Here’s something that I didn’t know until today: When a student loan is deferred it means that the student loan holder does not have to make payments until the deferment period expires & the loan does not accrue any interest. With FHA loans a home loan applicant is able to have a deferred student loan excluded from their debt-to-income ratio so long as they can demonstrate that the student loan will be deferred for at least 12 more months.
This is different from forbearance in that when a student loan is deferred the student loan holder is not required to make monthly payments BUT the loan is still accruing interest. In this instance the home loan applicant may be required to include the monthly payment in their debt-to-income ratios even though they may not be required to make payments for 12 months or longer.