Does having a Foreclosure Prevent Me Form Buying Another House?
The good news is that just because you lost your home to foreclosure, this does not mean you’ll never be able to buy another. However, you will need to be smart about repairing your credit, because the foreclosure has definitely dropped your credit score into the “too low to get approved” area.
“A foreclosure will cause a credit score to drop sharply, typically by 200 to 300 points,” says Andrew Housser, co-CEO of Bills.com, “That would drop a score of 700 – considered a ‘good’ score – to as low as 400 – considered pretty terrible.”
Going through a foreclosure could effect your credit score for up to seven years, however, Housser adds “If you keep all of your other credit obligations in good standing, your FICO score can begin to rebound in as little as two years. The important thing to keep in mind is that a foreclosure is a single negative item. If you keep it isolated, it will be much less damaging to your FICO score than if you had a foreclosure in addition to defaulting on other credit obligations.”
It is also very important to remember that there are many Americans that have gone through the foreclosure process, much more than in ever before in our countries history. And even though a foreclosure on your record was the “kiss of death” 5 years ago, it is generally understood that the housing crisis was mostly caused by loose legislation and opportunistic banks. So, there could be a sympathetic eye given to foreclosure victims in years to come.
I would not be doing you any favors without some advice on how to re-build your credit score, so here it is:
- Keep all other credit obligations upstanding
- Work with a credit counselor
- Educate yourself on credit rebuilding strategies
- Think carefully about co-signing on any new loans
Since your credit has taken a hit, keep your cash flow high. Almost all cases of bad credit are an emergency, whether it be medical bills, foreclosure, loss of employment, or a family emergency. If your credit score has dropped from a foreclosure, then it is extremely important to have cash reserves in case of another emergency. Even if it means selling off some of your luxury items, or making some major lifestyle changes, remember that you no longer have the credit options that you had before. And if an emergency happens, you will need to have cash available to prevent a wrench from being thrown in your credit rebuild endeavors.
California’s Proposition 60 offers tax relief by preventing property reassessment when a senior citizen (55 +) sells their current home and buys a new home worth the same or less. One problem with Prop. 60 is that the tax relief is nullified if a senior buys a home in another county. However, with Prop. 90 a senior citizen will enjoy the tax relief even if their new home is in another county, as long as they move to a participating county.
CMHI has formed a list of 5 important prerequisites to obtaining mobile and manufactured home financing. To satisfy the five essentials for real property lending on manufactured housing:
Only 21% of house listings on the market as of February 1st had one or more price drop. This is lower than previous levels, and is a good sign that housing prices are beginning to hit a bottom. The next question home owners are asking is: How long will this bottom last, and how quickly will home prices rise?
In late 2009, home builders missed sales because they didn’t have enough houses to satisfy a spike in demand from 
Many homeowners with variable mortgages have watched their monthly payments increase or stay high even as they have dropped for others. Why is this? The answer points toward the obscure indexes used to calculate those payments moving in unexpected ways. These indexes behave in strange ways, which have controlled monthly payments on more than $100 billion of variable mortgages, means that many homeowners are paying as much as 25% more than homeowners with similar loans. The higher payments, which can total $269 a month on a $250,000 loan, come as many homeowners are struggling to avoid default.
Penn State University carried out a mail survey in 12 rural Pennsylvania counties, the findings showed that mobile home residents were “overwhelmingly satisfied” with their housing choice. The survey elicited 385 responses. The results showed 48 percent of the respondents cited affordability as a benefit. Another 47 percent said the interior layout of the mobile unit contributed to their satisfaction.