Thursday, May 04, 2006

Home Ownership Benefits You Might Not Realize

The National association of Realtors has found, through a systematic review of research, that home ownership is an unbeatable way to provide the kind of stable housing that leads to a wide variety of household benefits for the community.

Some of these are:
Higher educational performance and better behavior of children
Lower community crime rates
Lessened wlfare dependancy amoung households
More hosuehold participation in civic affairs
Better household health

Your Credit Score and Mortgages

Your credit score is a very important part of successfully obtaining a mortgage.

Lenders each have their own parameters for extending a mortgage to home buyers. The credit score is the single most important parameter second only to income.

Credit scores can range from 300 to 850. They indicate to a lender the amout of risk you present. A score of 660 is considered to be below average risk with anything over 750 being considered almost no risk.

Your credit history is tracked by any or all of these credit reporting firms;
Beacon at Equifax
FICO Risk Score at Transunion
Experian/Fair Issac at Experian

It is a good practice to sign up for, usually free, credit reports to not only check your score but assure yourself that you aren't experiencing identity theft.