Call me crazy, but I've always considered a (non-financed) 20% down payment to be a far better indication of credit-worthiness than a pay stub. With a downpayme

Call me crazy, but I've always considered a (non-financed) 20% down payment to be a far better indication of credit-worthiness than a pay stub. With a downpayment there's an immediate means test that the borrower can afford the house they're about to by, the borrower has significant skin in the game to not default, and the lender has a nice 20% equity buffer in the case that there is a foreclosure. My thought is if 80/20 loans weren't a thing and banks required at least 20% cash downpayment, we wouldn't have had the boom and bust debacle we saw in the oughts.