How Your Credit Score Affects How Much House You'll Be Able To Buy... Your credit score is now the most important factor in determining how much house you can buy, so if you are in the market for a new home, you need to understand how it affects you. In order to make it easy for mortgage companies to determine the risk of lending to you, they are using a system called credit scoring (also called "FICO" scores). When lenders look at your credit report, they can instantly... [read more]