It’s a perennial question for would-be home buyers: How can I possibly come up with such a huge down payment?

The short answer, usually, is you don’t have to.

Most first-time home buyers (and even many repeat buyers) don’t have the 20 percent down payment needed to qualify for the lowest mortgage rates and to avoid extra costs like mortgage insurance.

Even if you’ve managed to amass a reasonable sum, your down payment doesn’t buy you as much as it would have a year ago — mortgage rates are roughly double what they were then, and home prices haven’t deflated enough to offset those higher costs in many areas.

But it’s still possible to lock in your sale with a smaller sum, whether you’re searching for a modest home on a teacher’s salary or financing something with a hefty year-end bonus or gift. Many programs, supported in some fashion by the federal government, allow down payments as low as 3 percent or even no money down. They go by funny names and a collection of abbreviations — Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, F.H.A., V.A. and U.S.D.A., to name a few.

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