What Credit Score Do You Need to Buy a House?

By Priya Raman · Reviewed by Priya Raman, FINRA SIE & Series 65 · Last updated: September 2, 2026

TL;DR: The practical floor is 580 with an FHA loan and about 620 with most conventional lenders. The number that actually saves you money is 780. Fannie Mae deleted its own 620 minimum in November 2025, so on a conventional loan your score now decides the price more than the approval. On a $400,000 loan, the gap between a 780 and a 640 is roughly $7,500 in fees.

Ask ten mortgage articles what credit score you need to buy a house and nine will say 620. That number came from Fannie Mae’s underwriting software. Fannie Mae took it out on November 16, 2025, and most of the internet has not noticed.

This matters more than it sounds. The old question was pass or fail: hit 620 and you were in the room. The new question is a price tag. Two people can both get approved for the same house on the same day and pay thousands of dollars apart, purely because of a three-digit number neither of them checked before applying.

DollarVisor takes no money for placement, so no lender here is being shielded. Below is the current floor for each loan program, the exact fee your score triggers on a conventional loan, and what the average score in your state buys you. It sits alongside our wider credit and card guides.

Here is a short explainer covering the loan programs and where each one sets its credit bar.

Video: What Credit Score Do You Need To Buy A House? Loan Programs Credit Requirements Explained

1. The Short Answer, With the Numbers Attached

Quick Answer: The credit score to buy a house starts at 580 for an FHA loan with 3.5% down and around 620 for a conventional loan at most lenders. Pricing improves in steps up to 780. Below 580 you need 10% down and an FHA loan, and you should read how mortgages are priced before you apply.

Three separate bars are being confused whenever someone answers this question, and separating them removes most of the confusion:

The program floor. What the agency insuring or buying the loan will allow. FHA says 500. Fannie Mae no longer names a number.
The lender floor. What the company actually lending you money will allow, which is usually higher. This is called an overlay.
The pricing tier. What your score costs once you are approved. This is where the real money sits, and almost nobody checks it.

Most guides answer only the first bar. That is why a reader with a 640 walks in expecting a normal loan and walks out with an extra $9,000 attached to it.

Key takeaway: Approval and price are two different questions. A 620 usually gets you approved; only a 780 gets you the cheapest version of the same loan.

2. The 620 Rule Quietly Ended in November 2025

Quick Answer: Fannie Mae removed the 620 minimum credit score from Desktop Underwriter for loan files created on or after November 16, 2025. A broader risk assessment replaced it. Your score still has to be pulled and reported, and it still moves as your file updates each month.

Desktop Underwriter is the software that decides whether Fannie Mae will buy a conventional loan. For years it hard-stopped anything under 620. The November 2025 DU release notes retired that rule and replaced it with a wider read of the borrower’s credit behavior.

Read the fine print, though. Two things did not change:

Lenders keep their own overlays. Most retail lenders still refuse conventional applications under 620, and many stop at 640. The agency floor moving does not move theirs.
The fee schedule kept every score tier. Fannie Mae’s pricing grid still runs from 639 and below up to 780 and above. Removing the cutoff removed the wall, not the toll booth.

The industry standard answer to this question expired nine months ago, and the fee grid that replaced it is public, exact, and almost never quoted.

Key takeaway: There is no longer an official 620 conventional minimum, but your lender almost certainly still has one. Ask them for their number in writing before you apply.

3. Minimum Score by Loan Program

Quick Answer: FHA allows 580 with 3.5% down and 500 with 10% down. VA and USDA set no score minimum at all, though USDA’s automated system effectively wants 640. Conventional has no agency floor since November 2025. Compare the programs in our FHA loan requirements guide.

Credit score floors by mortgage program, 2026

Agency credit score minimums and typical lender overlays for the five main US mortgage programs.
Program	Agency floor	Typical lender floor	Minimum down payment
FHA	580	580 to 640	3.5%
FHA, lower tier	500	Rarely offered	10%
Conventional (Fannie Mae)	None since Nov 2025	620 to 640	3%
VA	None	580 to 620	0%
USDA	None	640 for automated approval	0%
Jumbo	Not agency backed	700 and up	10% to 20%

Source: DollarVisor compilation of HUD Handbook 4000.1, the VA Lender’s Handbook (Pamphlet 26-7), USDA Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program guidance, and Fannie Mae DU release notes. August 2026.

The pattern is easy to miss: the two programs with no score minimum at all, VA and USDA, are the two with the tightest eligibility rules elsewhere. VA needs service history. USDA needs a rural address and an income cap.

