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Not the Typical Buyer? Options for Special Circumstances
Not all homeowners are created equal. Sometimes would-be homebuyers—or the home they’re planning on buying—don’t fit into a typical buyer profile. If your circumstances are different from the norm, it...
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Credit-Reporting Giants Agree to Overhaul
The three biggest companies that collect and disseminate credit information on more than 200 million Americans will change the way they handle errors and list unpaid medical bills as part of the...
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If Only You Could Improve Your Credit Just by Paying Rent & Utilities!
If you’ve been struggling to build or repair your credit score, there are some changes in the works that may make things easier for you. On Monday, the three largest providers of credit-reporting...
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FICO Announces New Credit Score Based on Alternative Data
Fair Isaac Corp., the creator of the most widely used consumer credit scores, announced Thursday a new score intended to make millions of people who have had difficulty getting approved for financing...
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26 Million American Adults Can’t Borrow Money
One in 10 U.S. adults is invisible to much of the American economy because they have no credit report or score, a new report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has found. Those 26 million...
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Is Your Credit Score Good Enough to Get a Better Mortgage?
KLH49/Getty Images Credit is the biggest hot-button topic in mortgage lending by far. Most would probably agree, any time you can raise your credit score to improve your mortgage scenario, consider...
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An Economist’s Letter to Millennials Who Can’t (Yet) Buy a Home
Antonio Martin Sotelo/Getty Images Dear Millennials, Early this summer I wrote my first letter to your cohort, specifically to those of you who were in a position to buy a home this year. That’s about...
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So You Wanna Buy a House? Step 1: Clean Up Your Credit Score
stocknshares/iStock It’s easy to fall in love with the idea of buying a home. You’ve got it all planned out: a five-bedroom home in your favorite neighborhood with a manicured lawn and—why not?—a nice...
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Yikes! 6 Reasons Home Deals Can Go Straight to Hell
erhui1979/Getty Images You fell deeply in love with an updated Victorian, knocked a few grand off the asking price, and maybe even bought a spiffy camelback sofa for your new living room. Sweet!...
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What Credit Score Do I Need to Buy a Home?
Kirby Hamilton/iStock Buying a home may no longer be the American dream (now people just want to get out of debt someday), but it’s still a huge goal for many. But if you don’t have a good credit...
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Not Only Did You Lose Your House—Your Credit Score Is a Mess After a Foreclosure
ozlemonal/iStock “Foreclosure” is a frightening word for a number of reasons. Topping the list? If you’re unable to make your mortgage payments, you’ll lose your home. However, the misery doesn’t end...
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Why Are So Many Latino Americans Struggling to Get Mortgages?
Feverpitched/iStock With the exception of 2009 and 2010, Latinos have driven homeownership growth in the U.S. for more than a decade, according to Census Bureau data. Still, they’re experiencing...
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How to Go From Real Estate Gawker to Serious Home Buyer
photo: ayo888/iStockphone screen: realtor.com Millions of people visit sites such as realtor.com® each month, but fewer than 500,000 homes are bought on average in any given month in the U.S. That...
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The Cities With the Highest Credit Scores
Minneapolis, MN: Davel5957/iStock Your address doesn’t factor into your credit standing, but there are geographical trends to credit scores. For example, people in the northern Midwest have...
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Don’t Let Mortgage Pre-Approvals Sink Your Credit Score
YinYang/iStock There’s one thing we’ve hammered on about in the eternal quest for a smooth, trauma-free home search process: When you’re applying for a mortgage, you need to shop till you drop....
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4 Credit Tips for Buying a Home
Courtney Keating/iStock This may come as a surprise, but you don’t need a perfect credit score to buy a home or get a mortgage. In some cases, your credit just needs to be sufficient. Good, bad, ugly,...
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8 Critical Things to Do Before Buying a Home: How Many Have You Done?
mattjeacock/iStock So you’re finally ready to get serious and buy a house—chalk it up to the amazing spring weather, or maybe a precious bun baking in the oven, or that much anticipated promotion at...
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Half of Future Home Buyers Waiting to Improve Credit Before Buying
Courtney Keating/iStock A lot of potential home buyers—especially first-time home buyers—are holding off on taking the mortgage plunge, in hopes they can get a better rate once they improve their...
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Your HOA Payments May Now Affect Your Credit Score
Courtney Keating/iStock Homeowner associations can be great for neighborhood maintenance, settling disputes and enforcing community guidelines, but all of those benefits come with a cost: the...
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Capture the Glory of the Summer of ’16 and Lock In Low Mortgage Rates
Dan Brownsword/Getty Images If you are among the estimated 3 million households likely to close on the purchase of a home from now through August, the summer of ’16 is looking like a golden period of...
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Why You Might Not Want Your Spouse on Your Mortgage
deliormanli/iStock; realtor.com Couples may be inclined to buy a new home together—and, if necessary, apply for a home loan—but new data suggest you ought to think twice before saying “I do” to joint...
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What Is a Good Credit Score? The Number You Need to Buy a Home
SpiffyJ/Getty Images No number is more important to prospective home buyers than their credit score. Put simply, these three digits are a numerical representation of your track record paying off your...
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Is Bad Credit Keeping Young Americans From Buying Homes?
Geber86/iStock We’ve noted before that young adults are just as likely to live “at home” as own a home—even though they seem to be shopping around. Could low credit scores be holding them back? That’s...
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Is This the Biggest Change to Credit Reports in Years?
iStock/-Oxford The major credit reporting agencies have a big change in the works that could bolster a lot of people’s credit scores. As part of its National Consumer Assistance Plan (the result of a...
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This Change From Fannie Mae Could Help You With a Mortgage You Can’t Afford
iStock/Courtney Keating A restructured mortgage is a mortgage loan that had some material change to the loan amount, rate, payment or term that benefits the borrower. Some examples include an...
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Stop Complaining: Homes Are Way Bigger Than They Were 100 Years Ago
IP Galanternik D.U./iStockIt may feel like you’re short on space at home. After all, you had to rent a storage unit to keep all the items that don’t fit in your place. But a new study indicates we have...
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What Happens to Your Credit Score When You Buy a House?
-Oxford-/iStockIf you’ve just bought a new home, chances are you spent quite some time worrying about your credit score. After all, your credit score affects your ability to get a mortgage, and the...
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6 Surprising Things That Can Sabotage Your Credit Score
Stephen Swintek/Getty ImagesIf you’re hunting for a house and a mortgage, you’ve probably heard that your credit score will affect your buying power big-time, because lenders use your credit score to...
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Fannie Mae Taking a Closer Look at Applicants’ Credit Card Payments
DragonImages/iStock.comIf you feel like you’ve been managing your debt just fine, making the minimum payment on your credit cards on time every month, you might want to change your ways before applying...
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How to Buy a Home With Bad Credit (Yes, You Can)
SpiffyJ/iStockBuying a home typically requires getting a mortgage—and rest assured, lenders prefer lending money to people with a proven track record paying off debts. The reason: This bodes well that...
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