By Kenneth R. Harney | The Washington Post
Are you on the home-buying sidelines this spring because you think you wouldn’t be able to qualify for a mortgage? Do you know what sort of FICO credit scores are being accepted by lenders at the moment — they’re lower than they were a year ago — and whether your score might now be good enough?
You may be part of the surprisingly large crowd of folks who fear the home-loan unknown. A new national consumer survey found that 56 percent of all potential purchasers of homes — people who don’t own now but hope to during the coming 24 months — say they’re out of the market because they don’t want to face the possibility of rejection by lenders. Even 30 percent of current homeowners believe they wouldn’t pass muster today.
