What a denial rate does and does not mean

A denial rate on this site is the share of applications a lender decided that ended in a denial: HMDA action-taken code 3 divided by codes 1, 2 and 3 (originated, approved but not accepted, denied). Applications the applicant withdrew and files closed for incompleteness are left out of the denominator because the lender did not reach a decision. Nationally in 2024 the rate was 24.3%.

The CFPB's words

HMDA data alone cannot be used to determine whether a lender is complying with fair lending laws. The data do not include some legitimate credit risk considerations for loan approval and loan pricing decisions.

That sentence, from the CFPB's HMDA documentation, appears on every entity page here. The public file does not contain credit scores in a form that can be compared across lenders, full debt and asset information, or the underwriting rules each lender applies. Two lenders with the same denial rate can have very different applicant pools, and two with different rates can be applying the same standards to different populations.

What moves a denial rate

• Product mix: lenders that concentrate on government-insured or manufactured-housing loans, home-improvement loans or home-equity lines typically see more denials than lenders that mostly refinance existing customers.
• Channel: lenders that take applications online from the general public receive more that do not qualify than lenders whose applications arrive through builders or brokers who pre-screen.
• Coding practice: whether an incomplete file is coded as denied (3) or closed for incompleteness (5) varies between institutions and changes the rate.
• Geography: county and state rates differ, so the site compares each lender with its largest state and with the nation.

Denial reasons

Lenders code up to four reasons for each denial from a fixed list: debt-to-income ratio, employment history, credit history, collateral, insufficient cash, unverifiable information, credit application incomplete, mortgage insurance denied, other. This site shows the first reason coded, as a share of the lender's denials, next to the national shares. It is the lender's own classification, not an audit.

What this site does not do

It does not tabulate denial rates by applicant race, ethnicity, sex or age for any lender, does not rank lenders as better or worse, and does not advise anyone which lender to use. It is a register of the public record, with context.