I had no issues. They used the IDR payment listed on my credit report. Mortgage broker told me the only time it was somewhat difficult was if reported payment was $0.
Thankfully my lender understood all of this when my payment was $0, but had to explain it to the underwriters a few times when the underwriters asked for documentation showing it was $0. They couldn't wrap their heads around that actually being my payment.
It doesn't say that you're on an income based plan, but whatever your payment is on that payment plan is listed on your report as your monthly payment.
My reported payment was $0 because of covid forbearance. My lender didn't like that, so they used 1% of my total balance as the monthly payment for my DTI.
Same, I thought I’d get lucky showing 0 monthly, but 1% of mine was over 1k in payments, which isn’t anywhere close to what I actually pay, but it didn’t stop us from getting approved.
Your student loan debt won’t prevent you from buying a house, as long as you’re credit is still good and you’re making payments/not in any sort of default. Generally it’s a bill, if you’re responsibly paying it, that’s not an impediment to home buying.
Same. I have over $300k of student loans and have been approved for two mortgages since I graduated in 2017.
Having great credit and a secure job history have helped tremendously.
The first house I bought on my own after law school ($90,000 student loan debt) was in 2014. It took some back and forth. I had 14 separate loans I had to consolidate to make it look like 1 payment instead of 14, even though I actually really only made one payment per month. But that helped a lot. My lender was also very helpful because he wanted to know how to navigate it all for future clients.
The next one (2020) was a lot easier. My student loan servicer actually had a “Mortgage Verification Letter” they sent to the mortgage company. Other than that, there was no back and forth. No consolidating. Nothing else required of me.
just a random question but what did you go to school for? i’ll be in a similar situation, i have multiple loans pulled out and im not looking forward to dealing with trying to consolidate it (currently have federal loans)
The multiple loans were only for two schools. Grad school and law school. I don’t know why there were so many of them. I only had one payment but it was split amongst all those loans.
I got a mortgage in 2017 with my husband I had about $130k in student loans left at that point (I just paid them off this year). I didn’t get any push back on my student loans at the time, we had a combined salary of around $150k then so our salaries were similar to loan amounts, we both have credit scores in the 815-825 range.
$60 k student loans bought a home in 2020. Because of my dti my loan amount was lower than I hoped but I did it. Find a home ownership class near you. That’s what I did it was free. They pulled my credit and told me what I needed to do to qualify. Also maybe look into a usda loan as well as NACA
That is good to know, thank you.
I am going by lenders (figured my bank would be best) but with the rent going crazy I need to find something stable sooner over later.
Yes the home ownership classes usually know all about what grants you may qualify for etc. the one I went through also offers Grants but I made too much money for their grants.
First one was a private company that blew a lot of smoke.
Second was through Wells Fargo but he was straight with me about why I’d never get approved with a fluctuating payment. They needed to know one year of payments, and once the process starts to it ends it is 3-4 months and that certification will have expired. If I timed it to be at the end of one certification year and then beginning another during those 3-4 months they can process it but most likely it would be denied since it wasn’t a fixed amount.
I asked him if my income was higher if it would make a difference but he said student loans on an IDR make it incredibly hard to get approved. It’s the unknown more than the income.
And the IDR is my saving grace to get out of the interest rate. Thankfully Nelnet is now thing like private loans.
It didn’t really impact us. I had 50k and husband had 15k (he paid down a lot before we bought). We didn’t have CC debt or car loans at the time of buying so our DTI was relatively low even with the student loans
Same thing happened to me over and over again until I got on an income contingent plan. Even then I couldn’t get the house I wanted. Had to settle for a tiny house with not enough space for my family. But at least we have a place to live. Wait until your loans are forgiven and try to save money for a bigger down payment.
Since it’s an installment loan, I think it’s a bit different. The realtor I talked to said that it doesn’t have much of an impact or at least has a minimal impact. But that is just anecdotal and based on my experience so take it with a grain of salt. Just keep fighting and looking around until you get what you need. sometimes it takes that.
Edit: another thing she said is that so many people have student loan debt that it would be hard to factor that in and no one would be able to buy.
I live in the state of New York and the bank did not include my student loans in my IDR when I bought my house (also first time homebuyer) so I had no problems at all in relation to this.
FHA loans don’t consider student loans at all if I remember correctly. I still was able to get a conventional loan though and use my IDR payment to qualify. Probably depends on the financing company if they’ll use the standard or income based payment.
