These are the two houses I've bought, but mind you, every market is different, and here, median house price is about 99k-118k. Anything over 250k is probably in a gated community, and well over 3000sq ft.
My 1st:
Cost: 50k
Appraisal: 50k
Condition: Move in ready (new roof, 3b/2b/2car+ on corner lot, full appliances, decor dated but great condition, 1700sq ft)
Down: 5% (bond and 1% of my own money)
-it was bought 15+ years ago, so int rates are irrelevant, because they're at least 6 points lower now with lousy credit, but my payment, with escrow was 390/mo on a 30 year. this is pre mustache, so forgive me.
Number 2:
Cost: 40k
Appraisal: 67k
Condition: Rough, but very livable (needed roof just to get 2 layers off, but that good otherwise, 3b/2b/1car, 5000sq ft lot, 1700sq ft house, privacy fenced, paved driveway to garage in back, almost no yard work)
Down: 3% (all me)
Payment: 430/mo with escrow
-fixer upper, and since the loan was only for about 70% of value, no PMI, even when I refi'd for money to finish the fixing up (also pre mustache)
The first house I actually paid it ahead for the year I had it, but 9/11 happened, and working in a city driven by building airplanes exclusively, everybody was affected badly. I lived there about 2 years. Hard to afford a house with no income.
Same thing happened to number two: paid double payments while I was working, but I only worked about 2 years before the economy crashed, and while my costs were low enough that I stayed there for two years trying to find some other work, it never panned out, and I only paid so far ahead.
I didn't need to spend as much to find a great house, and I could afford 125-150k house (built the way I wanted, for that matter), but the idea of paying more to own a house than renting seemed as silly to me as renting. Around here, 1bed studios can rent for 400/mo, but I I'd just stay home, since my bedroom is about same size as most. 2bed start around 500, but you gotta look hard for one that you want to feel safe in at that price. most are 600+. My mortgages were never higher than 500/mo.
I'm a noob, so I don't know everything about this, but I know saving more up front, keeping the term short and sweet, and paying everything you can to be done in a few years is always better than borrowing at your limit. You pay one off, you can use it as a down on the next. If I paid off a 70k house, I could sell it and buy a 140k house with 50% down and my payments wouldn't change. So I'd have more house, and I could STILL pay it off quick! Learn from my mistakes!
-FYI all I saved was the down. Don't do that! Not a good idea, in my opinion, but others might say different.