What credit score do you need for a mortgage? By loan type

The short answer

What credit score do you need for a mortgage? There is no single number. Each loan program sets its own rule, and those rules come from national guides written by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA, part of HUD), and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

For FHA loans, a score of 580 or higher is eligible for maximum financing, a score from 500 to 579 is limited to a 90% loan-to-value ratio, and a score below 500 is not eligible. VA does not require a minimum score. For conventional loans, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac set no minimum score in most cases when their automated underwriting systems accept the file. A conventional loan that an underwriter reviews by hand starts at 620 and can need more, depending on the loan.

Those are the agency floors. A lender is allowed to require more, which is why two lenders can give you two different answers about the same score.

Why one lender says yes and another says no

The agency rule is the floor, not the answer. A lender can add its own stricter requirement on top, often called an overlay. VA says this directly: it does not require a minimum score, but the lender may set one. The same thing happens with FHA and conventional loans.

That means a score that one lender turns away may fit another lender's rules for the same loan program. It also means a website table that lists "620 for conventional" or "620 for VA" is usually describing common lender practice, not the agency rule.

Automated underwriting adds another layer. Fannie Mae's Desktop Underwriter and Freddie Mac's Loan Product Advisor look at your full credit history, income, assets, debts, and the loan itself. A file can pass with a modest score and strong reserves, or fail with a higher score and heavy debt. The score is one input, not a pass or fail line on its own.

RateVerdict prices scenarios against dozens of lenders, so you can see how pricing for the same loan type looks across many lenders instead of relying on one lender's cutoff.

Which of your scores the lender actually uses

You do not have one credit score. The CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) explains that your scores can differ by credit bureau and by scoring model, and that lenders use different models for different types of loans. The score in a banking app or an educational score service may not be the model a mortgage lender uses.

Mortgage lenders usually pull a report from all three bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Under Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA rules, if you have three scores the middle one counts. If you have two, the lower one counts. For example, scores of 700, 680, and 680 give you 680.

When two or more people apply together, each person gets one score by that method. For Fannie Mae pricing and for FHA eligibility, the lower of the borrowers' scores then becomes the score for the loan. For certain manually underwritten Fannie Mae loans, the borrowers' middle scores are averaged instead to check the minimum. Adding a co-borrower with weaker credit can therefore change which rules apply.

If a lender uses your credit score on a mortgage application, it must send you a notice showing the score, according to the CFPB. That notice tells you the number the lender actually saw.

What if you have no credit score at all? That does not automatically rule you out. Fannie Mae exempts loans where no borrower has a score from its minimum score rule and points lenders to its nontraditional credit history section. FHA treats borrowers with nontraditional or insufficient credit as eligible for maximum financing, but the file must be underwritten by hand. VA lender training says lack of credit is not viewed as a negative. Ask the lender what records it needs to document your payment history.

What changes for FHA on January 1, 2027

HUD issued Mortgagee Letter 2026-11 on October 8, 2026. For FHA case numbers assigned on or after January 1, 2027, lenders may submit scores from Classic FICO, VantageScore 4.0, or FICO 10T. The 500 and 580 thresholds stay the same no matter which model is used.

The method for picking your score changes slightly. The lender picks a score from each model the same way as before (middle of three, lower of two). If more than one model is used, the lower of those results becomes your borrower score, and the lower borrower score on a joint application becomes the score for the loan.

Fannie Mae's Selling Guide already lists VantageScore 4.0 alongside Classic FICO as eligible for DU and manually underwritten loans, with the same model required for every borrower on one loan. If a lender quotes you a score that does not match what you expected, ask which model it used.

Is the credit score you need different in Michigan?

No. The score rules in this article come from national guides, so the minimum credit score to buy a house in Michigan is the same as in Ohio, Florida, Texas, or any other state RateVerdict covers. A Michigan lender can set its own overlay, just like a lender anywhere else.

What does change by state is the rest of the cost of buying, such as transfer taxes, recording fees, and property taxes. For Michigan, see our guides on the cost to refinance in Michigan and on property tax uncapping after a purchase.

If your score is close to a cutoff

• Ask which program and which underwriting path the lender is using. A DU or LPA file may not have a fixed minimum, while a manually underwritten file does.
• Ask whether the lender has an overlay above the agency rule, and what it is.
• Ask which scoring model and which bureaus it pulled, and get the score notice.
• Check all three credit reports for errors well before you apply. The CFPB says errors can lower your score and recommends fixing them early.
• Avoid opening several new accounts right before you apply. The CFPB notes that many new applications in a short time can pull a score down.
• If you apply with a co-borrower, check both people's middle scores, since the lower one often sets the loan's score.

See today's rate for your scenario

To see how your credit score band changes pricing today, enter your scenario in the rate tool on this site. Michigan buyers can also check the live Michigan rate table. Every rate there shows with its APR, and no sign up is needed.