When Can You Buy a House After Bankruptcy: Chapter 7 and 13 Waits

You can buy a house after bankruptcy once you clear a mandatory waiting period that runs anywhere from one to seven years, depending on the chapter you filed, the loan program you apply for, and whether a foreclosure was tied to the case. The clock usually starts on your discharge date, and meeting the wait is only part of the picture: lenders also want to see a rebuilt credit profile and stable income before they approve the loan.

Waiting Periods After Chapter 7

Chapter 7 wipes out most unsecured debts through a court-ordered discharge, and that discharge date is where every waiting period starts counting.¹ Not the filing date, not the case closure date. Lenders verify the discharge date through court records.

FHA loans: Two years from discharge. One year is possible with documented extenuating circumstances.
VA loans: Two years from discharge.
USDA loans: Three years from discharge.²
Conventional loans (Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac): Four years from the discharge or dismissal date.³

If you have filed bankruptcy more than once in the past seven years, conventional lenders push the wait to five years from the most recent discharge or dismissal, regardless of whether the earlier case was Chapter 7 or Chapter 13.³

Chapter 13: During and After the Repayment Plan

Chapter 13 works differently. Instead of liquidating, you follow a court-supervised repayment plan that runs three to five years based on your income relative to your state’s median.⁴ The practical result for homebuying is that you may not have to wait for discharge at all.

Buying While Still in the Plan

FHA and VA guidelines let you apply for a mortgage after you have made at least 12 consecutive on-time payments toward your Chapter 13 plan.⁵ You will also need written permission from the bankruptcy court or trustee, who will review the proposed mortgage terms to confirm the payment will not derail your plan.

Buying After Discharge

Once you finish the plan and receive your Chapter 13 discharge, waits are shorter than they would be for Chapter 7. FHA and VA loans generally require no additional waiting period. USDA typically requires one year. Conventional lenders require two years from the discharge date.³

Dismissal is a different story. If your Chapter 13 was dismissed instead of discharged — meaning you did not complete the plan — the conventional wait stretches to four years from the dismissal date.

Shorter Waits for Extenuating Circumstances

Both government-backed and conventional programs allow a reduced waiting period if a serious disruption outside your control caused the bankruptcy. Routine overspending or poor budgeting does not qualify.

For FHA loans, extenuating circumstances can cut the Chapter 7 wait from two years to one. You need to document something like involuntary job loss, an income reduction of 20 percent or more lasting at least six months, or a medical emergency. You also need to show you have recovered financially and complete a housing counseling program. Quitting a job voluntarily or being fired for cause disqualifies you.⁶

For conventional loans, Fannie Mae will drop the Chapter 7 wait from four years to two with documented extenuating circumstances. A Chapter 13 dismissal wait falls from four years to two. Even borrowers with multiple filings inside seven years can see a reduction from five years to three.³

If a Foreclosure Was Also Involved

Foreclosures carry their own seven-year waiting period for conventional loans, nearly double the bankruptcy wait. When both show up on your record, Fannie Mae applies a specific rule: if the lender can document that the mortgage debt was discharged in the bankruptcy, the shorter bankruptcy wait governs. If the lender cannot verify that, the longer wait applies, which usually means seven years from the foreclosure completion date.³ Check that your discharge paperwork specifically lists the mortgage obligation among the discharged debts. Without that documentation, you may face the full seven years.

Credit Score Minimums You Still Need to Meet

Clearing the waiting period does not get you a loan on its own. You also have to meet the lender’s credit score threshold:

FHA: 500 is the absolute floor. Scores from 500 to 579 require at least 10 percent down. A score of 580 or higher qualifies you for the standard 3.5 percent down payment.⁷
Conventional: Typically 620, though some lenders set 640 or higher for borrowers with a prior bankruptcy.
VA and USDA: No official government minimum, but individual lenders commonly require 580 to 620.

Most people see their score climb back into the fair range (580–669) within 12 to 18 months of discharge if they handle credit responsibly, which lines up with the shortest government-backed waiting periods.

Using the Waiting Period to Rebuild Credit

Lenders expect a clean record between discharge and application. No new late payments. No new delinquent accounts. The time is meant to be used, not just waited out.

Open a secured credit card. A cash deposit backs the limit, and on-time payments report to the bureaus.
Become an authorized user on a family member’s well-managed card so their payment history can appear on your report.
Keep balances under 30 percent of your limit. Credit utilization is a major scoring factor.
Avoid unnecessary hard inquiries. Each application pulls your score down briefly.
Monitor your credit reports. Discharged debts should show zero balances. Dispute anything that still shows a balance owed.

One trap worth flagging: if you kept your home through a Chapter 7 and continued paying the mortgage without signing a reaffirmation agreement, your servicer may stop reporting those payments to the credit bureaus because the debt was technically discharged. In that “stay and pay” situation, confirm whether your payments are being reported. If they are not, you are losing years of credit-building history.

Buying Sooner With a Non-QM Loan

If waiting two to four years is not workable, non-qualified mortgage (non-QM) loans sit outside the standard guidelines set by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and government agencies, so they are not bound by the same waiting periods. Some non-QM lenders will approve a borrower as soon as one month after discharge.

The cost is real. Non-QM loans typically require a down payment of 20 percent or more and carry higher interest rates than conventional or government-backed loans. They also lack many of the consumer protections built into qualified mortgage programs. The market is smaller and more specialized, so availability varies by lender and region. This path tends to work for borrowers with substantial savings who want to buy immediately.

Paperwork Lenders Will Ask For

Have these documents ready before you apply:

Your bankruptcy discharge order, which is how the lender verifies the start of your waiting period.
The full bankruptcy petition and schedules, which identify which debts were included. This matters especially if a foreclosure was part of the picture.⁵
A current credit report, reviewed for errors, with discharged accounts showing zero balances.
Two years of tax returns and recent pay stubs to document stable income.
A trustee or court approval letter, if you are buying during an active Chapter 13 plan.⁵
A letter of explanation describing what caused the bankruptcy and what has changed since. Lenders routinely request this for borrowers with a significant credit event, and it does not need to be long — a clear factual account is enough.

You can obtain bankruptcy records through the federal courts’ PACER system or by visiting the clerk’s office at the courthouse where your case was filed.⁸

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 727 – Discharge
2
USDA Rural Development. Single Family Housing Credit Requirements
3
Fannie Mae. Significant Derogatory Credit Events – Waiting Periods and Re-establishing Credit
4
United States Courts. Chapter 13 – Bankruptcy Basics
5
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. How Does a Bankruptcy Affect a Borrowers Eligibility for an FHA Mortgage
6
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mortgagee Letter 2013-26 Back to Work – Extenuating Circumstances
7
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Does FHA Require a Minimum Credit Score and How Is It Determined
8
Public Access to Court Electronic Records. PACER Federal Court Records