For more information, please contact me at (512) 261-1542 or steve@LoneStarLending.com.
By G. Steven Bray
New FHA loan guidelines may make it harder for you to qualify for a mortgage if you have student loans.
Previous to the new rules, FHA allowed us to ignore student loans that were deferred greater than 12 months. The new rules eliminate this exemption. All student loans must be considered as part of your monthly debt.
If your student loan servicer won’t report a monthly payment, the new rules say we must use 2% of the loan balance. Fortunately, loan servicers typically will provide an effective payment based on the loan’s current balance if you ask, and this payment typically is closer to 1% of the loan balance.
The change makes FHA more consistent with conventional loan programs. However, Fannie Mae allows us to use 1% of the balance if the servicer won’t report a payment.
FHA still provides one advantage over conventional loans. It allows the use of the actual payment for income-based student loan repayment plans. These plans often have payments that are less than 1% of the loan balance.
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