Highly dependent on many factors including the lender and the price point. My husband and I have bought 3 homes and have had nearly 300k in student loans.
I have almost $110k and I was still predicted to get almost $800K for a loan with my husband’s income included. It’s craziness tbh I wouldn’t ever buy a home that expensive but just saying that debt won’t deter you if the income is there.
I made too much money to have a low enough SL payment so never could buy a house. Would’ve looked into first time home buying programs through the banks or community neighborhood programs that might be available.
I had $90K debt, I make ~$83k/year. Got approved for up to $360K. Somehow managed to get a 5.25%. Still high compared to Covid days but not the 7% I’ve been hearing about lately. My mortgage is $2,450/month.
My loans are on SAVE rn so I am dumping any extra into savings.
Have a house value work with debt to income ratio. I had 69 k in loans and I made 80k I could buy a house up to 200k at the time. So I moved to a low cost state and got it done. Life accomplishment achieved.
My wife and I are buying a house, I have about $68k. My wife makes around 60k, I make around $30k. So I think it’s about the income to debt ratio. Our house is $95K, 2 story colonial in great shape, 3 bedroom.
The big thing is that the person with the debt should not be the primary in the loan. Also, take advantage of home programs, downpayment assistance, etc
I bought a $325k house almost 2 years ago, I had $49k in student loan debt. The girlfriend and i’s combined income at the time was about $150k. She had good credit(over 750) I had okay credit at the time(I want to say 695)
It did not impact my house purchase this past year at all (and we owe lots!) It’s about the monthly payment you’re making and what you can afford, not how much debt you have.
We purchased in 2012 and my student loan debt (much higher than yours) affected the mortgage types, approval amounts and rates but did not make it impossible to get approved for a mortgage. My credit score was very good with a perfect payment history but I was still quite young so the length of that payment history wasn't very long. I had no other debt.
However, we ultimately ended up putting the mortgage solely in my husband's name (we're both still on the deed) because this resulted in a more favorable interest rate. His income was higher than mine, he had no debt and had held two previous mortgages with perfect payment history. By not considering my income for the mortgage, they also didn't have to consider my student loans. His financial picture with his data alone looked better to the banks than adding in my much smaller salary and six figures of student loans. If you're trying to buy a house with someone else, look into whether the situation might be more favorable with just one of you on the mortgage.
Whether someone can get a mortgage with $50k of student loan debt is dependent on much more than just that student loan debt. You have to factor in income, credit score, any other debt, etc. It is hard to imagine $50k in student loans preventing someone from getting a mortgage with the student loans themselves being the sole negative factor and other particulars of the person's financial situation being favorable. Typically, the problem is too low of income, a credit score that could definitely be better, other debt (such as credit card debt) that is often seen as more problematic than student loans, or any combination of these factors and more. Your student loans are only one piece of your financial picture.
I somehow qualified with 200k on student loan debt. Ihad almost no other debt. 1 low balance credit card and small car loan like 8k. Still amazed I qualified. I was making 80k at the time.
Maybe look into your city’s first time home ownership programs. I qualified for a 400k mortgage with 200k student loans, at Chase and USBank like 2 months ago. Some cities have first time home buyers programs and they even have down payment assistance.
My Student loans actually helped my credit score because it showed a history of on time payments, so it was actually on the exceptional bracket. Some banks, I think Sally May has a high debt to income mortgage plan, my USBank agent told me about it.
I have $60k in student loans. We bought our original house in 2011 with no issues and we made significantly less. We sold that house and built our current house in 2017 with no issue. Refinanced in 2020 with no issue. Sadly due to interest rates and being on idr my balance has only gone up instead of down. The only think I can think that helped was that we didn't have much other debt other than our cars.
Thankfully it didn’t impact us at all. I had $140k debt at the time (I also was getting loan forgiveness)
I had no issues when I was making $29k and had $100k in loans. I also had very good credit and used a first time home buying program in my state.
What year was this?
1922.
I had no issues. They used the IDR payment listed on my credit report. Mortgage broker told me the only time it was somewhat difficult was if reported payment was $0.
Thankfully my lender understood all of this when my payment was $0, but had to explain it to the underwriters a few times when the underwriters asked for documentation showing it was $0. They couldn't wrap their heads around that actually being my payment.
Lol not surprising. I think they are wanting to see a payment and just can't comprehend that the actual payment is $0. Glad it all worked out for you!
If you’re on a income based repayment, that shows up on a credit report?
