According to a survey done by Experian in February 2016, even homebuyers who make more than $100,000 a year are concerned that their credit scores are not high enough to get good rates.
Forty percent of the 500 respondents to the survey stated that they worried about their score, while 29 percent stated that they were actively trying to improve their scores in order to get better rates. All participants in the survey had recently purchased or were planning to purchase a home within the next year.
Many who make over $100,000 a year, seek to purchase homes that cost more than $417,000. This means they must qualify for a jumbo mortgage, which has some different qualifications from conventional mortgages. The first is that those with a credit score under 680 are likely to be rejected unless they can provide a good reason for their low score and show that they have the financial resources to pay their monthly mortgage payments. Generally, to get the best rates for a jumbo mortgage, the borrower needs to have a credit score of no less than 720.
Experian’s Manager of Public Relations and Customer Education, Sandra Bernardo, points out that many high-income borrowers never think to check their credit score. Many assume that their income and the fact that they pay off high balances regularly means their credit scores are good, but lenders also look at how borrowers manage their credit and their debt-to-credit ratio
You can check your credit score and read your credit report for free within minutes using Credit Manager by MoneyTips.
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