How Long After A Short Sale Until I Can Buy A House?

a nice home in tucson Short sales can get you out from under an unmanageable mortgage, but they don’t come without repercussions.  Depending on how the short sale goes down, it can lower your credit score greatly, and you may owe taxes on the amount forgiven, as examples.

Eventually, some people want to buy another house.  But with a short sale on your record, you may have to wait a couple of years before anyone will give you a home loan.  My agent friend in Oakland County, Michigan, Maureen Francis has an article on her blog that explains the different rules.  An excerpt:

FHA has recently changed their rule so that if a short sale occurred and all of the borrowers payments were made on time (no late payments) then they may be eligible for a new mortgage as long as the short sale was due to extenuating circumstances and not to simply take advantage of market conditions (see below). As you can imagine, this may be difficult to demonstrate. Otherwise, if any payments were made late or you cannot demonstrate extenuating circumstances, then it is a 3 year period before new FHA financing can be considered.

Fannie Mae policy is pretty straight forward – It is a minimum of 2 years to re-establish credit after a short sale.

The article is written by a lender that works with Maureen.  Go check out the rest of the article here.  Thanks Maureen!

Equal Housing Opportunity Realtor