What Credit Score Do You Need To Buy A House In Arizona?
Imperial Ethics Credit Repair · Glendale, Arizona · 6 min read
There is no single number. The minimum depends on which loan you are using, and the score that gets you approved is rarely the score that gets you a good rate.
Minimums by loan type
These are the floors set by the loan programs themselves. Individual lenders routinely require more, and they are allowed to. Lenders call these extra requirements overlays.
FHA loan: 580
580 with 3.5% down. Between 500 and 579 you can still qualify, but the down payment jumps to 10%. This is the most forgiving common option for a damaged file.
Conventional loan: 620
620 is the usual floor. Below roughly 740 you will pay more for private mortgage insurance if you are putting down less than 20%.
VA loan: no federal minimum
The VA sets no score requirement, but most lenders writing VA loans want around 620. Worth shopping, because overlays vary a lot between lenders.
USDA loan: around 640
For eligible rural areas, and parts of Arizona outside the metro qualify. Most lenders want about 640 for streamlined processing.
Arizona down payment assistance: around 640
State-run assistance programs generally set their own minimum in the low 640s and carry income and homebuyer-education requirements. Check current terms before you plan around one.
Lenders look at more than the number
Two applicants with a 660 can get very different answers. Underwriters also weigh your debt-to-income ratio, how long you have been in your job, how much you have in reserves after closing, and what the derogatory marks on your report actually are. A single medical collection from four years ago reads very differently from a repossession last spring.
Mortgage lenders also use older FICO scoring models than the free score in your banking app, and they pull all three bureaus and use the middle score. That is why the number you have been watching may not be the number that ends up on your application.
What a low score actually costs
Rate pricing is tiered by score band. Moving from the low 600s into the 700s can change your interest rate meaningfully, and on a thirty-year mortgage a difference of even half a point compounds into tens of thousands of dollars over the life of the loan. It also changes your monthly payment, which is what determines how much house you qualify for in the first place.
This is the argument for fixing the report before you apply rather than after. A denial or a bad rate is expensive in a way that a few months of preparation is not.
What to do six months before you apply
Getting mortgage-ready in the Valley
Most of our clients come to us because a lender told them no. We clean up the report and connect you with Valley Realtors and mortgage loan officers when the file is ready. No guarantee on any particular score, but you will know exactly where you stand.
