A couple questions about how lenders count income...

[goodygoody]

Hi again!  I'm a little confused about how lenders (specifically FHA or USDA - we'd like to go with 1 of them) calculate income (and thus, how much mortgage you can afford).  I just read that they use your previous year's income tax return, but I think I've seen people on these forums say that they average your income from 2 years?  Or do they look at your income but then use current paystubs?  We're basically trying to figure out if we can afford a decent house in our area - our income for 2011 was $49000, but the previous year it was only $30,000.  Not sure what it will be this year - my husband does some work at a regular rate and gets some at union wage, so it fluctuates.  We don't want to wait so long that the housing market gets less affordable, but we have 3 young kids and really need enough room for them, so we don't want to settle for a much smaller house than we'd really be happy with.  Thanks for the info!!

[goodygoody]

Oops - forgot my second question!  Also, I read someone on here recently saying that their lender says if they buy a multiunit home, they can count "potential income" (as a rental) toward their income to qualify for the house.  Is that something that all lenders (again, FHA/USDA) do?  Do you have to actually agree to rent the additional unit?  We don't want to buy something we can't genuinely afford, but my mother will probably be living with us, so a somewhat higher mortgage won't be a problem.  But not sure her credit is good enough to qualify to be on the mortgage with us (I'm working on helping her fix this, but not sure it will pan out).  Thanks again!

[goodygoody]

Bump...

[goodygoody]

Bumping again...argh...

[Walt_K]

I really don't know.  Hopefully someone answers this for you soon.  In the meantime, call a couple loan officers and ask.