Kentucky has seen a 2.4% increase in home prices from May 2025 to May 2026, according to real estate company Redfin, and Lexington’s increase was a bit steeper, at 3% per Zillow.
Where has the down payment ‘burden’ increased the most?
Here’s how the top 10 states nationwide compared on the change in time needed to save for a home down payment from 2016 to 2026, according to SmartAsset:
- Idaho: 11.2 years to save for a 20% down payment on a typical home, saving 10% of the state’s median household income, representing an increase of 40 months
- Rhode Island: 11.5 years, with a 39-month increase
- New Hampshire: 9.7 years, with a 36-month increase
- Maine: 10.2 years, with a 34-month increase
- Utah: 10.6 years, with a 32-month increase
- Montana: 11.8 years, with a 32-month increase
- Washington: 11.5 years, with a 28-month increase
- New Jersey: 10.4 years, with a 27-month increase
- New York: 11.3 years, with a 27-month increase
- Massachusetts: 12 years, with a 27-month increase
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