Mortgage Payoff Prior to New Mortgage

[Klbb]

My husband and I close on the home we are selling on Monday.  We have a seller accepted offer on a home to purchase, however, it is going to end up being a short sale.  The short sale package should be sent to the bank in the next week or two.  Given the lengthy process of a short sale, we likely will not be making an actual mortgage application for at least two months (already have pre-approval). 

How much will the closing of the current mortgage account impact credit scores, and will they rebound in a month or so?

[Zolomon]

If I am not mistaken and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, it shouldn't affect your score. Your mortgage account will remain on your report with all its payment history, but shown as closed. Favorable closed accounts remain on your report for 10 years.

[Anonymous]

Our score actually went up once we sold our current home and paid off the mortgage. I got an alert that said 'score increase, substantial repayment of loan" or something along those lines. It went up about 10 points.
I have heard of SOME people getting a score hit because it changed the # of open accounts to too low. We have 5 open accounts still.

[Anonymous]

I was wondering if my score would drop due to the age of accounts changing. My mortgage is by far the oldest account on my credit.

[Klbb]

UPDATE:

Mortgage is reporting as paid off.  Husband's credit score dropped with all 3 bureaus.  17 points, 10 points, and 6 points.  I am hopeful this will rebound in the next month.  This credit game is so disheartening at times. 

In addition to the mortgage, he also has student loan accounts that are all current and have never been late, two credit card accounts that are all current, never late, no balance this month, and is an authorized user on one of my cards and one of my parent's cards...again, all great history.  He also has a self lender account that has always been current.