What Credit Score Do You Need to Buy a House?.

Most people ask this question hoping for one number, and 620 is the one they hear. That number is real. It is also only the starting line, and the score a lender prices your loan on is one you have probably never seen.

Mortgage lenders pull three older FICO scores, one from each bureau, and use the middle one. A single error at Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion can set your rate, even while the app on your phone shows a number that looks ready.

What Credit Score Do You Need to Buy a House, by Loan Type?

You can buy a house with a score well under 740, and in some programs under 600. Conventional loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac generally start at 620 and price best at 780 and up. FHA loans accept 580 with 3.5% down, or 500 with 10% down. VA loans have no federal floor, USDA loans usually want about 640, and jumbo loans start near 700.

The median FICO score on owner-occupied purchase loans was 750 as of January 2026 (Urban Institute, 2026). That is a median, so half of those buyers closed with lower scores. A score under 740 does not shut you out. It changes which loan fits and what it costs.

Which Mortgage Credit Terms Should You Know First?

Seven terms carry most of the weight in a mortgage credit decision. Learn them before you talk to a loan officer, because every price you get is built on them. For how these numbers line up with everyday score bands, see What Is a Good Credit Score in 2026?

Which FICO Scores Do Mortgage Lenders Actually Use?

Mortgage lenders use older FICO versions that most consumers never see. Equifax provides FICO Score 5, based on the BEACON 5.0 scoring algorithm. Experian provides FICO Score 2, based on Experian/Fair Isaac Risk Model v2. TransUnion provides FICO Score 4, based on TransUnion FICO Risk Score, Classic 04. People call these three the mortgage trifecta.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the United States Department of Agriculture all use these versions. They run in the automated underwriting systems and in the pricing charts. The old models stick around because of regulatory inertia and the long lead time it takes to test new ones across the whole lending system.

Federal Housing Finance Agency announcements have signaled a planned move to FICO 10T and VantageScore 4.0. Full rollout across lenders is a multi-year process. For how the two scoring families differ today, see FICO Score vs VantageScore: The Real Differences.

Why Can Your App Score Differ From the Lender’s by 20 to 40 Points?

The score in a free monitoring app or a card issuer’s widget is rarely the score the lender sees. Mortgage FICO versions can differ from FICO 8 by 20 to 40 points in either direction. They treat collections, medical debt, paid versus unpaid derogatory accounts, and authorized user accounts differently, and that gap can decide which loan you get.

Paid collections still count against the mortgage scores after you pay them in full. FICO 9 and FICO 10 ignore paid collections. Medical collections are handled differently in the newer models but still count in the older mortgage ones.

The three bureaus have removed a lot of medical debt on their own. On April 11, 2023, they removed medical collections with an opening balance under $500, bringing the total removed to nearly 70% of all medical collection tradelines (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, 2023). Many paid medical collections were removed too.

That was a voluntary bureau move, and it did not end medical debt reporting. A federal court vacated the CFPB’s medical debt rule in July 2025, and medical debt generally remains reportable today (CFPB, 2025).

Authorized user accounts score more conservatively in the older models. Being added to a family member’s seasoned card has less effect on the mortgage scores than on FICO 8. Trended data differs too. FICO 10T reads 24 months of balance history, while the older mortgage models look mostly at your latest statement balance.

One Bad Bureau Can Set Your Middle Score

The lender drops your highest and lowest scores and uses the one in the middle. For co-borrowers, each person’s middle score is found first, and the lower of the two governs the whole loan. So an error at one bureau, on one borrower, can set the terms for the whole application while the other files look clean.

Here is how it plays out. A wrongful collection reports only at Experian and drags that score to 680. Equifax shows 720 and TransUnion shows 740, so 720 is your qualifying score. Had that Experian entry been correct and landed at 745, the middle would be 740, one full pricing band higher.

Joint loans raise the stakes. A borrower with a 760 middle score paired with a spouse at 640 gets priced at 640, the same as if both had 640. That is a strong reason to clean up the weaker file first.

Errors are common. In the FTC’s national accuracy study, one in five consumers had an error on at least one of their three credit reports (FTC, 2013).

