Realty Insights for Home Buying, Home Selling, and Indy Info

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article that discussed the new FICO credit score system. Fair Issac Corp, the company behind the FICO credit score, has revamped it's system in hopes it will give a clearer picture of a person's credit risk. I think this will be very beneficial. As first-time homeowners and mortgage payers, my husband and I were introduced to the world of credit scores. Fortunately, we have maintained excellent credit scores and have had no problem obtaining our first home mortgage and car loan with very little money upfront. We are becoming concerned however that all the people defaulting on their loans would affect us as borrowers by taking away 0% down loans and such. But, with the new credit scoring system, lenders should be better able to assess who will be a real risk and still be able to offer incentives to those of us who are not big risks. To read the full article, visit http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007712210347 .

Following is an interesting article from CNNMoney.com regarding new proposed regulations for mortgage lenders: Fed to tighten up lending rules The central bank is expected to propose regulations that would offer greater protections for home buyers and curtail abusive lending. By Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com senior writer NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Federal Reserve on Tuesday will propose a much stricter set of rules for mortgage lenders as part of the central bank's effort to avert abusive lending. The proposed rules are expected to crack down on lax practices in a number of ways. Among them, the rules are likely to: Prohibit giving people unaffordable loans . One reason for the spike in foreclosures among those with subprime adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) was that lenders measured borrowers' ability to repay the loan based on the low introductory loan rate, but not on the higher rate that the loan would reset to. The Fed may propose that lenders base affordability on a bor...