| Loan Type | Chapter 7 | Chapter 13 |
|---|---|---|
| FHA | 2 years from discharge | 1 year of payments + court approval |
| VA | 2 years from discharge | 1 year of payments + court approval |
| USDA | 3 years from discharge | 3 years from discharge |
| Conventional | 4 years from discharge | 2 years from discharge |
| Jumbo | 7 years from discharge | 7 years from discharge |
The waiting period is the minimum. What actually gets you approved is what you do during that waiting period.
Credit rebuilding is non-negotiable. FHA requires a 580 minimum score after bankruptcy. But lenders have overlays — many won't touch you under 620, even if you technically qualify at 580.
The "extenuating circumstances" exception. FHA and VA both have shortened waiting periods (as little as 12 months) if the bankruptcy was caused by circumstances beyond your control — job loss, divorce, medical bills. You need documentation: termination letter, medical bills, divorce decree.
Chapter 13 is actually faster than Chapter 7 for most loan types. Counterintuitive, but true — because you're showing a court-supervised repayment history.
Start rebuilding the day after discharge. The waiting period and the credit rebuilding period run simultaneously — don't waste a single month.
Four steps from the federal record: the code, the written questions, the lender spread. No prediction, no lender pick.
The Denial Map → 🔍 Decode Denial LetterNot financial advice. Educational content based on 23 years of mortgage industry experience. Always consult a licensed professional for your specific situation.
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Prices and rates are widely reported. Whether a lender says yes is not. In the complete 2025 federal record, denial rates across the 100 largest FHA lenders ran from 1.8% to 78.7% — same programme, same year.
And it is not simply who applies where: standardizing on state, loan amount, income, debt-to-income and loan-to-value, applicant mix explains only a 2.7× range in expected outcomes.
CFPB HMDA 2025, computed by FinanceRateCalc. Covers the highest-volume lenders published per market, not all lenders. Historical observations, not predictions. CC BY 4.0, not independently reproduced.