For those of you getting close to the finish line in the home-buying process, be careful, there may be one more hurdle to cross. With tighter regulations being enforced by the government, lenders have been moving towards implementing stricter standards to better prevent careless underwriting and fraud on behalf of borrowers. In the past, a combination of monkey business by lenders and borrowers – including intentional misinformation submitted by borrowers on their applications, lenders approving borrowers with unsatisfactory credit histories, distorted home appraisals, lenders downplaying the risks of “teaser” rate ARM loans and much, much more — led to a slew of problems in the housing market, which most of us have become all too familiar with.
But the ghosts of housing crisis past seem to be moving on (however slowly) and the market is beginning to show signs of modest improvement. A combination of aforementioned stringent regulations and a more cautious consumer have led to a more straightforward, honest lending process.
So that hurdle I mentioned earlier? Once the closing process is reaching its tail end, many are tempted to open new lines of credit, either to furnish the house, purchase new appliances or adorn the driveway with a shiny new drop-top convertible. It’s best not to succumb to the credit line high as by June 1st, many lenders, led by Fannie Mae will likely be running an additional screening right before closing to see if you’ve shopped for new debt. If you happen to have taken out new loans that are sizeable enough to change your debt-to-income ratio, your closing could be in jeopardy….Kenneth R. Harney, a frequent Washington Post contributor, writes a great article about this impending regulation that you can read here- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/14/AR2010051400422.html
