jpalacios, I agree that you probably feel like you can afford the payment. Even if you take 28% of your husband's gross income, it calculates to a payment of $1,260. However, there is the matter of those two leases totalling $1,100. That kicks your d/i ratio to over 50% on the back-end. I am not aware of any programs today that are allowing that. A few years back, yeah, but not now. Someone who is aware of one, please correct me.
Now onto the credit piece. What is on the CRs that is causing DHs score to be below 600? How is your credit?
If you started working, they would take your gross income into account as well. When I bought my first house Dec 1993, my ex and I were fresh out of college (May 1993) and she had just been working for about three or four months. I worked my way thru college (but in a totally different field and for far less pay). They qualified us based on our current incomes.