Anonymous:

I was denied an FHA loan and was told it was because I had a bankrupcy with an FHA loan 2 years ago. Why?

There are a number of reasons why, and it would surprise me if your Loan Officer did not discuss the reasons with you prior to sending out the Notice of Loan Denial.  But, for the sake of argument,  let's look at the FHA guidelines. First you had a bankruptcy 2 years ago, 2nd that bankruptcy included a FHA loan.

With regards to the bankrupcy, FHA guidelines state that if you had a bankruptcy (Chapter 7) and at least 2 years have elapsed from the time of discharge (not filing), you must have re-established good credit and you must have demonstrated a documentated ability to responsibly manage your financial affairs.  Have you had any derrogatory credit after the your Bankrupcy was discharged, have you had any 30 days late payments since your bankruptcy? What is your credit score? If you are renting, have you made all your rent payments on time? Have you re-established any credit? Are you delinquent on any federal debt, student loan(s), Federal taxes, etc?

With regards to the FHA loan included in the BK, what happened to that home and the FHA loan? Did you retain it and keep making your payments? Did you loose it in the Bankrupcy? Did you loose the home in foreclosure or sign a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure after the BK? Did FHA sustain any loses on that loan?  If you kept the home and have made the payments on time, at a miniumum for the past 12 months (if you could find an underwriter to approve). Having an FHA loan in a bankruptcy that was discharged over 2 years ago should not present a problem, if you have made all your payments on time.  If the FHA loan was foreclosed upon or you signed a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure , then 3 years must have passed, unless you had significant extenuating circumstances.

As you can see, it is impossible to give you a direct answer, without knowing all the facts.

Lea has a great response. 

In my experience, the denial is usually due to a late payment that is reporting after the bankruptcy.

If there was a foreclosure, then that would probably be the reason for the denial.  As Lea pointed out, you have to have 3 years after a foreclosure.

If, as a result of your bankruptcy, FHA paid a claim or sustained any loss, you may have a bad CAIVRS. CAIVRS is a system by which the federal government recorde folks who have defaulted in any form on a government obligation (including student loans). In essence, if you defaulted once, the the fed doesn't want to play anymore until that claim is satisfied. Take a close look as the debts involved in the bankruptcy and see if there was anything that carried a federal guarantee. Ask your lender to see if you have a bad CAIVRS report. If you do, you're toast until that is cured.