I am in IBR repayment. I just began it in the summer of 2015. I have a FICO score of 800+ and have been currenton my mortgage for 13 years. I am now being told by my mortgage broker I cannot get a mortgage backed by ffanny mae or freddie mac b/c as of Sept 2015 if you are in deferrment, forbearance or have a IBR payment of $0, you can’t qualify for a mortgage. i am also told if i change my IBR payment to $50 a month, they can’t use the $50 a month as debt, they have to use 1% of the total amount of the student loan debt. The only option is to get out of IBR and make a regular student loan payment - in my case that’s $1200 which I obviously can’t afford or I would not be in IBR to begin with!

There *has* to be a way around this. I am told to go to a credit union and try to get a mortgage. There are no brokers for that andI would have to go to eahc one seperately, pay the fee to join and have then ding my credit to see if i qualify. There has to be a better way!

I know there are thousands of people in my shoes. What do we do?

Thank you.

That’s very odd. I’m in the process of buying a home on IBR right now and they’re using my monthly payment of $1000/mo as my payment. One caveat is the builder’s broker has prequalified me but sent the home to underwriting.

I’m rereading the documentation requirements for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it appears that Fannie Mae will calculate 1% of the total balance no matter what; Freddie Mac will only do that IF your loans are in deferment, forbearance, or show a $0 payment on a credit report.

FHA made a change in September 2015 that also requires the 1% calculation…that’s separate from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (which made the above changes in December 2014 and July 2015).

Either find a new broker or have your current one double check the exact rules for Freddie Mac.

This is what I read:
http://www.freddiemac.com/singlefamily/guide/bulletins/pdf/bll1512.pdf
https://www.fanniemae.com/content/announcement/sel1416.pdf