New mortgage guidelines affecting people with good credit?

I am in the process of shopping for my first house. My original pre-qualification was in January, for a conventional 30 year fixed loan. I'm hoping to make an offer this week, so I called my lender to be re-considered for pre-qualification (original 30 day period had passed). I was told that mortgage guidelines had changed in January, and because I did not have 3 open lines of credits on which I had made monthly payment for the past year, I no longer qualified for conventional and had to do an FHA loan. I inquired if this new policy from coming from my lender or if this was industry wide and was told that "no reputable lender would violate this policy." I do not have any student loans or car loans and have only two credits cards (one for personal one for business), both of which get paid off every month. I also have a very solid credit score (780). I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around the logic here, as it seems to penalize people who are fiscally responsible and do not carry any debt. I have had (and paid off) loans/credit lines in the past (hence the good credit score), so I'm pretty frustrated by these new rules. Has anyone else run into this?? Any insights would be greatly appreciated. by drdave1959 from Boston, Massachusetts. Mar 9th 2010 Reply