What credit score do you need to buy a house?

There is no single minimum, only one per loan type

Ask five people what score you need for a mortgage and you will hear 620, 580, 640 and "it depends". All four are right about something. The minimum belongs to the loan program, not to mortgages in general, and each program writes it differently. Some publish a number. Some publish none and let an automated system decide. Here is where each one stood in October 2026.

The table shows the floor in the rule book. The floor at the lender's desk can be higher, because lenders are free to add their own minimums. VA says so in as many words: it does not require a minimum score, "but some lenders do have a requirement, so be sure to contact more than one lender to compare." That advice applies to every row. If one lender tells you 640, it is telling you about itself.

The conventional 620 is gone for most files

For years 620 was the conventional number. Fannie Mae removed it for loans run through Desktop Underwriter, its automated system, in Selling Guide Announcement SEL-2025-09, for casefiles created from mid-November 2025. The Selling Guide now says DU loans have no minimum credit score and that DU weighs the risk of the whole file.

Read that carefully before getting excited. No minimum does not mean any score passes. DU still looks at the score along with income, debts, savings and down payment, and a low score has to be carried by the rest of the file. What changed is that a 610 with a large down payment and little debt is no longer stopped at the door by a single number.

Files underwritten by hand kept their floors: 620 for a fixed-rate loan and 640 for an adjustable one. That is why 620 still matters. If the automated system does not approve you, manual underwriting is the fallback, and below 620 that fallback is closed for a conventional loan.

One more 2026 change: approved Fannie Mae lenders may use VantageScore 4.0 subject to program availability, and the fee grid is the same for both. Manual underwriting still uses classic FICO.

FHA: 580 is the line that changes the deal

HUD's thresholds have not moved in years, and its latest Mortgagee Letter (ML 2026-11, dated October 8, 2026) restates them. A decision credit score of 580 or more meets the score threshold for maximum financing, subject to other program and lender requirements, which on a standard purchase is a 96.5% loan, or 3.5% down. From 500 to 579 the loan is capped at 90% of the value, so you need 10% down. Below 500, FHA is not available.

The step at 580 is worth more than the down payment alone. On a manually underwritten FHA loan, a score from 500 to 579 (or no score) caps your debt ratios at 31% for housing and 43% in total. From 580 up, compensating factors can stretch those limits to 37/47 or 40/50. For a buyer whose income is tight, that difference can decide the size of house, or whether there is a loan at all.

The same letter adds VantageScore 4.0 and FICO 10T as accepted models for FHA case numbers assigned from January 1, 2027. HUD was explicit that the 500 and 580 lines stay where they are whichever model is used.

VA and USDA publish no number at all

VA does not set a minimum score. Lenders that make VA loans often do, which is why the advice to compare more than one lender matters most here.

USDA works through its Guaranteed Underwriting System. The USDA handbook says GUS "will determine the acceptable credit score" and that files GUS accepts need no credit score validation. If GUS refers the file, or a lender underwrites it by hand, at least one applicant whose income or assets count must have a validated score: two accounts on the credit report open for at least 12 months. People without that history can document credit in other ways, such as rent and utility payments. You will see 640 quoted everywhere as the USDA minimum. It is not in the current chapter of the handbook, so if a lender asks for 640, that is the lender's rule.

Qualifying is the floor; the price keeps moving up to 780

Meeting a minimum score does not establish approval; the lender assesses the rest of the application. It does not get you a good one. On conventional loans Fannie Mae charges loan-level price adjustments, one-time fees set by credit score and down payment, usually rolled into your rate. Its matrix dated September 30, 2026 steps every 20 points from 640 to 780.

For a purchase with 20% to 25% down, the fee is 2.75% of the loan at 639 or below, 2.25% at 640, 1.75% at 680, 0.875% at 740 and 0.375% at 780 or higher. On a $350,000 loan, that is $9,625 at the bottom band against $1,312.50 at the top, and nothing improves above 780. A file with no score at all is charged at the lowest band.

So the useful question for most buyers is not the minimum. It is which band you sit in, and how far the next one is. Moving from 638 to 640, or from 739 to 740, changes a credit-score row in the matrix. The fee difference depends on the loan features and down payment. Scores within a row share that reference treatment; lenders can still offer different terms.

Which of your scores the lender uses

Mortgage lenders still pull all three bureaus. Fannie Mae and FHA both require a three-bureau (tri-merge) report. With one borrower, the lender works from that borrower's representative score; on a manual USDA file that is the middle of three scores, or the lower of two. For Fannie Mae pricing, the lender selects each borrower’s applicable score (the middle of three or lower of two), then uses the lowest applicable score among borrowers as the loan’s representative score. An average median score can be used for certain eligibility tests; it is not the score used for pricing. That is worth knowing before you decide whose name goes on the loan.

Shopping for rates does not drag the score down the way people fear. The FTC notes that several mortgage inquiries in a short period are often counted as one, and myFICO says the newest FICO versions treat mortgage inquiries within any 45-day span as a single one. Opening new cards or a car loan in the same months is a different matter, and it is a common reason a score slips just before closing (see why a credit score drops).

What to do with your number

Below 500, there is no federally backed loan to apply for, and the work is on the credit report, not on lenders. From 500 to 579, FHA with 10% down is the realistic route, and getting to 580 cuts the down payment to 3.5%. From 580 to 619, FHA is the main door, and a conventional loan depends entirely on DU. From 620, both are open and the choice is about cost: compare the FHA quote against a conventional quote with its fee band, side by side. Above 740 the fees are small, and above 780 they stop falling. If you are within a few points of a band line and not in a hurry, waiting to cross it is often worth more than any rate you will find by shopping.