I need a little insight

[Anonymous]

I'm in my last year of an OBGYN residency.  I've signed a contract for $200k/year with a $65k signing bonus to pay off credit card and student loan debt. We have $28k in credit card debt right now, but will be paying it all off in July. My middle FICO score is 720 and my husbands is 685.  Combined, our income is 290k.

When we get approved for a home loan, should/will the mortgage company take into account that we'll be paying off all our credit card debt in July even though we'll be closing on the house in May? Also, can we expect to get competitive rates and a low down payment?

[Anonymous]

Future 'intention to pay' doesn't count (Sorry!).  DTI isn't calcuualted for a mortgage by what you owe now but by a total of the min payments for cards (bank assumes  spending spree and all will be maxxed), each monthly installment payment and the estimated mortgage payment(with taxes, insurancem hoa/condo fees) DIVIDED BY your monthly income  Paying down the balances would probably help your scores (which aren't bad BTW).

Any way you can wait to close until about 3 months after you get the bonus?

[Anonymous]

Thanks Scarlet! We're moving from Houston to Birmingham and we really don't want to move twice in such a short period of time, but if that's best we'll do it.  Thanks for clearing up DTI, I didn't know it was applied that way for mortgages. Thanks again!