$\"The$ \n

Would-be homebuyers aren\u2019t sitting on the sidelines because they don\u2019t want<\/em> to buy. They\u2019re sitting out because they think they can\u2019t<\/em>. And sometimes, it\u2019s their credit score that\u2019s holding them back.<\/p>\n

According to a Bankrate<\/em> survey<\/a>, 2 out of every 5 (42%) Americans believe you need excellent credit to qualify for a mortgage<\/strong>. That may be why, when renters are asked why they don\u2019t own yet, \u201cmy credit isn\u2019t good enough<\/em>\u201d comes up often.<\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019re in the same boat. You look at your score, see it\u2019s not where you want it to be, and assume buying your first place just isn\u2019t realistic right now.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s what you need to know.<\/p>\n

Even though a lot of people assume you need flawless credit to buy a house, that\u2019s not necessarily the case.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You Don\u2019t Need Perfect Credit To Buy a Home<\/strong><\/h4>\nSo, where\u2019s this myth come from? Part of the confusion stems from the fact that the typical<\/em> homebuyer today does have a fairly strong credit score. In fact, according to data<\/a> from the NY Fed,<\/em> the median credit score for all buyers is 775.<\/p>\n
But that doesn\u2019t mean you need a score that high to qualify.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Looking at recent homebuyers, a number were able to get a mortgage with scores below that threshold. Data shows 10% of scores were around 660. <\/strong>Which means some were higher than that and some were lower, but the median in that lowest 10th percentile was around that range (see graph below<\/em>):<\/p>\n
$\"a$ <\/a>So, even if your score isn\u2019t as high as you want, that doesn\u2019t automatically close the door. FICO\u00a0<\/em>explains<\/a> there is no universal credit score you absolutely have to have when buying a home:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile many lenders use credit scores like FICO Scores to help them make lending decisions, each lender has its own strategy, including the level of risk it finds acceptable. <\/em>There is no single \u2018cutoff score\u2019 used by all lenders, and there are many additional factors that lenders may use . . .<\/em><\/strong>\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The best thing to do is to talk to a trusted lender to see what\u2019s possible for you. Because a portion of buyers are buying with scores in the 600s \u2013 and maybe that means you can too.<\/p>\n
Bottom Line<\/h3>\n
Your credit score is important. But that doesn\u2019t mean it has to be perfect.<\/strong><\/p>\n
If credit has been the reason you\u2019ve been waiting to buy a home, it might be time to take another look at your options. If you want help understanding where you stand and what your next step could be, connect with a local lender.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t need to have everything figured out to start the conversation.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Would-be homebuyers aren\u2019t sitting on the sidelines because they don\u2019t want to buy. They\u2019re sitting out because they think they can\u2019t. And sometimes, it\u2019s their credit score that\u2019s holding them back. According to a Bankrate survey, 2 out of every 5 (42%) Americans believe you need excellent credit to qualify for a mortgage. That may […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6189,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[29,27,20,18,28],"class_list":["post-6188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate-insight","tag-idaho-real-estate","tag-north-idaho-homes","tag-rain-silverhawk","tag-real-estate","tag-sandpoint-idaho"],"aioseo_notices":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260112-Blog-Header-Image-original.png?fit=750%2C410&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdz2Zu-1BO","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}