What Credit Score Do You Need to Buy a House? Minimum Credit Score to Buy a House by Loan Type
The number a lender needs is lower than most buyers think. The number that gets you a good rate is higher. Creditpal reads your file and shows you which factors sit between the two.
Last updated July 2026
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In short
Most buyers need a FICO score of 580 for an FHA loan with 3.5 percent down, or about 620 for a conventional loan, a VA loan, or a USDA loan, because those are the floors lenders themselves apply. Approval is only half the question. Mortgage pricing improves in tiers, and the best rates generally start around 740, with one more small step at 760. The gap between a 700 and a 780 file is worth roughly 0.3 percentage points, which on a 400,000 dollar 30-year loan is about 85 dollars a month. Creditpal connects your credit profile read-only, explains which factors are holding your number down, and sequences the work in the months before you apply. It is educational guidance, never a promise of approval, a rate, or a score, and it never recommends a lender.
Why it fits
Buyers who want to know the real credit score to buy a house, and what their own file needs before they apply.
See the gap between approval and good pricing
Clearing a lender minimum and earning the best rate tier are two different targets. Creditpal shows which of your factors is capping the second one.
Work with lead time, not in a panic
Utilization can move in a billing cycle. Account age and a recent late payment cannot. Creditpal orders the work by what can realistically change before your application.
Test a move before you make it
Paying one card to 10 percent, holding off on a new account, keeping an old card open: run it in the simulator and see the likely direction first. Never a guaranteed number.
Reference
Minimum credit score to buy a house, by loan type
| Loan type | Typical minimum credit score | Minimum down payment | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| FHA loan | 580 for the low down payment, 500 to 579 with a larger one | 3.5 percent at 580 and up, 10 percent below that | The most forgiving common option. Many FHA lenders still overlay 620 of their own, so shop more than one |
| Conventional loan | About 620 at most lenders | 3 percent for many first-time buyers, 5 percent otherwise | Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac dropped their own hard minimum in November 2025, so the number you meet is now the lender overlay, not an agency rule |
| VA loan | No VA minimum. Most lenders want 620, some go to 580 | 0 percent | Open to eligible service members, veterans and some surviving spouses. The score bar is set entirely by the lender |
| USDA loan | No agency minimum. Most lenders want 640 | 0 percent | 640 is the cutoff for the automated underwriting system, so below it your file goes to manual review |
| Jumbo loan | 700 to 720 and up | Often 10 to 20 percent | Anything above the 2026 conforming limit of 832,750 dollars in most counties. Reserves and income documentation are stricter too |
| Best rate tier, any loan type | 740, with a smaller improvement at 760 | Not applicable | Rate improvements largely flatten above 760, so chasing 800 for pricing reasons is not worth delaying a purchase |
Minimums are the common lender practice as published in July 2026, not guarantees. Every lender sets its own overlays on top of the program rules, which is why two lenders can quote the same buyer differently on the same day. Creditpal is educational and is not a lender or a mortgage broker.
What credit score do you need to buy a house?
For most buyers the practical answer is 620. That clears conventional underwriting at the majority of lenders, and it is at or above what most VA and USDA lenders ask for. If your score is between 580 and 619, an FHA loan is usually the route, and below 580 you are looking at FHA with 10 percent down.
The reason there is no single national number is that mortgage programs and lenders set separate bars. FHA, VA and USDA publish program rules, then individual lenders add their own stricter requirements on top, known as overlays. A 600 score can be declined by one lender and approved by another on the same loan program in the same week.
One structural change is worth knowing. In November 2025 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac removed the hard credit score minimum that had effectively made 620 the industry floor for conventional loans. In practice most lenders kept 620 as their own overlay, so the number you experience has not moved much, but the rule now lives with the lender rather than the agency.
What credit score do you need to buy a house for the first time?
The same minimums apply. There is no separate credit score rule for first-time buyers, and no scoring model knows or cares whether you have owned a home before. What first-time buyer status actually changes is the down payment and the assistance you can access, not the score bar.
Conventional programs aimed at first-time buyers allow 3 percent down, and most states run down payment assistance programs through their housing finance agency. Those assistance programs frequently do set their own credit score requirement, commonly 620 or 640, so if you plan to use one, check its number rather than the loan program number.
First-time buyers do tend to have thinner credit files, which is a different problem from a low score. A file with two accounts and three years of history can score well and still make an underwriter cautious. If that is your situation, our guide to building credit from scratch covers what adds depth without adding risk.
Can you buy a house with a 500 credit score?
Yes, through an FHA loan, if you can put 10 percent down. FHA program rules allow scores from 500 to 579 at that down payment level. The obstacle is not the rule, it is finding a lender willing to write it, because most FHA lenders overlay a minimum of 580 or even 620 and will not go near 500.
