     Lynn Whealer | Tuesday, February 08, 2000 - 08:22 am 
While I am not an expert, I can give you my personal experiences:
When I bought my house, my lender told me that any debt that is 10 months or fewer does not count in the debt to income ratio. I've since seen this affirmed on a couple of discussion boards.
Also, I, too, was interested in the "save money vs. pay down debt" situation. By using various calculators on the web (there are TONS of them), I got a consistent story that you can borrow more money by applying $15K to debt paydown than to use it for down payment. The caveat is that a *particular* lender might want to see you with more money for a down...or a particular seller might be more likely to accept your offer if s/he sees your down is significant, you can put a larger deposit, etc. And certainly, your d/p can have a direct impact on reaching levels of borrowing that will preclude PMI. So....several things to consider. Given your circumstances in your post, I *personally* (NOT a recommendation for you) would be inclined to put the money towards down payment, as your debt to income ratio is already in great shape. And with another $6K (plus a little more) for the down, maybe you could look into an 80-10-10 mortgage to eliminate PMI payments too (which is what I did). |