People file about it at huge volume. Of 5,861,954 credit reporting complaints recorded in the CFPB’s public Consumer Complaint Database from July 2025 through June 2026, 59.4% fell under “Incorrect information on your report,” per our own read of the CFPB complaint database (CreditRefresh, CFPB complaint analysis, 2026). These are unverified consumer allegations. The CFPB says much of the recent volume comes from credit repair firms and automated filers.

Conventional Loans Start at 620 and Price Best at 780

Conventional loans follow the rules and loan limits set by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and 620 has long been the entry point. As of November 15, 2025, Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter moved from a hard minimum to a broader credit-risk check (Fannie Mae, 2025). Lenders still widely treat 620 as the line.

Some programs go lower. HomeReady and Home Possible, built for lower-income buyers, can accept scores in the high 500s with extra underwriting. Below 620, conventional financing has generally not been available.

Pricing runs on Loan-Level Price Adjustments, fees charged as a percentage of the loan amount and keyed to your score and loan-to-value ratio. On Fannie Mae’s September 9, 2026 matrix, a purchase loan longer than 15 years at 75.01% to 80% loan-to-value carries 0.375% at 780 and up, 0.625% at 760 to 779, 0.875% at 740 to 759, 1.250% at 720 to 739, 1.375% at 700 to 719, 1.750% at 680 to 699, 1.875% at 660 to 679, 2.250% at 640 to 659, and 2.750% at 639 and below (Fannie Mae, 2026). No score above 780 lowers the charge further.

Add those bands up and a 620 buyer pays 2.375% of the loan amount more than a 780 buyer on the same loan.

FHA Loans Accept 580 With 3.5% Down, or 500 With 10% Down

FHA loans are federally insured and exist to open homeownership to buyers who miss conventional rules. The official floors are 580 for the 3.5% down option and 500 for the 10% down option. Below 500, no FHA loan is available, whatever else you bring to the table.

Lenders can set overlays above those floors. Many require 620 or 640 on FHA loans, especially when the buyer also has a high debt-to-income ratio or thin reserves. Overlays vary a lot, so shopping several FHA lenders pays off for buyers in the 580 to 619 range.

FHA loans carry an upfront mortgage insurance premium and, in most cases, an annual premium for the life of the loan. That can make FHA cost more than a conventional loan with private mortgage insurance, even for buyers at 620 to 680. That is why many buyers in that range fix credit issues first and go conventional.

VA Loans Have No Federal Minimum for Veterans

The Department of Veterans Affairs sets no minimum credit score and leaves the standard to the lender. VA loans serve eligible veterans, active-duty service members, certain National Guard and Reserve members, and qualifying surviving spouses. Most VA lenders set their own minimum at 580 to 620, and some go as low as 550 with strong compensating factors.

Two features change the math. Eligible buyers with enough entitlement need no down payment, and there is no monthly mortgage insurance. A one-time funding fee, paid at closing or rolled into the loan, replaces it, and the fee is cut or waived for buyers with service-connected disabilities.

The result surprises people. A VA buyer at 600 can end up with a lower monthly payment than a conventional buyer at 740 on the same house.

USDA Loans Usually Want 640 for Rural Homes

USDA loans, also called Rural Development loans, generally need a 640 score for streamlined approval through the Guaranteed Underwriting System. The Department of Agriculture backs them for homes in designated rural areas. Those maps cover a big share of the country, including many suburbs of major cities. Buyers under 640 can still get manual underwriting with strong compensating factors.

USDA loans offer 100% financing with no down payment and lower monthly mortgage insurance than FHA. Income limits apply, and the home must sit in an eligible area, which you can check on the USDA Rural Development eligibility map. For buyers at 640 to 700 who qualify on income and location, USDA is often the lowest-payment option out there.

Jumbo Loans Start Near 700 for High-Balance Homes

Most jumbo programs require at least a 700 score, and the best pricing starts at 760. Jumbo loans run above the conforming loan limit the Federal Housing Finance Agency sets each year. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac cannot buy them, so lenders keep them or sell them to private investors. That means each lender writes its own rules.

