What credit score is needed to buy a house?

Today with interest rates so low and the required FICO score to buy a house relaxed, its the bust time to purchase a house. Starting FICO score for FHA home loans today is just 580. Conventional loans start at 620 and some non qm  or statement only loans (loans for business owners) start at just FICO 600. There are programs that start with a FICO of just 500 but you may not like the rates or terms and during Covid it is difficult for lenders to accept loans with that low of a FICO. More common is a minimum score of FICO 580.

Mortgage FICO is different from the score you get from your bank or sites like Credit Kama. One of the best places to order your mortgage credit is below. Remember there are many FICO scores and most of the ones that you see are consumer scores.  There are FICO’s for credit cards, to purchase boats or automobiles. The FICO that we are concerned with is the risk based FICO or mortgage FICO that the banks use to qualify you for a home loan.