What does a lender actually calculate for a DSCR loan?
The formula is gross monthly rental income divided by the total monthly payment, known as PITIA: principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and association dues where applicable. Say a property rents for $2,800 a month and its full PITIA payment, including New Hampshire's comparatively high property tax, comes to $2,400. That's a DSCR of 1.17, inside the range most lenders will approve, though not at their best pricing tier.
Why does New Hampshire's property tax matter more here than the interest rate does?
Property tax sits inside the fixed monthly payment every month regardless of where rates go, and New Hampshire's town-by-town rates vary enough that the same purchase price can produce meaningfully different DSCR outcomes depending on the town. A property in a town with a $24 rate per $1,000 carries a materially heavier monthly tax line than the identical property in a town at $13, which shows up directly in the denominator of the ratio. That variation is exactly what our New Hampshire property tax rates guide walks through town by town.
What credit score and down payment should you actually expect?
Most 2026 lender data points to a 620 minimum credit score, with scores of 680 to 740 landing meaningfully better pricing. Down payment requirements typically run 20 to 25%, with some lenders going as low as 15% for the strongest borrower profiles, per LendFriend and Neuhaus Real Estate's 2026 breakdowns.
Does a DSCR loan work for a short-term rental in New Hampshire?
Often, yes. Many DSCR lenders will underwrite using projected or actual short-term rental income rather than a long-term lease rate. What matters just as much as the income projection is whether the property's town actually allows short-term rental use in the first place; a lender isn't going to count income a town's zoning board could shut down, which is exactly the kind of question our Conway short-term rental post walks through for one specific town.
Where does the rest of a DSCR loan's real cost show up?
Origination fees commonly run 2% to 3% of the loan amount on top of the quoted rate, per New Silver's lender data, and terms vary meaningfully from lender to lender beyond the headline number. Comparing the full cost across lenders matters more with DSCR products than with a conventional mortgage.
Before you talk to a lender about a DSCR loan on a specific property, run the property's actual rent and New Hampshire property tax through a real cash flow projection so you know your ratio before they tell you.