Jumbo underwriting is stricter across the board. Reserve rules are higher, debt-to-income limits are tighter, and full income paperwork is required even with strong credit. Your score matters more here because the lender keeps the risk instead of passing it to a federal backer.

How Much Does a 680 Score Cost on a $400,000 Loan?

On a $400,000 purchase loan at 75.01% to 80% loan-to-value, a 680 middle score carries a 1.750% adjustment, or $7,000, against 0.875%, or $3,500, at 740 and 0.375%, or $1,500, at 780 and up (Fannie Mae, 2026). That is a fee on the loan amount, not an interest rate. The matrix does not set the rate a lender quotes. Freddie Mac’s weekly survey put the 30-year fixed average at 6.95% for the week ending September 17, 2026, for borrowers with good or excellent credit and 20% down (Freddie Mac, 2026).

FHA pricing moves less with your score because the loan is federally insured and the lender carries less risk. The big FHA cost is the mortgage insurance premium. As your score climbs, conventional financing usually becomes the better deal above 680, even for buyers who qualify for FHA. The same tier math shows up on car loans, covered in What Credit Score Do You Need to Buy a Car?

Lenders Weigh DTI, Reserves, and Down Payment Beside Your Score

Your score is one input, and debt load now sinks more mortgage applications than credit history does. Debt-to-income ratio became the top stated reason for denial, rising to 35% of denials in 2024 while credit history held at 29% (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 2026). A lower score can be offset by a lower debt-to-income ratio, and a great score will not rescue a stretched budget.

Other strengths help too. Larger cash reserves after closing, a bigger down payment, steady work history, and a record of on-time rent all count. Together they decide whether Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter or Freddie Mac’s Loan Product Advisor returns an Approve/Eligible result.

It works the other way as well. A high score with weak compensating factors can still get a Refer result, which sends the file to manual underwriting. Manual review lets the lender weigh your whole profile, but it is slower, needs more paperwork, and usually prices a bit higher. Most buyers want the automated path, and that generally takes both a qualifying score and solid compensating factors.

Check All Three Reports 6 to 12 Months Before You Apply

The 6 to 12 months before you apply is the most useful window for credit prep. Mortgage scores are bureau by bureau, so you start by reading every line on all three reports. Accurate negative items can be reported for seven years, or ten for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and no dispute changes that.

This is the order we would work in.

• Pull all three reports. Get your Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion reports. An error on any one of them can become your middle score.
• Dispute what is wrong. Challenge items that are inaccurate, incomplete, unverifiable, or too old to report. A bureau generally has 30 days to investigate, up to 45 in some cases (FCRA Section 611).
• Check settled accounts. A settled account still showing a balance is a common error. You can dispute it under Section 611 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
• Pay down revolving balances. Keep use under 30% of the limit across all cards, and under 10% on your highest-balance card. The older mortgage models read your latest statement balance.
• Keep old cards open. Closing a card shrinks your total available credit. That pushes up use on the cards you keep.
• Hold off on new credit. Every new application adds a hard inquiry right when you want a quiet file.

That last step is where a lot of buyers get burned by offers that look safe. Eduardo F, in a 1-star Trustpilot review of Credit Karma on September 14, 2026, wrote: “Credit Karma gets people to apply for loans or credit cards with outstanding approval odds which I believe to be a complete lie. So they make me hurt your credit score with hard inquiries, when in actuality you have 0 approval odds, not outstanding.”

Other steps help too. Authorized user additions, careful handling of installment balances, and resolving collections or charge-offs through proper dispute or negotiated removal channels are all worth a look. For more on quick wins, see How to Raise Your Credit Score Fast in 2026.

Many of the people we work with start below the conventional line. Our paying members’ VantageScore 3.0, averaged across the bureaus, is 597 on average, and 66.4% average below 620, per CreditRefresh’s September 18, 2026 analysis of paying-member data. Those are VantageScore numbers, and a lender will read the FICO mortgage versions instead.

Who Should Handle Your Three Reports Before the Mortgage Pull?

