Unfortunately with today’s tight credit market and the increasing amount of foreclosures many people are unaware how long a foreclosure stays on their credit report.  The first thing to understand is that basically there are three different credit reporting agencies. There is Trans Union,Equifax and Experian.  All three of these reporting agencies do have their own rules about reporting and keeping financial information but basically they are all very similar.

On your credit report, a foreclosure is typically treated the same as any other negative credit information such as a credit card charge off, auto repossession, or default on a loan.  The general rule of thumb is that this type of information will typically stay on your credit report for a period of seven years.

If you file a bankruptcy either a Chapter 7 or 13, that information can stay on your credit report up to 10 years.  Many people become confused about foreclosures because it does stay on their record for seven years and they think they cannot purchase a home for seven years.

Typically the average amount of time that a person needs to wait after a foreclosure before attempting to purchase a new home is three years.  Because of the recent credit crisis this may change in the near future because of the high number of foreclosures.

Banks, creditors, and lenders all want to see people back out in the market purchasing new homes and borrowing money so the wait time for people who have had a foreclosure to purchase a new house may change in the near future.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 at 7:55 pm and is filed under Foreclosure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.