re: Credit Score Questions - Future home and car purchase

Your credit will drop a few points immediately for a "hard inquiry" on your credit. This happens anytime someone looks into your credit at any of the three reporting agencies when you are applying for a loan, mortgage, or CC. It should recover from that quite quickly, and have minimal affect on your ability to get a good rate on your mortgage if both of your scores are above 750. Like the above poster noticed, what you should worry about is your income to debt ratio. The bank will take this into account. If you have a banker, or bank you normally deal with (if you dont, I would highly recommend a credit union of an type) go and ask them about this situation. They should be able to give you some hypothetical in those scenarios.