A 600 credit score puts you in an awkward middle. You are not shut out of the mortgage market, but you are not getting the rate your coworker with a 760 mentions at lunch, either. The gap between those two numbers is worth tens of thousands of dollars over 30 years, and it is the single biggest thing to understand before you start house hunting.
The good news is that 600 sits comfortably above the FHA floor, so a purchase is a matter of planning rather than luck. What follows are the numbers most loan officers won’t spell out until you ask for them directly.
Where a 600 Credit Score Actually Lands You
Mortgage underwriting is full of hard cutoffs, and 600 is just below the most important one. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which back the majority of conventional loans in the country, set a minimum score of 620. At 600 you are 20 points short of that line, and no amount of shopping will talk a lender past an automated underwriting system’s floor.
That leaves FHA, and here the picture improves considerably. FHA permits a 3.5% down payment at a 580 score. A 600 has 20 points of cushion above that minimum, which matters because it gives you room to absorb a small dip during the process without losing your eligibility.
Here is how each loan type behaves at 600:
- FHA: 580 minimum with 3.5% down. The most forgiving option on credit history, with higher mortgage insurance in exchange.
- Conventional: 620 minimum. Effectively unavailable at 600 unless a portfolio lender chooses to underwrite you by hand.
- VA: No official score floor written into the program, but most VA lenders layer their own minimum, usually 620, sometimes 580.
- USDA: 640 for automated approval in eligible rural areas, with manual underwriting possible below that.
- Credit unions and portfolio lenders: Occasionally 600 or lower with a manual review, a larger down payment, or established banking history.
If you want the fuller map of what is reachable at the harder end of the spectrum, our guide to buying a house with bad credit walks through the loan programs and the trade-offs attached to each.
What a 600 Costs You Every Month
Mortgage pricing runs in credit bands, and the 600 to 619 band is one of the more expensive ones. Compared with a buyer at 740, expect somewhere between half a point and a full point higher on your interest rate.
On a $280,000 loan, half a point is roughly $92 a month. Stretch that across 30 years and you are looking at about $33,000. That is a new car, gone, for a scoring difference that three months of disciplined credit card payments could plausibly erase.
FHA then layers mortgage insurance on top. There is an upfront premium of 1.75% of the loan amount, which most borrowers roll into the balance, plus an annual premium of 0.55%. On a $270,000 base loan that annual premium runs about $124 a month. For FHA borrowers putting down less than 10%, the annual premium generally stays for the life of the loan, which is why refinancing later deserves real attention rather than an afterthought.
Curious how the numbers shift if your score is lower still? Our breakdown of buying a house with a 580 credit score shows the pricing and program differences at that threshold.
The FHA Math on a $280,000 House
Concrete numbers beat general advice, so here is what a typical FHA purchase looks like at a 600 score.
Assume a $280,000 purchase price. Your 3.5% down payment is $9,800, leaving a base loan of $270,200. The upfront mortgage insurance premium of 1.75% adds $4,728.50, which you can finance rather than pay in cash. At an interest rate of 6.75%, principal and interest comes to roughly $1,752 a month. Add $124 for the annual mortgage insurance premium, then property taxes and homeowners insurance on top of that.
On the debt side, FHA generally wants your total monthly obligations, housing plus everything else, at or below 43% of gross income. Automated underwriting will sometimes stretch to 50% when other factors are strong, such as cash reserves or a long history of on-time rent payments.
That last point is worth dwelling on. If your DTI lands at 49% and your score is 600, the approval may hinge on whether the file shows compensating strength. Lenders do not add up your score and stop reading.
Your Score Isn’t the Only Thing Underwriters Read
Manual underwriting gets a bad reputation, and it is slower, but it is also where borrowers with imperfect credit win. Underwriters are permitted to weigh factors that an algorithm cannot see:
- Rent history: Twelve months of cancelled rent checks or bank records showing on-time payments can carry real weight on an FHA file.
- Reserves: Cash left over after closing, often two to three months of housing payments, offsets risk in a way a score cannot.
- Down payment size: Every extra percentage point reduces the lender’s exposure and improves your case.
- Employment stability: Two years in the same field, even across employers, reads as reliability.
- A co-borrower: Someone with stronger credit and income can lift the whole application, though they are on the loan and the title.
The practical takeaway is to bring documentation. Bank statements, a rent ledger, a verification of employment letter. Files that arrive organized get approved more often than files that need three rounds of follow-up.
Moving From 600 to 620 Without Delaying the Purchase
Twenty points is not a mountain. Most score gains in this range come from a handful of levers, and some of them move the needle within a single billing cycle.
First, get every credit card balance under 10% of its limit. Utilization is the second-largest factor in the scoring models and the fastest to change. A card at 60% utilization that drops to 8% can add 20 to 40 points once the issuer reports the new balance.
Second, pull all three credit reports and dispute genuine errors. A collection that belongs to someone with a similar name, a late payment reported twice, an account that should have aged off. Corrections take 30 days on the dispute timeline, but a rapid rescore, which your lender can request with proof, can update scores in about three to five business days.
Third, resist the urge to close old accounts after paying them off. Length of credit history and available credit both factor in, and closing a card you have held for eight years can hurt more than it helps.
Fourth, be careful with old collections. Paying a five-year-old medical collection sometimes does nothing for your score, and in some scoring models it refreshes the activity date. Ask the lender or a housing counselor before you send money.
For a more granular walkthrough with dollar figures attached, our step-by-step playbook for a 580 credit score applies just as well at 600 and goes deeper on the sequencing.
Don’t Torpedo the Approval After You Get It
Pre-approval is not a guarantee. Lenders re-pull credit before closing, and plenty of deals die in the final two weeks for avoidable reasons.
Do not finance furniture, a refrigerator, or a car between pre-approval and closing. A new $400 monthly payment can push your DTI past the limit that got you approved. Do not change jobs without telling your loan officer, even for a raise, because verification of employment happens again right before funding. Do not move large sums of cash around without a paper trail. Underwriters need to source any deposit that is not a regular paycheck, and a $6,000 cash deposit with no explanation can stall a closing.
Cosigning a loan for a family member during this window is the other classic mistake. It shows up as your debt, even if you never make a payment on it.
Compare Loan Officers, Not Just Listings
The rate spread between lenders on the same day, for the same borrower, is often larger than the spread between credit bands. Three quotes on a 600 score file can differ by half a point or more, and the difference compounds for 30 years.
Ask each lender two specific questions. First, do you do manual underwriting, and if so, what compensating factors do you need? Second, what is the full APR including mortgage insurance, not just the note rate? A lender quoting 6.5% with lifetime mortgage insurance can cost more than one quoting 6.75% on a loan you can refinance out of in three years.
Also ask about down payment assistance and seller concessions. FHA allows the seller to credit up to 6% of the purchase price toward your closing costs, and state and local assistance programs frequently stack with FHA financing for buyers under income limits. Many borrowers at 600 qualify for help they never ask about.
Start with our list of mortgage lenders for bad credit to see which ones actually approve files in your range, then call three and compare the Loan Estimate documents side by side. The one with the lowest APR and the clearest answers about manual underwriting is usually the right call.