Key takeaway: If your score sits between 580 and 619, FHA is usually the only realistic door. Above 640, conventional almost always costs less over the life of the loan.

4. What Each Score Band Actually Costs

Quick Answer: Fannie Mae charges a one-time fee based on your score and down payment. On a $400,000 loan with 20% down, it runs from $1,500 at 780 and above to $11,000 at 639 and below. Auto lenders price in tiers too, which is why the score needed for a car loan behaves the same way.

The fee is called a loan-level price adjustment. Your lender rarely bills it as a line item. They fold it into your rate, which is exactly why buyers never see what their score cost them.

Fannie Mae purchase fee by credit score, 20% down

Loan-level price adjustment by credit score band at 75.01 to 80 percent loan-to-value, with the dollar cost on a 400,000 dollar loan.
Credit score	Fee as % of loan	Cost on $400,000
780 and above	0.375%	$1,500
760 to 779	0.625%	$2,500
740 to 759	0.875%	$3,500
720 to 739	1.250%	$5,000
700 to 719	1.375%	$5,500
680 to 699	1.750%	$7,000
660 to 679	1.875%	$7,500
640 to 659	2.250%	$9,000
639 and below	2.750%	$11,000

Source: Fannie Mae LLPA Matrix, purchase loans, January 2026. DollarVisor dollar math.

Notice where the jumps are. Moving from 679 to 680 saves $500. Moving from 759 to 760 saves $1,000. A twenty-point climb at the wrong end of a band is worth more than a hundred points in the middle of one.

Key takeaway: Find out which band you are in and how far the next one is. Crossing a single boundary is often worth more than months of general credit work.

5. Why 20% Down Can Punish a Low Score Hardest

Quick Answer: The score penalty does not fall steadily as your down payment grows. It peaks in the 80% to 85% loan-to-value range and then drops, because mortgage insurance absorbs part of the risk above 80%. Buyers using first-time homebuyer programs often land in the cheaper zone by accident.

Purchase fee by score and down payment size

Fannie Mae loan-level price adjustments across loan-to-value ranges for four credit score bands on purchase loans.
Loan-to-value	780+	700–719	660–679	639 and below
60.01% to 70% (30% down)	0.000%	0.375%	0.750%	1.500%
70.01% to 75% (25% down)	0.000%	0.875%	1.375%	2.125%
75.01% to 80% (20% down)	0.375%	1.375%	1.875%	2.750%
80.01% to 85% (15% down)	0.375%	1.500%	2.125%	2.875%
85.01% to 90% (10% down)	0.250%	1.250%	1.750%	2.625%
90.01% to 95% (5% down)	0.250%	1.125%	1.625%	2.250%
Above 95% (3% down)	0.125%	0.875%	1.250%	1.750%

Source: Fannie Mae LLPA Matrix, purchase money loans, terms over 15 years, January 2026.

Read the 660 to 679 column from top to bottom. The fee climbs to 2.125% at 15% down, then falls to 1.250% at 3% down. That is not generosity. Above 80% you are paying for mortgage insurance every month, and the grid discounts the upfront fee because the insurer now carries the risk.

Key takeaway: With a score under 680, landing between 15% and 20% down is the worst spot on the grid. Either push past 25% down or accept mortgage insurance and price both versions.

6. What the Average Score in Your State Buys

Quick Answer: Average FICO scores fell in almost every state during 2025. The typical Minnesota buyer sits in the 740 fee band; the typical Mississippi buyer sits in the 660 band, a $4,000 gap on the same $400,000 loan. Medical bills drove part of the slide, which is why medical debt reporting rules matter here.

State average FICO score and the fee band it lands in

Average FICO score in 2024 and 2025 for selected states, with the Fannie Mae purchase fee that score band triggers on a 400,000 dollar loan at 20 percent down.
State	2024	2025	Fee on $400,000
Minnesota	742	741	$3,500
California	722	721	$5,000
Pennsylvania	722	720	$5,000
Illinois	720	720	$5,000
New York	721	719	$5,500
Michigan	719	717	$5,500
Ohio	716	713	$5,500
North Carolina	709	707	$5,500
Florida	707	704	$5,500
Georgia	695	692	$7,000
Texas	695	692	$7,000
Mississippi	680	677	$7,500

Sources: Experian average FICO by state, September 2024 and 2025; Fannie Mae LLPA Matrix. DollarVisor calculation.

These are averages across every adult with a file, not just buyers. Actual mortgage borrowers score far higher. The New York Fed’s Q1 2026 household debt report counted $530 billion in new mortgages, and origination scores have been clustering well above the state averages for years.