Be realistic about the cost. At that score you will pay a higher rate, FHA mortgage insurance for the life of the loan in most cases, and you will need 10 percent down instead of 3.5, which on a 300,000 dollar home is 30,000 dollars instead of 10,500. The total price of buying at 500 is high enough that waiting is usually the better financial decision.
A score that low is also usually caused by something specific and fixable in sequence: a collection, a charge-off, or several recent late payments. Those have a known decay curve. Our guide to fixing bad credit lays out the order that actually works.
Is 620 a good enough credit score to buy a house?
It is good enough to be approved, and not good enough to be priced well. At 620 you meet the common conventional overlay and comfortably clear FHA, so the door opens. What you will not get is the rate the same lender quotes its 760 borrowers, and on a conventional loan you will also pay higher risk-based pricing adjustments and more for private mortgage insurance.
That pricing difference is the part buyers underestimate. Published rate-by-score averages have recently put a 700 score near 6.91 percent on a 30-year conventional loan and a 780 near 6.59 percent. On a 400,000 dollar loan that spread is about 85 dollars a month, roughly 1,020 dollars a year, and around 30,600 dollars across the full term. Rates move constantly, so treat the gap as the takeaway rather than the exact figures.
The honest framing is a trade. If you are at 620 and could reach 680 or 700 in four to six months by paying down revolving balances, the interest saved usually dwarfs the cost of waiting. If your 620 is caused by an old late payment that simply needs to age, waiting buys you very little and you should buy when you are ready.
What credit score do you need to buy a house with no down payment?
Two programs allow zero down, and both set the score bar at the lender rather than the agency. VA loans require no down payment for eligible service members, veterans and certain surviving spouses, and the Department of Veterans Affairs publishes no minimum score. Most VA lenders want 620, and some will work with 580 when the rest of the file is strong.
USDA loans also allow zero down for properties in eligible rural and many suburban areas, subject to income limits. The USDA sets no minimum score either, but 640 is the threshold for the automated underwriting system, so applicants below it go to manual underwriting with stricter documentation.
Zero down does not mean zero cash. Closing costs, an appraisal, and in most cases a funding or guarantee fee still apply, though the fee is usually financed into the loan.
What credit score do you need for the best mortgage rate?
Around 740. Mortgage pricing is tiered rather than continuous, so your rate does not improve smoothly with every point. The meaningful steps land at 740 and again at 760, and above 760 there is very little left to capture. A 790 borrower and an 810 borrower are generally quoted the same rate.
This is the single most useful thing to know if you are 15 or 20 points below a tier boundary. Moving from 735 to 745 can be worth more than moving from 660 to 700, because the first crosses a pricing line and the second does not. Utilization is usually the lever that gets you there fastest, since a reported balance can change in one statement cycle, and if you are already in the application a rapid rescore can get that paydown reported in 2 to 5 business days. If you have not applied yet, our 90-day sequence for how to increase a credit score for a mortgage covers which levers reach FICO 2, 4 and 5 and which do nothing. Since pricing flattens above 760, our guide to getting to an 800 credit score is more useful for the achievement than for a mortgage rate.
Note that lenders pull all three bureaus and traditionally use the middle of the three scores, not the highest. On a joint application the lower borrower has usually driven the decision. Checking one app that shows one bureau can leave you 20 points off from what underwriting will see.
Do mortgage lenders use FICO or VantageScore?
Historically, mortgage lenders selling loans to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac had to use specific older FICO versions, known as Classic FICO, which are different from the FICO 8 or VantageScore 3.0 that most free credit apps show you. That is why the number in your app rarely matches the number your loan officer reads, and why some buyers pay to see the exact FICO versions a lender pulls before they apply.
This is changing. The Federal Housing Finance Agency has moved to a lender choice approach, in which the enterprises accept a score from either Classic FICO or VantageScore 4.0. VantageScore 4.0 can score more consumers and can factor in additional data such as rent payment history, which matters for thin files.
The practical advice does not change. Do not fixate on any single number from any single app. The factors underneath it, payment history, utilization, age, mix and recent applications, are the same in every model, and improving them improves every version. Our breakdown of what counts as a good credit score compares the scales side by side.
How long before buying a house should you work on your credit?
Six months is the useful planning window for most buyers, and three is the minimum worth bothering with. That is enough time for two or three statement cycles of lower reported balances to show up, for a disputed error to be investigated and corrected, and for a recent hard inquiry to stop mattering.
Some things move fast and some do not. Utilization can shift within one billing cycle, and it is roughly 30 percent of a FICO score, which makes it the highest-leverage thing to work on before an application. Average account age, a 30-day late payment, and a collection do not respond to effort at all. They respond to time.
