How does student loan payment resumption affect my mortgage qualification?

Lenders use the higher of the actual monthly payment or 0.5% of outstanding balance for DTI. Deferred or IDR plans are calculated specifically per loan program.

Student loan calculations changed favorably across most loan programs recently. FHA: lender uses the actual monthly payment if reporting, OR 0.5% of outstanding balance if deferred or in IDR with $0 payment. Conventional / Fannie Mae: actual payment OR 1% of balance if in IBR/PAYE/SAVE with reported payment of $0; uses the actual reported amount otherwise. Conventional / Freddie Mac: actual payment as reported on credit. VA: actual amount or 5% of balance divided by 12 if deferred more than 12 months. USDA: actual payment OR 0.5% of balance. If you have $80K in student loans currently deferred at $0/mo: FHA uses $400/mo, Fannie Mae uses $800/mo, VA uses $333/mo. The variance can be 2x in DTI calculation - matters a lot when DTI is tight. When payments resume: if your scheduled payment is actually $300/mo, that's what the lender uses going forward, which usually helps DTI vs the conservative formula. Strategy if buying soon: ask the lender to run scenarios under both formulas to pick the most favorable program. Pay-down strategy: a $5K-$10K lump sum to reduce the balance proportionally reduces the 0.5%/1% phantom DTI hit.