Key takeaway: Being average in your state is not the same as being competitive for a mortgage. In most states the typical adult sits one or two fee bands below the buyers actually closing.

7. Which Score the Lender Actually Uses

Quick Answer: Mortgage lenders pull all three bureaus and use your middle score, not your highest or your average. If two people apply together, the lower of the two middle scores usually prices the loan. The version is not the one your app shows, as our FICO versus VantageScore breakdown explains.

This trips up more buyers than any other detail in the process. The score you have been watching for six months is often not the score the underwriter sees.

Three bureaus, one middle number. Order the three scores low to high and take the middle one. A 710, 688 and 664 makes you a 688 borrower.
Two applicants, the lower file wins. Fannie Mae dropped its average median score rule in the November 2025 DU update and now reads the representative score, which in practice means the weaker file sets the price.
The version differs. Mortgages run on older classic FICO models. FHFA has approved FICO 10T and VantageScore 4.0 for conforming loans, but rollout has been gradual.

Free scores from a card issuer are usually FICO 8 or VantageScore 3.0. Both can sit twenty or more points away from the classic mortgage versions in either direction.

Key takeaway: Before you assume you clear a band, get all three bureau scores and find your middle one. That single number is what the fee grid reads.

8. How to Lift Your Score Before You Apply

Quick Answer: In 90 days, the levers that move a score fastest are card balances, reporting errors and any account left in dispute. Paying cards down below 10% of their limits is the biggest single move, because utilization updates monthly rather than over years.

How to raise your credit score before a mortgage application

Work these in order. The first two are worth more than everything below them combined.

Pull all three reports and read them. Errors on one bureau can drag your middle score down a whole band. Get them free at AnnualCreditReport.com and dispute anything wrong immediately.
Pay every card under 10% of its limit. Do it before the statement closes, not before the due date. The balance reported to the bureaus is the statement balance.
Do not close old cards. Closing one cuts your total available credit and can push utilization up overnight.
Stop applying for new credit. No cars, no store cards, no financing the furniture. New accounts shorten your average age and add inquiries.
Clear active disputes. Underwriters often cannot close while a tradeline is flagged as disputed, even if you are in the right.
Lift any credit freeze before applying. A lender cannot pull a frozen file, so thaw your credit freeze a few days ahead.

What will not help in 90 days: opening a credit-builder account, paying an old collection you have already been penalised for, or hiring a repair firm to send template letters.

Key takeaway: Two moves carry the short game: fix report errors and cut card balances before the statement date. Everything else is a long game you should have started last year.

9. The Verdict

Quick Answer: Treat 580 as the FHA door, 620 as the conventional door and 780 as the price you want. If you are within twenty points of a band boundary, delay the application and cross it. Then check that your debt-to-income ratio is not the real problem.

The honest version of this answer is that the credit score to buy a house is no longer one number. It is a floor set by your lender, a fee set by a public grid, and a gap between the two that you can close in a quarter if you know which boundary you are near.

Buyers who ask “am I approved?” get a yes or no. Buyers who ask “which band am I in, and what is the next one worth?” tend to save four figures on the same house.

10. Frequently Asked Questions

1. What credit score do you need to buy a house in 2026?

Practically, 580 with an FHA loan and 3.5% down, or about 620 with most conventional lenders. Fannie Mae itself no longer sets a minimum after November 2025, but individual lenders still do. Scores of 780 and above get the lowest fees on conventional loans.

2. Can I buy a house with a 600 credit score?

Usually yes, through FHA. A 600 clears the 580 threshold for 3.5% down. Conventional is harder because most lenders overlay a 620 floor, and the fee at that level runs 2.750% of the loan at 20% down, or $11,000 on a $400,000 mortgage.

3. Is 620 a good credit score to buy a house?

It is enough to get approved at most lenders, but it is not a good price. A 620 sits in the lowest fee band on Fannie Mae’s grid. Moving to 660 saves about $3,500 on a $400,000 loan, and moving to 740 saves about $7,500.

4. Do lenders use the highest or lowest of my three scores?

Neither. They use the middle of your three bureau scores. On a joint application, the representative score is what prices the loan, so the weaker file usually decides the cost for both of you.

5. How long does it take to raise a credit score enough to buy a house?

Crossing one 20-point band often takes 30 to 60 days if card balances are the issue, because utilization updates every statement cycle. Recovering from a late payment or a collection takes years, not months, so plan around it instead.