Debt to income ratios cannot be considered in a vacuum in today’s credit market. I work in loan advocacy (mostily in loan mods for now) and in commercial lending. There has been a MAJOR shift in approval considerations away from income/debt ratios.

This is counter-intuitive as FICO and property values are in such flux that a lender should depend on the fundamentals such as income/debt ratios in approving the loan. However, this is just not what I am seeing in the market.

FICO continues to be the top consideration with property value as a close second. My theory is that the banks and lenders have relied so heavily on FICO and LTV to determine the INTEREST RATE at which to lend that they just plain don’t know how to value a loan on any other criterion.

Originators, unless they carry their own loans, must still package loans to be sold to Wall Street. Wall Street has yet to give originators new qualifiers, so it’s business as usual at the mortgage desk. A quick approval comes with low LTV and high FICO. Debt/income ratios are all over the place even within the same lending institution.

For example: A recent loan mod I worked on with Countrywide approved a loan with the borrower being 36% negative each month after new payment arrangements. This was on a FICO of 710 and LTV of 95%. Find the logic in that one.