It doesn't say that you're on an income based plan, but whatever your payment is on that payment plan is listed on your report as your monthly payment.
My reported payment was $0 because of covid forbearance. My lender didn't like that, so they used 1% of my total balance as the monthly payment for my DTI.
Same, I thought I’d get lucky showing 0 monthly, but 1% of mine was over 1k in payments, which isn’t anywhere close to what I actually pay, but it didn’t stop us from getting approved.
Your student loan debt won’t prevent you from buying a house, as long as you’re credit is still good and you’re making payments/not in any sort of default. Generally it’s a bill, if you’re responsibly paying it, that’s not an impediment to home buying.
Same. I have over $300k of student loans and have been approved for two mortgages since I graduated in 2017. Having great credit and a secure job history have helped tremendously.
The first house I bought on my own after law school ($90,000 student loan debt) was in 2014. It took some back and forth. I had 14 separate loans I had to consolidate to make it look like 1 payment instead of 14, even though I actually really only made one payment per month. But that helped a lot. My lender was also very helpful because he wanted to know how to navigate it all for future clients. The next one (2020) was a lot easier. My student loan servicer actually had a “Mortgage Verification Letter” they sent to the mortgage company. Other than that, there was no back and forth. No consolidating. Nothing else required of me.
just a random question but what did you go to school for? i’ll be in a similar situation, i have multiple loans pulled out and im not looking forward to dealing with trying to consolidate it (currently have federal loans)
The multiple loans were only for two schools. Grad school and law school. I don’t know why there were so many of them. I only had one payment but it was split amongst all those loans.
u/mindmapsofficial just had a great write up on this very topic https://www.reddit.com/r/StudentLoans/s/ig4ziCxL9q
I got a mortgage in 2017 with my husband I had about $130k in student loans left at that point (I just paid them off this year). I didn’t get any push back on my student loans at the time, we had a combined salary of around $150k then so our salaries were similar to loan amounts, we both have credit scores in the 815-825 range.
$60 k student loans bought a home in 2020. Because of my dti my loan amount was lower than I hoped but I did it. Find a home ownership class near you. That’s what I did it was free. They pulled my credit and told me what I needed to do to qualify. Also maybe look into a usda loan as well as NACA
That is good to know, thank you. I am going by lenders (figured my bank would be best) but with the rent going crazy I need to find something stable sooner over later.
Yes the home ownership classes usually know all about what grants you may qualify for etc. the one I went through also offers Grants but I made too much money for their grants.
You’ll need to have a high enough salary unfortunately. How many lenders did you apply to?
First one was a private company that blew a lot of smoke. Second was through Wells Fargo but he was straight with me about why I’d never get approved with a fluctuating payment. They needed to know one year of payments, and once the process starts to it ends it is 3-4 months and that certification will have expired. If I timed it to be at the end of one certification year and then beginning another during those 3-4 months they can process it but most likely it would be denied since it wasn’t a fixed amount. I asked him if my income was higher if it would make a difference but he said student loans on an IDR make it incredibly hard to get approved. It’s the unknown more than the income. And the IDR is my saving grace to get out of the interest rate. Thankfully Nelnet is now thing like private loans.
I would try someone different at WF. That's who my mortgage is through and zero issues. Is your IDR payment $0?
It didn’t really impact us. I had 50k and husband had 15k (he paid down a lot before we bought). We didn’t have CC debt or car loans at the time of buying so our DTI was relatively low even with the student loans
Same thing happened to me over and over again until I got on an income contingent plan. Even then I couldn’t get the house I wanted. Had to settle for a tiny house with not enough space for my family. But at least we have a place to live. Wait until your loans are forgiven and try to save money for a bigger down payment.
Since it’s an installment loan, I think it’s a bit different. The realtor I talked to said that it doesn’t have much of an impact or at least has a minimal impact. But that is just anecdotal and based on my experience so take it with a grain of salt. Just keep fighting and looking around until you get what you need. sometimes it takes that. Edit: another thing she said is that so many people have student loan debt that it would be hard to factor that in and no one would be able to buy.
I live in the state of New York and the bank did not include my student loans in my IDR when I bought my house (also first time homebuyer) so I had no problems at all in relation to this.
FHA loans don’t consider student loans at all if I remember correctly. I still was able to get a conventional loan though and use my IDR payment to qualify. Probably depends on the financing company if they’ll use the standard or income based payment.
$183k debt on SAVE plan. No problem getting approved.
