FHA loans are available with low down payment options and lower minimum credit score limits, but you’ll also have to pay mortgage insurance. If you’re a first-time home buyer or you haven’t owned a home in at least three years, you could qualify for an FHA loan through an FHA-approved lender.
Qualifying for a conventional mortgage requires a higher credit score, solid income and a down payment of at least 3 percent for certain loan programs. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the.
Qualified borrowers can make down payments as low as 3 percent with private mortgage insurance, or PMI. For most borrowers, PMI costs less than FHA mortgage insurance (described in the next slide).
Borrowers can technically qualify for an FHA loan with credit scores of at least 580 and a down payment of just 3.5 percent, according to HUD. "While an FHA-backed mortgage with FICO 580 is theoretically available to borrowers, many lenders add ‘overlays’ on these minimum requirements," says Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH.com in.
FHA loans require down payments of just 3-and-a-half percent of a home’s purchase price. This means that the buyers of that $200,000 house would have to come up with a down payment of just $7,000, a far more attainable figure. FHA loans also are approved quickly these days; gone are the days when gaining approval for an FHA loan took months.
Acceptable Down Payment Sources for FHA Loans. A list of acceptable down payment sources for FHA loans can be found in HUD Handbook 4000.1, also known as the single family housing policy handbook. This publication (which is available online) serves as the official guide for the Federal Housing Administration’s mortgage insurance program.
Conventional mortgage insurance will fall off automatically when the loan is paid down to 78 percent loan to value (LTV), whereas the FHA premiums will exist throughout the life of the loan if the down payment was less than 10 percent. conventional loans can also be used to purchase investment property and second homes.
Also, because PMI is a percentage of the loan amount. The FHA insurance is known as MIP and is a requirement on FHA loans and with down payments of 10% or less cannot be removed without refinancing.