The main question is whether you are still being paid, and for most files that answer settles it. Underwriters need reasonable assurance you can keep making the payment. If a shutdown interrupts pay, the question becomes whether your reserves can carry you through the gap. As an illustration, someone holding around $20,000 in reserves against a $3,000 monthly payment could reasonably cover an extended interruption, and that strength helps the file. The bigger shutdown friction tends to be operational rather than a flat denial: - FHA and conventional loans generally keep moving. - USDA can stall. If the agency staff who issue the required loan guarantee are furloughed, those specific files wait until the office reopens. In practice the impact has been real but limited. If you are a federal employee buying during a shutdown, talk with us early so we can look at your reserves and loan type and flag anything that could slow the file before it becomes a problem.