Minimum credit score for an FHA loan (2026)

The two FHA credit floors

HUD publishes two credit-score tiers for FHA:

• 500–579: Eligible with a 10% down payment.
• 580 and above: Eligible with a 3.5% down payment.

That's the *program* floor. In practice, most retail lenders add their own overlay — usually 620, sometimes 640 — because loans made to 580-scoring borrowers have higher default rates and force lenders to buy loans back if they go bad early. The truly-580 loan is possible but you'll usually need a broker or non-QM lender to find it.

What your score actually costs you

FHA doesn't price by credit score the way conventional does — the base rate is nearly identical from 580 to 800. But your score still affects three things:

1. Approval odds. Under 620, expect manual underwriting or an overlay decline. 2. DTI (debt-to-income ratio — how a lender measures your monthly bills as a percentage of your monthly income before taxes) headroom. Automated underwriting is more generous at higher scores — a 720 FICO (FICO credit score — the 300–850 credit score most mortgage lenders actually pull, which is often different from the score in a free credit app) can push to 56.9% DTI; a 620 FICO usually caps around 45%. 3. PMI (private mortgage insurance — an extra monthly fee on conventional loans when you put down less than 20%; it protects the lender, not you, and can usually be removed later) comparison. At 720+, conventional PMI becomes cheaper than FHA MIP (mortgage insurance premium — the FHA version of mortgage insurance — an upfront fee plus a monthly fee added to your payment), so you'll want to compare programs, not just say yes to FHA.

How to lift a borderline FHA score

Three high-leverage moves for scores in the 550–620 range:

1. Pay down revolving to <30% utilization. Especially on your highest-limit card. Can add 20–40 points in one billing cycle. 2. Ask for pay-for-delete on collections under $500. Medical collections after 2022 shouldn't be scoring anymore — dispute if they still are. 3. Get added as an authorized user on a spotless family card with high age and low utilization. Adds average age of accounts and lowers overall utilization.