You have absolutely nothing to worry about.
680+ is considered A+ for FHA.
With that combined income and current debt, you can go ahead and lease any car you want and still qualify with ease. (Nothing exotic with 3k payments of course)
PM if you have questions. I know a thing or two about mortgages.
I was in a similar situation a couple of years ago, lease due up and ready to buy property. DtI was a huge issue for me. Not because Iām living on the financial edge but I had a family vacation property in my name that drove my on paper DtI sky high.
I ended up really focusing on the monthly payment for my lease. I actually put money down - never since! - so the monthly was super low. The mortgage company was satisfied I had transportation accounted for, but at a minimal effect on DtI.
Mortgage got approved with no issue.
Thank you for all the suggestions, people.
Based on your comments, I feel a little relieved that I am not overreaching on the mortgage plan.
@beardtw12 That 25k is spread across multiple cards because I did transfer some of the balance to other 0% api cards. I only have 2 of them on pretty high interest (16-18%) and now focusing on paying them off. I should pay them off in a couple months or by the end of the year.
Mistakes made, learnt the hard way, now trying to be a lot more conservative. A couple years ago, Iād have said I am looking for a 600K+ mortgage. But 2 years wiser now, trying to limit myself to what I need vs what I want( emphasis on ātryingā).
you could also do a 1-pay lease on a cheap lease like the encore. Will show as $0 payment on your credit report. But i guess if you donāt have $2-3k to buy a used car you donāt have it for a 1-pay either.
Thank you. There are no other ādebtā obligations. But my bank statements do show about $500 per month that I pay to support my parents. Its been consistent for the last 3 or so years. Its not a ālegalā obligation that I have, but a moral one and I plan to continue that as long as required. That obviously factors into my DTI too, right?
Not that I dont have 2-3K. I can do it if push comes to shove. Based on all the suggestions above, I am not ruling that possibility out either. Iāll look for a Honda/Toyota that I can buy for about 3K, if thatās what it ends up coming to.
thereās a lot of talk about your income vs obligation and how you āhave nothing to worry aboutā ā¦ all i can tell you is that you may or may not have something to worry aboutā¦but if you can avoid it, i would avoid it. You never know how underwriting ends up making decisions, if you donāt have the obligation, thereās nothing they can say. Iād try be on the safe side if it was me and not lease a new car and avoid all possible issues. Itās too important of a purchase to risk anything.
I hear you. Loud and clear. This is me arming myself with as much info as possible to make an educated decision. Thanks for your suggestions.
Easy peasy. Get a Buick encore for $99 a month and thatās the price of 2-3 dinners or a daily Starbucks latte. So that will not affect your DTI. And if $99 is affecting your DTI, then you have bigger problems than DTI for your mortgage.
thatās what i said but as a 1-payā¦will show $0 monthly on the credit report
Yes but if $99 is going to ding your credit report on 200k income a year, then you have bigger problems for your mortgage
Exactly - he is focusing on the wrong thing. Right now look at this debt, not at the car 
YOur conundrum is not mortgage or lease, it is how the heck I got into 25k debt at 25%!!!
Oh definitely not looking at the car right now. I am indeed focussing on my debt and hopefully will clear most of it off before I start my mortgage. But doesnt hurt to ask questions in advance, right? 
No I donāt believe that would be considered
Definitely payoff the high interest debt ASAP as youāve planned. When do the 0% periods end? You and your spouse should work hard on saving as much as possible for a down payment.
When the time comes, explore low down payment conventional loans in addition to FHA (or ideally wait and buy a house that allows you to afford a 20% down payment). Depending on how long you plan to own the house you buy, the conventional could be cheaper in the long run due to the mortgage insurance premiums being able to drop off when you reach 80% LTV. For FHA, youāll be paying those MIPs for the life of the loan.
Iām assuming he meant he is 25% utilized - meaning he has $25k credit card debt out of $100k credit available.
So he still needs to cut those credit cards and start fresh anyway ā¦ 100k credit limit on credit cards is going to kill your credit. Why do you need a 100k credit limit on your card?
He should definitely pay down the balanceā¦credit card debt is generally bad debt. However, it would be good if he had $100k total credit card line in this caseā¦usually more is better from a credit score standpoint. A big part of your score is based on credit utilization - so ideally you have a lot of available credit but you donāt use it or carry any balances.
INteresting. I guess I had it all wrong. The credit card companies frequently send me offers to increase my credit limit and I reject those.
As long as one is responsible and isnāt going to use the credit line increase to go spend even more, then accepting those credit line increases (and thus increasing total available credit) tends to be a good thing in terms of helping to increase your credit score.