Lenders › Southern First Bank
Southern First Bank
HMDA reporter, headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina. Record for calendar year 2024.
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. Figures are from the 2024 public HMDA loan/application register; cells under 25 applications are withheld.
Southern First Bank reported 1,655 mortgage applications under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act for 2024 in 3 states, of which 1,119 became loans it originated, for $405m in total.
Its denial rate, the share of decided applications the lender denied, was 20.2%, below the national rate of 24.3% and below the South Carolina rate of 25.2%. 198 applications were withdrawn by the applicant and 36 files were closed for incompleteness; those are not counted in the denial rate.
The median rate spread on its originated loans, the difference between the loan's APR and the average prime offer rate, was 0.3 percentage points (national median 0.3); 1.7% of its originations had a spread of 1.5 points or more.
By loan purpose the originations were mostly home purchase (65%) and refinancing (12%); by loan type, conventional (92%) and FHA (6%).
The largest volumes were in South Carolina (853 originations), Georgia (152 originations) and North Carolina (103 originations).
Applications were up 9% on 2023.
VA lender statistics list 1 VA-guaranteed loans for the lender in August 2026.
Compared with South Carolina and the nation
| Measure | This lender | South Carolina, all lenders | United States |
|---|---|---|---|
| Denial rate (denied ÷ decided applications) | 20.2% | 25.2% | 24.3% |
| Median rate spread, percentage points | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Originations with spread of 1.5 pp or more | 1.7% | 15.5% | 15.6% |
| Average originated loan | $362k | $296k | $329k |
| Home purchase share of originations | 65.1% | 62.8% | 57.0% |
| FHA-insured share of originations | 5.6% | 16.5% | 13.4% |
| VA-guaranteed share of originations | 2.1% | 12.9% | 7.9% |
| Applications withdrawn by applicant | 12.0% | 14.4% | 14.3% |
South Carolina is the lender's largest state by applications. State and national columns cover every HMDA reporter. Rate spread is reported on originated loans only.
Trend by year
ApplicationsOriginations
This lenderSouth CarolinaUnited States
| Year | Applications | Originations | Amount | Denial rate | Median spread | LAR records |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | — | — | — | — | — | 1,286 |
| 2019 | — | — | — | — | — | 2,541 |
| 2020 | — | — | — | — | — | 3,592 |
| 2021 | — | — | — | — | — | 3,113 |
| 2022 | 2,316 | 2,008 | $846m | 1.9% | 0.2 | 2,320 |
| 2023 | 1,516 | 1,142 | $421m | 10.3% | 0.4 | 1,516 |
| 2024 | 1,655 | 1,119 | $405m | 20.2% | 0.3 | 1,655 |
Applications, originations and rates are computed from the public LAR for 2022, 2023, 2024; LAR record counts come from each year's transmittal sheet.
Loan purpose and loan type
By purpose
Home purchase 65% (728)Home improvement 12% (130)Refinancing 12% (133)Cash-out refinancing 3% (35)Other purpose 8% (93)
By type
Conventional 92% (1,032)FHA 6% (63)VA 2% (23)USDA 0% (1)
| Loan type | Applications | Originations | Denied | Denial rate (of applications) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conventional | 1,421 | 1,032 | 189 | 13.3% |
| FHA-insured | 185 | 63 | 82 | 44.3% |
| VA-guaranteed | 38 | 23 | 8 | 21.1% |
| USDA Rural Housing Service or Farm Service Agency guaranteed | 11 | 1 | 8 | — |
Shares are of originated loans. The per-type denial rate here divides denials by all applications of that type, because decided counts are not kept per type.
