Although credit standards are easing among lenders, they still take into account how high or low a borrower’s credit score is to determine if they will get approved for a mortgage loan, but there is also a demographic factor that could stand in the way of homeownership.
A borrower's credit score could be adversely affected by gender. According to a study, typically, men have an average credit score of 630 out of 850, while women have an average score of 621. But here's where it gets interesting: Men have higher credit scores than women even though they have higher debt and credit card balances. These factors could be mean that men are able to get a mortgage loan easier than women.
Housing markets across the nation have seen some major growth in home prices and sales over the last two years, but there are some markets are still lagging behind. Many of the worst housing markets in the U.S. are situated in Southern states. Recent data showed that bad cities for homebuyers are places that have bad economies, school systems are in bad shape, people are out of work, and residents earn low salaries.