Whether you are considering the purchase of your first home or trading up to the home your family frequently fantasizes about, there are three crucial questions you must know the answer to:

What is the minimum down payment required to purchase a home?

What is the minimum FICO score required to qualify for a mortgage?

What is the maximum Back-End DTI Ratio allowed?

A survey conducted by Fannie Mae revealed startling information: most Americans don’t know the answer to these three crucially important questions. Here is a graphic showing the results of the survey:

The percentages are quite disturbing but can explain why so many people believe they are not eligible to purchase a home whether it is a first home or a trade-up home. Here are the actually requirements as per Fannie Mae:
Bottom Line
If you are considering purchasing a home, make sure you are aware of all your options before moving forward. ...

The widespread myth that perfect credit and large down payments are necessary to buy a home are holding many potential home buyers on the sidelines. According to Ellie Mae’s latest Origination Report, the average FICO score for all closed loans in May was 724, far lower than the 750 or 800 that many buyers believe to be true.
Below is a graph of the distribution of FICO scores of approved loans in May (the latest available data):


Looking at the chart above, it becomes obvious that not only do you not need a 750+ credit score, but 54.9% of approved loans actually had a score between 600 and 749.
More and more experts are speaking up about the fact that if potential buyers realized they could be approved for a mortgage with a credit score at, or above, 600, the distribution in the chart above would shift further to the left.
Ellie Mae’s Vice President, Jonas Moe encouraged buyers to know their options before assuming that they do not qualify for a mortga ...

The most recent Housing Pulse Survey released by the National Association of Realtors revealed that the two major reasons Americans prefer owning their own home instead of renting are:


They want the opportunity to build equity.
They want a stable and safe environment.


Building Equity
John Taylor, CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, explains that those who lack the opportunity to become homeowners have a weakened ability to reinvest their wealth:

“We traditionally have been huge supporters of homeownership. We see it as a way to provide stability for households but also as an asset-building strategy. If you continue to be a renter, locked out of the homeownership arena, increasingly those things are further and further out of reach. They’re joined at the hip. They perpetuate each other.” 

Family Stability
Does owning your home really create a more stable environment for your family?
A . ...

As a seller, you will be most concerned with the ‘short term price’ – where home values are headed over the next six months. As a buyer, you must be concerned not with price but instead with the ‘long term cost’ of the home.
Many economists have pointed to Brexit (Britain’s exit from the European Union) as a reason that interest rates will remain low for the next few months. But Trulia’s Chief Economist Ralph McLaughlin warns that this will not always be the case in a recent post:
“While the departure of the UK from the European Union has driven down the 10-year bond, and thus mortgage rates, we expect them to rebound later in the year as uncertainty over the economic consequences of the departure lifts.”
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and Freddie Mac all project that mortgage interest rates will increase by close to a ful ...

Some Highlights:

95% of first-time homebuyers are willing to sacrifice to make homeownership a reality.
The top thing that buyers sacrifice are new clothes at 54%.
Even repeat or experienced buyers say they sacrificed taking a vacation or buying a new car to buy their last home. ...