 TITLE: How Long Does a Foreclosure Stay on Your Credit Report? CONTENT: The legalities of the foreclosure process differ from state to state, but every foreclosure is the culmination of a series of missed payments on a mortgage loan. Every missed payment damages your credit, and foreclosure hurts it further still.\nLenders typically issue notices of intent to foreclose—seize and resell a mortgaged property—only after a borrower has failed to make a loan payment for 90 days (that is, after they've missed three monthly payments in a row). The notice typically instructs a homeowner to bring the loan up to date within 30 days or lose their home, so by the time foreclosure begins, the borrower will have missed four monthly payments.\nEvery missed payment, or delinquency, is tracked in your credit report, and each has a significant negative effect on your credit score. Depending on your starting score, missing three or four mortgage payments could easily reduce your credit score by more than 100 points—an effect that can be magnified if you're also missing payments on other debts, such as credit card bills or car loans.\nBy the time foreclosure is finalized and appears on your credit report, accumulated delinquencies may have lowered your score so significantly that the foreclosure itself doesn't lead to a major loss in points. But a new foreclosure entry can hold your score down, even if you're able to maintain timely payments on all your other bills.\nA foreclosure stays on your credit report for seven years from the date of the first related delinquency, but its impact on your credit score will likely diminish earlier than that. Still, it's likely to drag down your scores for several years at least.\nEven after your credit score rebounds, however, a foreclosure on your credit report may hinder your ability to get a new mortgage. Some lenders won't even consider lending to applicants who have foreclosures on their credit reports. Other lenders may consider applicants with foreclosures in their histories, but only three or more years after the fact (as is the case with some issuers of FHA loans). Because a foreclosure is considered a mark of a risky borrower, lenders may charge extra fees or higher interest rates to borrowers who have one (or more) on their credit reports. END