Before a mortgage pull, the choice turns on whether a tool reaches all three bureaus and whether you see every letter before it goes out. Here is how the options compare on price, what they do for a buyer prepping three reports, and bureau reach.

Every price is that company’s own published rate, read off that company’s own site on September 15, 2026. Trustpilot scores and review counts as published on September 24, 2026.

How CreditRefresh Drafts Disputes for All 3 Bureaus Before Your Mortgage Pull

Your middle score comes from three separate files, so the prep has to cover all three, and that is the job CreditRefresh does. In CreditRefresh’s September 18, 2026 member-data extract, mailed dispute rounds averaged 23.6 disputed bureau-level items. In that same extract, 2.3% of disputed bureau-level items in mailed rounds had a recorded outcome. Within that subset, 47.9% were no longer reported on a newer pull of the same bureau, while 52.1% remained reported with a changed balance, status or negative flag.

We pull your Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion reports through a secure, authorized data feed, with credit data from Array. Our AI flags items that look inaccurate, incomplete, unverifiable, or too old to report, such as outdated balance reporting and duplicate tradelines. Then it drafts a dispute letter for each item you choose, naming the specific problem and the FCRA right it rests on. You review and sign every letter before anything goes out, and you can mail them yourself or hand the round to RushMail for a small per-letter fee.

CreditRefresh comes with Refresh Monitoring at $49.99 a month, with no setup fee, no per-dispute charge, and no contract. We do not give mortgage qualification advice or loan-pricing recommendations, and we recommend a licensed mortgage loan officer for loan comparisons and rate quotes.

Results may vary. No specific outcome is guaranteed. CreditRefresh is an application that helps consumers identify potential inaccuracies and Fair Credit Reporting Act violations on their credit reports and generates dispute correspondence. It does not provide mortgage qualification advice, loan-pricing recommendations, or attorney review. Loan products, pricing matrices, and minimum credit standards described above are general and subject to change by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the United States Department of Agriculture, and individual lenders. Consumers should consult a licensed mortgage loan officer for current loan product comparisons and rate quotes specific to their financial profile.

It is backed by our 100% money-back guarantee: members who work the full program and see no bureau score rise above where they started can claim back every Refresh Monitoring payment. It is a refund promise, never a score promise.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a credit bureau have to investigate a dispute before I apply for a mortgage?

A bureau generally has 30 days to finish its investigation, and up to 45 days in some cases, under Section 611 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. That is why disputes belong at the front of your 6 to 12 month prep window.

Can I buy a house with collections on my credit report?

Yes, many buyers do, but the older mortgage FICO versions still count collections even after they are paid. About 35% of adults with a credit file have debt in collections on their report (Urban Institute, 2025), so check that each one is accurate before a lender pulls your file.

Is medical debt still on credit reports when I apply for a mortgage?

Medical collections under $500 were removed by the bureaus in 2023, but larger medical debt generally remains reportable. The CFPB rule that would have removed it was vacated in July 2025, so read the medical entries on all three reports.

Will shopping for a mortgage rate hurt my credit score?

Scoring models group mortgage rate-shopping inquiries made within a set window, so comparing lenders is not the same as applying for several cards. See Mortgage Rate Shopping Inquiries: The 14 to 45 Day Window for how the window works.

Should I dispute a credit error during mortgage underwriting?

It is far better to fix errors before you apply, because errors found during underwriting often delay or derail closings. If you find one mid-process, tell your loan officer before you file anything.

How long does a Chapter 7 bankruptcy stay on my credit report?

A Chapter 7 bankruptcy can be reported for up to ten years under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Most other negative items, including collections and charge-offs, can be reported for seven years.

Can I get a mortgage if my spouse has bad credit?

Yes, but on a joint loan the lower of your two middle scores sets the terms. Some couples apply in one name when that borrower’s income alone qualifies, which a loan officer can price both ways.

CreditRefresh reads all three reports that feed your mortgage middle score and drafts a dispute letter for each item that looks wrong, for you to sign. Backed by a 100% money-back guarantee.

Check your three reports before a lender does →