Credit After Foreclosure: Why Wait 7 Years? 

Much like the bad luck of breaking a mirror, a foreclosure remains on your credit report for up to seven years. This should (obviously) be avoided no matter what! It can deal a terrible blow to even the best of credit scores. If you have a foreclosure despite your best efforts, credit repair should be one of the first steps you take. It is possible to remove a foreclosure from your report, much as you'd remove any other detrimental mark, but if you don't do it properly, you could make the situation even worse.