...Would-be borrowers now need a FICO credit score in the 760s to get a mortgage... That should start changing next year--qualifying scores will start dropping as more qualified buyers come into the market...That downward shift in standards will be strengthened if the Obama administration, as has been rumored, replaces FHFA head Ed DeMarco, a Bush-era holdover and advocate of tight credit standards, says Richard Green, head of the University of Southern California's Lusk Center for Real Estate.