New Freddie and Fannie Programs with low DP

It all depends on whether you think the investment in real estate less your expenses is going to outperform other asset classes where you could put your money. You're only 'throwing away' rent if you have the option to live somewhere with no expense -- it isn't practical to be 'short' physical housing. If you think that NYC real estate (and specifically the condo you buy) will outperform other investments, then it's a viable investment vehicle. (for a definition of 'outperform' that takes into account your personal tax rates, the marginal increase in costs over a baseline rent, renovation investments, ongoing maintenance expenses, utility value received from living in your investment, and an estimated holding period for the investment).

Without knowing anything other than what you said, if you only have 150k in assets (total, not just what you could put down), it's not clear that your first priority should be in something as illiquid as real estate.

Thank you Aaron for your insight!

Not to criticize but if you have only 150k in assets it doesn't sound very prudent to rent a 7k apartment in the first place.. I'd say a 1.2mm 1br condo would be similar to a 4k-rent 1br in terms of quality. So why not just rent the 4k 1-br for now and save 3k a month in rent? That's 36k a year, and almost a quarter of your assets

I was making the assumption that '7k' rent was 7k per year, not per month (i.e., paying about 580/month, which seems low, but not unheard of [roommates, miniscule studio, etc.). You probably could keep monthly costs on a purchase to around 7k/mo, but why not move to a cheaper place, continue to rent for a bit, and build up some assets first?

Fannie Mae and Freddie loans with 3% down are for loan amounts below $625,500, it may even be $417,000. If you're buying a $1.2M apt, , there's no 3% down.