FICO Credit Score & Home Buying

[nicoliae]

I just paid to check my credit score for the first time. I know they give you a credit score range of 300-850, mine was 720 which they claim is "good". But they also say that 60% of people are within the 650-799 range. My husband and I plan on buying a house in 2013, so I'm trying to clean up my credit as much as possible. We have over 20% down payment, decent income, and still quite a bit in investments. My credit score is the only thing I could see that would hurt me. On the report it says I was marked down due to credit length (nothing I can do there) and my debt utilized ratio. I have a tiny amount of credit card debt which will be paid off by the end of 2012. Otherwise it is all student loans.

Will 720 be high enough to get a good interest rate (3-4%)? I assume my credit will go up a tiny bit once the credit card is paid off.

Will probably DD this later.

[LoveTrains]

I am in the process of home buying, and my mortgage said that depending on the bank you need a score over 720 OR over 740 to get the best rates. 740 seemed to be more important if you are putting less than 20% down.

But that is just what my one mortgage guy said, so I would be curious to hear with others have heard.

[Deleted]

I am by no means an expert but I would say yes. I got 5.73% in 2009 with 3.5% down and a lower credit score than that. Now with that being said there have been a ton of changes in the mortgage industry since 2009. And I also used a broker not a bank.

Rates have fallen a lot since and I was offered a streamline refi in the 4% range so ... with 20% down I don't see why not. Especially if you take care of that debt to credit ratio.