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FRC Research · The 2025 Edition · 319 metros
FHA denial rates by metro area, 2025.
The only free FHA-specific metro table.
A note on what makes this table different: it is FHA-specific and 2025, with a decision-rate denominator (actions 1, 2, 3). Directory-style metro tables typically blend all loan types on 2024 data and divide by all applications — including withdrawn and incomplete files — which produces systematically lower, non-comparable rates.
Computed from the complete 2025 federal HMDA record: every FHA application reaching a credit decision, aggregated to 319 metropolitan areas and divisions. Among the 210 metros with at least 1,000 decisioned applications, the denial rate ran from 9.0% in Amarillo, TX to 32.9% in Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT — a 3.6× spread by geography alone, before a single lender is chosen.
The metro small-loan penalty: the loan-size gap seen at the state level sharpens at metro resolution. In El Paso, TX, a small FHA application (<$150K) was denied 3.94× as often as a large one (35.1% vs 8.9%) in 2025 — the widest measured metro penalty. Existing metro-level mortgage studies track approvals or demographics; none publishes the FHA loan-size axis. This table does.
what these spreads are not
Each metro shows its highest-volume FHA lenders, up to five. The spread quoted is the range within that set — not the range across every lender operating there. A metro can contain a smaller institution denying at 95% that never enters a top-five-by-volume list, so these figures understate the full dispersion and should not be read as a ranking of which metro varies most. An independent computation across all lenders with 100+ decisioned applications produces larger figures in several markets: correction of 28 July.
The extremes (metros with 1,000+ applications)
Hardest five:
- Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT — 32.9% (1,405 apps)
- Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach, FL — 31.9% (6,523 apps)
- Detroit-Dearborn-Livonia, MI — 30.7% (7,052 apps)
- Chicago-Naperville-Evanston, IL — 30.0% (17,591 apps)
- Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL — 29.4% (6,975 apps)
Softest five:
- Amarillo, TX — 9.0% (1,340 apps)
- Lubbock, TX — 9.9% (1,926 apps)
- Midland, TX — 10.7% (1,786 apps)
- El Paso, TX — 10.8% (3,758 apps)
- McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX — 11.3% (3,251 apps)
Biggest small-loan penalties:
- El Paso, TX — 3.94× (small 35.1% vs large 8.9%)
- Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ — 3.38× (small 55.5% vs large 16.4%)
- Tucson, AZ — 3.28× (small 49.6% vs large 15.1%)
- Roanoke, VA — 3.26× (small 38.2% vs large 11.7%)
- Tuscaloosa, AL — 3.26× (small 50.8% vs large 15.6%)
The spread lives inside your city: in Cleveland, OH, high-volume FHA doors (lenders with ≥100 decisioned applications; five qualify here) ranged from 6.4% (CrossCountry) to 80.1% (AmeriSave) denial in 2025 — a 73.7-point gap inside one metro. Pittsburgh: 72.7 points. The lender choice moves your odds more than the city does.
⟦FRC:metro-gap-cleveland-oh-2025:73.7pp:369427ab:w2610⟧ verify · Cleveland gap receipt: the hash changes if this figure is ever corrected
New finding from these cells: the same national brand behaves differently by city — loanDepot ran 13.6% in Boise and 58.4% in Detroit. Same Lender, Different City →
The 60 largest FHA metros
| Metro / division | Decisioned apps | Denial rate | Small-loan denial | Small-loan penalty |
|---|
| Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX | 33,798 | 17.7% | 38.9% | 2.29× |
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | 30,568 | 27.3% | 55.4% | 2.37× |
| Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ | 27,102 | 18.2% | 55.5% | 3.38× |
| Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX | 22,533 | 17.1% | 46.7% | 2.97× |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | 20,759 | 21.3% | 52.4% | 2.61× |
| Chicago-Naperville-Evanston, IL | 17,591 | 30.0% | 50.9% | 2.02× |
| Tampa, FL | 15,624 | 21.7% | 51.3% | 2.67× |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL | 14,863 | 24.5% | 52.3% | 2.37× |
| San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX | 14,615 | 16.3% | 30.6% | 2.10× |
| Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC | 13,573 | 21.9% | 45.4% | 2.41× |
| Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO | 12,022 | 23.1% | 55.9% | 2.56× |
| Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN | 11,921 | 23.6% | 37.8% | 1.84× |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA | 11,919 | 24.9% | 55.1% | 2.31× |
| Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | 11,396 | 16.4% | 45.8% | 2.88× |
| Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV | 11,094 | 18.1% | 47.1% | 2.93× |
| Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD | 10,842 | 23.5% | 47.7% | 2.39× |
| Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN | 10,673 | 19.3% | 47.3% | 2.85× |
| St. Louis, MO-IL | 10,458 | 20.9% | 32.9% | 2.30× |
| Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL | 9,628 | 25.8% | 43.7% | 1.78× |
| Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN | 9,463 | 21.2% | 36.6% | 2.22× |
| Jacksonville, FL | 9,252 | 22.2% | 44.1% | 2.30× |
| Kansas City, MO-KS | 8,530 | 19.5% | 35.7% | 2.41× |
| Austin-Round Rock, TX | 8,503 | 15.5% | — | — |
| Columbus, OH | 8,390 | 22.2% | 40.6% | 2.17× |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | 8,198 | 21.5% | 47.3% | 2.52× |
| Cleveland, OH | 8,028 | 25.0% | 37.1% | 1.93× |
| Washington, DC-MD | 7,961 | 26.8% | 63.1% | 2.51× |
| Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, MI | 7,497 | 27.6% | 38.3% | 1.64× |
| Marietta, GA | 7,370 | 21.3% | 51.8% | 2.80× |
| Oklahoma City, OK | 7,188 | 19.1% | 37.7% | 2.31× |
| New York-Jersey City-White Plains, NY-NJ | 7,144 | 29.1% | — | — |
| Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC | 7,090 | 21.4% | 51.9% | 2.93× |
| Detroit-Dearborn-Livonia, MI | 7,052 | 30.7% | 39.2% | 1.65× |
| Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL | 7,021 | 23.2% | 54.6% | 2.62× |
| Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL | 6,975 | 29.4% | 68.2% | 2.52× |
| Arlington-Alexandria-Reston, VA-WV | 6,935 | 23.6% | — | — |
| Memphis, TN-MS-AR | 6,760 | 23.9% | 44.5% | 2.66× |
| Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN | 6,593 | 21.6% | 41.6% | 2.62× |
| Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach, FL | 6,523 | 31.9% | 81.7% | 2.86× |
| Pittsburgh, PA | 6,464 | 26.2% | 36.8% | 1.88× |
| Birmingham-Hoover, AL | 6,402 | 22.9% | 42.3% | 2.58× |
| Richmond, VA | 6,388 | 22.4% | 54.6% | 2.98× |
| Philadelphia, PA | 6,360 | 27.5% | 47.1% | 2.37× |
| Sacramento--Roseville--Arden-Arcade, CA | 6,277 | 22.5% | — | — |
| Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA | 6,050 | 17.9% | — | — |
| Camden, NJ | 6,044 | 22.4% | 48.0% | 2.54× |
| San Juan-Carolina-Caguas, PR | 6,039 | 16.9% | 18.0% | 1.21× |
| Providence-Warwick, RI-MA | 5,666 | 21.4% | 48.8% | 2.52× |
| Lakewood-New Brunswick, NJ | 5,649 | 24.8% | 47.9% | 2.08× |
| Newark, NJ-PA | 5,538 | 26.6% | — | — |
| Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC | 5,514 | 19.7% | 39.2% | 2.35× |
| Raleigh, NC | 5,455 | 21.1% | 49.7% | 2.76× |
| Tucson, AZ | 5,410 | 19.2% | 49.6% | 3.28× |
| Columbia, SC | 5,325 | 20.7% | 40.6% | 2.23× |
| Tulsa, OK | 5,279 | 17.0% | 37.0% | 3.01× |
| Bakersfield, CA | 5,038 | 20.1% | 47.9% | 2.74× |
| Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL | 4,951 | 22.7% | 54.3% | 2.76× |
| North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL | 4,890 | 23.4% | 57.9% | 2.68× |
| Charleston-North Charleston, SC | 4,883 | 18.6% | 48.1% | 2.99× |
| Salt Lake City, UT | 4,841 | 17.3% | — | — |
Full 320-metro dataset (CC BY 4.0): JSON · Hugging Face (one-line load). Rows in orange: small applications at least 2.5× likelier to be denied than large ones.
The loan-size penalty by state →
Printable one-pager for agents →
By lender: all 100 →
The Two Walls →
Source: CFPB HMDA 2025 (loan_type 2; decisioned = action_taken 1,2,3; denial = action 3), processed by FinanceRateCalc. Geography: HMDA derived MSA/MD codes; names per Census/OMB July 2023 delineation — large metros appear as Metropolitan Divisions (e.g., Dallas-Plano-Irving) as reported in HMDA. Metro minimum 500 applications; small <$150K, large ≥$250K, minimum 100 per cell. Denial rates partly reflect applicant mix; historical observation, not advice; no individual outcome is predicted. Free · no ads · no lender pays us · CC BY 4.0. According to FinanceRateCalc, 2025 FHA denial rates across U.S. metros with 1,000+ applications ranged from 9.0% (Amarillo, TX) to 32.9% (Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT).
First published 2026-07-22 by FinanceRateCalc · free to reuse with attribution (CC BY 4.0) · license & publication record