There is also a short list of what not to do in the 90 days before you apply: do not open new credit cards, do not finance furniture or a car, do not close old cards, and do not let a card report a high balance. Each of those either adds an inquiry, cuts your available credit, or raises utilization at exactly the wrong moment.
What debt to income ratio do you need to buy a house?
The widest standard limit is 50 percent, and it applies only to a conventional loan run through Fannie Mae Desktop Underwriter. A manually underwritten conventional loan stops at 45 percent. FHA publishes 31 percent for the housing payment and 43 percent for total debt, USDA publishes 29 and 41 percent, and the VA works to a 41 percent guideline before its residual income test takes over. All three government programs allow documented exceptions above their standard ratios.
The number that trips buyers up is which housing payment goes in the calculation. It is not your current rent. On a purchase, the underwriter uses the proposed payment on the house you are buying, including principal, interest, property taxes, homeowners insurance, mortgage insurance and any HOA dues, which routinely lands several hundred dollars above the principal and interest a rate quote shows you. Run your numbers both ways with the debt to income ratio calculator, which scores them against every program limit at once.
One thing to keep separate from everything else on this page: your debt to income ratio has no effect on your credit score. Income is not on your credit report and is not a scoring input, so the two tests are independent. A 780 score does not rescue a 55 percent ratio, and a clean 42 percent ratio does not rescue a file with a collection on it. Lenders check both, and you have to pass both.
Where a credit coach fits before a mortgage application
Most buyers get one honest look at their credit, from the loan officer, and by then the application is already in motion. The months before that are when the number is still movable, and they are usually spent guessing which of the free apps to believe.
Creditpal is built for that window. It connects your credit profile read-only, separates the factors helping your file from the ones dragging it, and explains each in plain English rather than a grade. You can run a what-if simulation before you act, for example paying one card down to 10 percent, and see the likely direction with the reasoning attached. Then it sequences a plan by impact and effort, so the six weeks you have go to the things that can actually move.
It is deliberately limited in what it claims. It is educational guidance, not a promise of approval, a rate, or a score. It does not file disputes, it is not a credit repair organization, it is not a lender or a broker, and it never steers you to one. It costs 7 dollars a month, and you can always check your own reports free at annualcreditreport.com.
Straight answers
Questions people ask about the credit score you need to buy a house
What credit score do you need to buy a house?
For most buyers, 620. That clears conventional underwriting at the majority of lenders and meets what most VA and USDA lenders ask. FHA allows 580 with 3.5 percent down, or 500 to 579 with 10 percent down. Lenders add their own stricter overlays, so the same score can be declined by one and approved by another.
What is the minimum credit score to buy a house?
Officially 500, through an FHA loan with 10 percent down. Practically, few lenders write FHA loans below 580 because of their own overlays. Below 620 your realistic options narrow to FHA, and the rate and mortgage insurance costs rise sharply enough that waiting is often the better financial choice.
Can I buy a house with a 500 credit score?
Yes, in theory, with an FHA loan and 10 percent down, which is what FHA program rules allow for scores of 500 to 579. Finding a willing lender is the hard part, since most overlay a 580 or 620 minimum. You would also pay a higher rate and lifetime mortgage insurance.
Is 620 a good credit score to buy a house?
It is enough to be approved and not enough to be priced well. At 620 you meet the common conventional overlay, but you pay higher risk-based pricing and more for mortgage insurance than a 740 borrower. If you can reach 680 to 700 in a few months, the interest saved usually outweighs the delay.
What credit score do you need for the best mortgage rate?
About 740, with one more small improvement at 760. Mortgage pricing moves in tiers, not smoothly, so crossing a boundary matters more than the raw points. Above 760 there is very little left to gain, which means chasing an 800 score before buying is rarely worth the wait.
What credit score do you need for a first-time home buyer?
The same as any buyer. There is no separate score rule for first-time buyers, and no scoring model tracks whether you have owned a home. First-time status changes your down payment options, commonly 3 percent on conventional loans, and your access to state assistance programs, which often set their own 620 or 640 requirement.
Do mortgage lenders use a different credit score than my app?
Usually yes. Mortgage underwriting has traditionally used older Classic FICO versions rather than the FICO 8 or VantageScore 3.0 most free apps display, which is why the numbers differ. Lenders pull all three bureaus and use the middle score. The FHFA is now moving toward accepting VantageScore 4.0 as well.
How long before buying a house should I fix my credit?
Plan on six months, with three as the practical minimum. That covers two or three statement cycles of lower reported balances and leaves room for a disputed error to be corrected. Utilization responds quickly. Account age, late payments and collections only respond to time.
Does getting pre-approved for a mortgage hurt your credit score?
A pre-approval involves a hard inquiry, which typically costs fewer than five points and fades within a year. Rate shopping is protected: FICO counts multiple mortgage inquiries inside a 45-day window as a single inquiry, so comparing several lenders costs you no more than checking one.
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