With the mortgage credit score benchmark changing monthly, it’s really tough to keep up with what the requirements actually are. As the market changes like Texas weather, you can only assume you have a high enough credit score to even get a mortgage loan. This market has been extremely turbulent with all the new mortgage qualifying guideline. I wanted to give the current credit score requirements as of March 29, 2009 for FHA and Conventional loans.

FHA credit score Requirements- Most lenders are requiring that you have a 620 credit score to get a FHA mortgage loan. This benchmark has recently changed from a middle credit score of 580 to a 620 with most lenders. There might be circumstances out there where a lender will allow a loan below this benchmark if they don’t plan on selling there loans on the secondary market. I do know that you will find most lenders will require a 620 score to get you financed. I know this rule will be applied to all brokers, and not to all banks. So you might check around just to see if there is a bank allowing a credit score below 620 and what there guidelines are. Historically brokers have always been able to get loans done that banks cannot do. It looks like the tide might be changing a bit in this arena.

Conventional Loan credit score Requirements – Currently with most lenders you have to put down between 5 and 10%. You must also have a minimum of a 700 middle credit score to get financed. This is largely due to (Mortgage Insurance) M.I. companies clamping down on credit criteria to insure a loan. However there are some banks that get special privileges that other don’t. For example, some banks can now get you a Conventional loan with a credit score as low as 680 with 10% down. These M.I. companies have chosen to allow this with certain qualified banks. You will find that most lenders will require a minimum 700 credit score to get financed, and don’t forget you must qualify as well.

VA and USDA credit score requirements – These two loans are really the only loans left that are 100% financing still. They both are government insured loans and you must qualify for each program. Not everyone will qualify for either one of these government loans. The current market for these particular loans does require a middle credit score of 620. USDA has had this credit score requirement for quite some time now. So this is nothing new with this particular loan.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 29th, 2009 at 10:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.