The three credit reporting companies are implementing a change Saturday that is expected to raise credit scores for about 6 percent of people with credit profiles, or about 12 million people. Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian will change the way they treat data concerning civil judgments and tax liens on people’s credit reports. These data are among the most likely to be incorrect or incomplete, and people have spent a lot of time and effort trying to get wrong information corrected over the years. In the meantime, their credit scores have suffered.
Because of these problems, attorneys general in several states worked out a settlement with the credit reporting agencies requiring them to leave such data out of people’s credit profiles if it is incomplete. The result could be a boost of about 20 points on average to the credit scores of people affected. But that increase isn’t enough to make a difference for many loan applicants in terms of qualification. For borrowers who are on the cusp of qualifying, however, the raise in credit score can put them over the top. For that reason, it’s worth letting your customers know about the imminent change.
The credit score boost is a top story in the latest Voice for Real Estate news video from the National Association of REALTORS®. The video also covers the latest on flood insurance reauthorization in Congress, an NAR advocacy priority since home sales in 32,000 communities nationwide can’t close without the insurance. The only insurer available for many homeowners is the federal government, so if the program expires, lenders won’t be able to close home loans for borrowers in flood zones.
In a positive development, lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee have approved a handful of bills to reauthorize and reform the National Flood Insurance Program. However, one of the bills needs more work, according to NAR, because it risks disrupting sales and confusing consumers. The association will try to get it improved before it gets taken up on the House floor. The program’s authorization runs out in a few months.
The video also looks at the latest home sales, NAR’s new CEO, and a case study of a brokerage in the Atlanta area that completely reinvented itself after the economic downturn.
