How Long After a Short Sale Until I Can Buy Again?

There is a lot of confusion out there about how long a borrower has to wait to buy a home again after a short sale or foreclosure.

Just how long are the blacklist periods?

Part of the confusion comes from the fact that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginny Mae, and The FHA don’t make their policies crystal clear.

Another problem is that banks’ individual policies might be different than the GSEs. Meaning, a mortgage banker from Wells Fargo or Bank of America might have different rules than somebody else.

In other words, ask five people who should know, and you’ll get five different answers.

Here is an announcement from Fannie Mae from June of 2008. As far as I can tell, none of the announcements since have specifically changed the blacklist periods.

From this announcement, we can expect that a borrower could purchase a new primary residence

• 5 Years after a foreclosure (without special circumstances)
• 2 Years after a short sale (called a “Preforeclosure Sale”)

Minimum down payment and credit requirements of a 680 FICO score still apply.

Here is the entire announcement:

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