14 Things to Consider When Buying a House

A score under 700 does not lock you out. FHA loans allow 580 with 3.5 percent down, and 500 to 579 still qualifies with at least 10 percent down. Lenders can set higher floors of their own, so a 580 borrower should call around.

Conventional pricing works in bands, not one cutoff. The top band starts at 780, so moving up one band before you apply is worth real money across thirty years. Our roundup of the best credit score apps covers the free ways to watch it move before you apply.

A prequalification is a soft check built on numbers you tell them about yourself, and sellers know it. A pre-approval means the lender pulls your credit and verifies income and assets.

Do not avoid the hard inquiry. Mortgage inquiries inside a short shopping window count as one, so rate shopping costs you almost nothing.

The 43 percent figure everyone quotes covers every monthly debt payment: housing, car loans, student loans, minimum card payments, child support and alimony. It is not housing alone.

It comes from the qualified mortgage rules, not an FHA recommendation. FHA guidance points to roughly 31 percent front end and 43 percent back end, and both can be exceeded with compensating factors.

In the NAR 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers the median down payment was 19 percent overall, but only 10 percent for first-time buyers. Repeat buyers at 23 percent pull the average up.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac back 3 percent down through HomeReady and Home Possible. Ask for them by name. HomeReady needs a 620 score, Home Possible 660, and both cap income at 80 percent of area median.

FHA cut the annual premium from 0.85 percent to 0.55 percent in March 2023, and 0.55 percent is still the rate today.

The catch matters more than the cut. Put down less than 10 percent and that premium stays for the full thirty years. The only way off it is refinancing out of the FHA loan entirely.

Supply is a local question in 2026. Parts of the Sun Belt now favor buyers outright while other metros stay tight, so the national story tells you nothing.

Look up months of supply where you are actually shopping. Under roughly four months favors sellers, above six favors you. That one number decides whether you write clean and fast or push for concessions.

Nobody can hand you a real breakeven point, and any article that does is guessing. Yours depends on the rent-to-price ratio where you buy, your closing costs going in, and the commissions and transfer costs coming off the top when you sell.

Until appreciation and principal paydown cover both ends of that, you are behind. In most markets that takes years, not months.

Lenders re-verify employment close to closing. Switching jobs, going from salary to contract, or getting laid off can sink the loan after you have already paid for the appraisal and inspection.

Self-employed or paid on a 1099? Expect two years of filed returns plus a year-to-date profit and loss statement, and do not restructure your business mid-process.

The mortgage payment is not the cost of the house. Property taxes, insurance, and maintenance run alongside it every month whether you budgeted for them or not.

Get an insurance quote before you are under contract, not after. It is a line item that can move your monthly number meaningfully.

Earnest money is a deposit showing you are serious, and it is real money you can lose. What protects it is the contingencies.

An inspection contingency lets you renegotiate or walk after the inspection, which is the entire reason the inspection has power. A financing contingency does the same if the loan falls through.

Rates move constantly and every lender prices differently, so a single quote tells you nothing. Compare at least three, on the same day, on the same loan type.

So do not plan around a rate you read in an article, including this one. The comparison below pulls live rates from more than 50 lenders. Put in your zip code, price and credit band, and see what you would actually be quoted today. It does not touch your credit score.