Waiting years to avoid FHA mortgage insurance usually costs more than the insurance itself. Jeb calls mortgage insurance the cost of doing business, and the dollars back him up. FHA mortgage insurance is a modest monthly add-on, illustratively on the order of a hundred-plus dollars a month on a mid-size purchase, while saving a full 20 percent down can take five to seven years. Treat those figures as examples and confirm current numbers, but the direction of the math generally favors buying sooner with MI over waiting. On the credit piece, a useful fact: FHA mortgage insurance is set by HUD and varies only by loan term, loan amount, and down payment size. Your credit score does not change what you pay for FHA MI, though a lower score can still mean a higher interest rate. So point your energy at improving your credit to help the rate, and stop trying to outrun the MI. Program score thresholds move, but as a general shape, clearing the mid-600s tends to unlock solid FHA pricing, and higher improves it further. We have seen borrowers climb from the high 500s into the mid-to-high 600s in roughly six months with legitimate credit guidance, though nobody can promise a specific score or timeline. Worth pricing alongside FHA: your state's housing programs, and Fannie Mae's HomeReady, which allows 3 percent down but caps qualifying income at 80 percent of your area's median income. FHA has no income limit at all. The real next step is comparing buying now against waiting with your figures instead of averages, which is exactly what the free Roadmap conversation is for: about 20 minutes, running your real numbers.