Action taken
| HMDA action taken | Records | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Loan originated | 1,119 | 67.6% |
| 2 Application approved but not accepted | 15 | 0.9% |
| 3 Application denied | 287 | 17.3% |
| 4 Application withdrawn by applicant | 198 | 12.0% |
| 5 File closed for incompleteness | 36 | 2.2% |
| 6 Purchased loan | 0 | 0.0% |
| 7 Preapproval request denied | 0 | 0.0% |
| 8 Preapproval request approved but not accepted | 0 | 0.0% |
Codes and labels are the HMDA action-taken codes. Applications are codes 1–5; the denial rate divides code 3 by codes 1–3.
Denial reasons as coded
Share of the lender's 287 denials by the first denial reason it coded (outlined bar: all lenders nationally). Lenders may record up to four reasons; only the first is counted here.
States
| State | Applications | Originations | Amount | Denial rate | Median spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Carolina | 1,037 | 853 | $291m | 3.1% | 0.3 |
| Georgia | 227 | 152 | $65m | 9.4% | 0.3 |
| North Carolina | 141 | 103 | $44m | 4.5% | 0.3 |
States with at least 25 applications. States with 100 or more link to the lender's page for that state.
Counties
| County | State | Applications | Originations | Amount | Denial rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greenville County | SC | 553 | 475 | $160m | 1.8% |
| Charleston County | SC | 115 | 96 | $45m | 3.0% |
| Anderson County | SC | 105 | 85 | $22m | 3.4% |
| Spartanburg County | SC | 81 | 62 | $15m | 3.1% |
| Fulton County | GA | 81 | 54 | $26m | 8.3% |
| DeKalb County | GA | 51 | 30 | $10m | 14.3% |
Up to 30 counties with at least 50 applications, by originations.
VA-guaranteed loans by month
All VA loansPurchase
| Month | All | Purchase | Cash-out | IRRRL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2026 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 2026 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 2026 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| May 2026 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Apr 2026 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2026 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 2026 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Jan 2026 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Dec 2025 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nov 2025 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 2025 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Sep 2025 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Fiscal-year totals (VA): FY2018 12,327,382 · FY2019 19,618,802 · FY2020 20,872,410 · FY2021 11,704,004 · FY2022 5,145,468 · FY2023 3,388,015 · FY2024 9,680,732 · FY2025 6,374,561. Matched to the VA lender name "SOUTHERN FIRST BANK, N.A."; VA counts loans by guarantee date, HMDA by application year, so the two series differ.
Questions and answers
How many mortgages did Southern First Bank originate in 2024?
1,119 loans totalling $405m, from 1,655 applications reported under HMDA. It also purchased 0 loans from other institutions, which are counted separately.
What is Southern First Bank's denial rate and how does it compare?
20.2% of decided applications were denied in 2024, against 24.3% nationally and 25.2% in South Carolina. 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.
Which counties does Southern First Bank lend in most?
By originations: Greenville County, SC (475), Charleston County, SC (96), Anderson County, SC (85), Spartanburg County, SC (62) and Fulton County, GA (54).
What loan types does Southern First Bank make?
Conventional 1,032, FHA 63, VA 23 and USDA 1 originations in 2024; by purpose, home purchase 728, home improvement 130, refinancing 133, cash-out refinancing 35 and other purpose 93.
What reasons did Southern First Bank report for denials?
The first denial reason recorded most often was credit history (161), debt-to-income ratio (87) and insufficient cash (downpayment, closing costs) (17), as coded by the lender in its HMDA filing.
Where does this data come from?
From the 2024 public HMDA loan/application register published by the FFIEC and CFPB, with the lender's name from its HMDA transmittal sheet and VA loan volume from the Department of Veterans Affairs lender statistics. Cells under 25 applications are withheld.
Provenance
Source: Home Mortgage Disclosure Act public loan/application register for 2024 (trend years 2022, 2023, 2024) and transmittal sheets 2018–2024, published by the FFIEC and CFPB at ffiec.cfpb.gov, public domain; VA lender statistics from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Lender identity is the LEI and name on its transmittal sheet. This site was built 30 Sep 2026. Errors in processing are corrected at the next build; see corrections. Data through 1 Aug 2026.