Today's Originatior Times has an article about a new policy that calls for a new, single down payment policy to replace the current one of charging higher down payments in areas of the current where home prices are declining.

Unfortunately they still "ding" buyers with higher interest rates if their credit scores fall below 720 or lower. 720 is considered a good credit score by most lenders.

A better alternative would be an FHA insured loan which never had the higher down payment policy and lend on credit scores as low as 580!

FHA recently upped the loan limits for the greater Knoxville, Tennessee area to a maximum $271,000 sales price.

You can read all about it here.