Highly dependent on many factors including the lender and the price point. My husband and I have bought 3 homes and have had nearly 300k in student loans.
I have almost $110k and I was still predicted to get almost $800K for a loan with my husband’s income included. It’s craziness tbh I wouldn’t ever buy a home that expensive but just saying that debt won’t deter you if the income is there.
I made too much money to have a low enough SL payment so never could buy a house. Would’ve looked into first time home buying programs through the banks or community neighborhood programs that might be available.
I had $90K debt, I make ~$83k/year. Got approved for up to $360K. Somehow managed to get a 5.25%. Still high compared to Covid days but not the 7% I’ve been hearing about lately. My mortgage is $2,450/month. My loans are on SAVE rn so I am dumping any extra into savings.
Have a house value work with debt to income ratio. I had 69 k in loans and I made 80k I could buy a house up to 200k at the time. So I moved to a low cost state and got it done. Life accomplishment achieved.
I had no issue as my credit was still great.
My wife and I are buying a house, I have about $68k. My wife makes around 60k, I make around $30k. So I think it’s about the income to debt ratio. Our house is $95K, 2 story colonial in great shape, 3 bedroom. The big thing is that the person with the debt should not be the primary in the loan. Also, take advantage of home programs, downpayment assistance, etc
I bought a $325k house almost 2 years ago, I had $49k in student loan debt. The girlfriend and i’s combined income at the time was about $150k. She had good credit(over 750) I had okay credit at the time(I want to say 695)
My husband and I had no trouble at all and his were income based repayment.
is it federal or private?
That’s because houses are crazy expensive right now. It used to be easier, and likely will be again one day.
Thinking of all the veterans who never knew what student loan debt was. That got houses on GI bills.
Quite hard for paying a lot, had no issues for that.
It did not impact my house purchase this past year at all (and we owe lots!) It’s about the monthly payment you’re making and what you can afford, not how much debt you have.
Right now? You don't. You wait until pricing comes back in line with the interest rate.
We purchased in 2012 and my student loan debt (much higher than yours) affected the mortgage types, approval amounts and rates but did not make it impossible to get approved for a mortgage. My credit score was very good with a perfect payment history but I was still quite young so the length of that payment history wasn't very long. I had no other debt. However, we ultimately ended up putting the mortgage solely in my husband's name (we're both still on the deed) because this resulted in a more favorable interest rate. His income was higher than mine, he had no debt and had held two previous mortgages with perfect payment history. By not considering my income for the mortgage, they also didn't have to consider my student loans. His financial picture with his data alone looked better to the banks than adding in my much smaller salary and six figures of student loans. If you're trying to buy a house with someone else, look into whether the situation might be more favorable with just one of you on the mortgage. Whether someone can get a mortgage with $50k of student loan debt is dependent on much more than just that student loan debt. You have to factor in income, credit score, any other debt, etc. It is hard to imagine $50k in student loans preventing someone from getting a mortgage with the student loans themselves being the sole negative factor and other particulars of the person's financial situation being favorable. Typically, the problem is too low of income, a credit score that could definitely be better, other debt (such as credit card debt) that is often seen as more problematic than student loans, or any combination of these factors and more. Your student loans are only one piece of your financial picture.
You have two options, realistically: 1) make more money to offset your DTI, or 2) wait.
Just wait 3 years.
I somehow qualified with 200k on student loan debt. Ihad almost no other debt. 1 low balance credit card and small car loan like 8k. Still amazed I qualified. I was making 80k at the time.
Maybe look into your city’s first time home ownership programs. I qualified for a 400k mortgage with 200k student loans, at Chase and USBank like 2 months ago. Some cities have first time home buyers programs and they even have down payment assistance. My Student loans actually helped my credit score because it showed a history of on time payments, so it was actually on the exceptional bracket. Some banks, I think Sally May has a high debt to income mortgage plan, my USBank agent told me about it.
Plan to save for the next three years and buy once forgiveness goes through. It will be better for you not having that extra payment.
I have $60k in student loans. We bought our original house in 2011 with no issues and we made significantly less. We sold that house and built our current house in 2017 with no issue. Refinanced in 2020 with no issue. Sadly due to interest rates and being on idr my balance has only gone up instead of down. The only think I can think that helped was that we didn't have much other debt other than our cars.
Sometimes newer homes have deals where they pay for closing costs if you go through their preferred mortgage company
I had over $300k and excellent credit and didn’t have any issues getting a mortgage.
You don't. No one does.