Once we found the right house, we thought being under contract and closing on the purchase would be a piece of cake. However, our closing date got pushed back twice—once because the seller hadn’t finished some repairs on the property, and the second time because a glitch involving my student loans had to be corrected.

Matt and I both had student loan debt when we were closing on our house. But I was still in graduate school, so my loans were not yet “in repayment” – meaning I wasn’t having to make payments on them yet. Our loan officer told us that if we I wasn’t required to begin paying for those loans back for at least a year after our closing date, then they wouldn’t be considered towards our debt-to-income ratio. That’s important because if your debt-to-income ratio is too high – in other …

When it comes to choosing the type of loan to go with when buying a house, the home loan possibilities can at first seem confusing and overwhelming. One option which is appealing to more homebuyers these days is an FHA loan, backed by the Federal Housing Administration. Me and my now-husband Matt went with this type of loan for probably the same reasons a lot of people do—it was easier for us to qualify for an FHA loan and it requires a smaller down payment than the traditional 20%.

Our loan required 3.5% down, which was a much more affordable amount for a couple also paying for wedding expenses while house hunting. We opted for the FHA loan for another reason, too—it took both of our credit histories into account and both of our names were on the loan, even though we weren’t married yet. We were able to secure a larger …

Mortgage securitization and the influence this has on mortgage rates and qualification is gaining prevalence  - and there are significant changes on the horizon that warrant an understanding to ensure borrowers are not left without options. Below we provide a “CliffsNotes” version of the major considerations and the impact from each.

In Summary

We estimate mortgage rates to increase for borrowers by 0.95% to 1.20% (95-120bps), exclusive of any change in demand for U.S. debt or market related events. This increase is a function of changes in forthcoming regulatory and accounting influences that will drive originators to increase the cost to borrowers (by increasing rates) to offset the negative impact from the additional cost of capital to ensure margins are maintained. Some of the increases will be felt over time given the layering of increased reserve requirements between 2013 and 2018 but the direction is clearly higher, only the magnitude is being …