FinanceRateCalc · SC · 2025 federal record
FHA denial rates by lender in Columbia, SC
Which door an applicant knocks on changes the odds more than almost anything else visible in the public record. Here is what the 5 highest-volume FHA lenders in this metro actually did in 2025.
Spread between the softest and strictest door
25.1
percentage points · 1.9% vs 27.0%
The doors
Vanderbilt Mortgage And Finance
209 decisioned applications here
1.9%
Guild Mortgage
390 decisioned applications here
9.5%
Freedom Mortgage
200 decisioned applications here
16.0%
United Wholesale Mortgage
357 decisioned applications here
25.2%
Rocket Mortgage
404 decisioned applications here
27.0%
Metro FHA denial rate: 20.7% across 5,325 decisioned applications (national: 22.1%). Smaller loans in this metro were denied at 40.6% versus 18.2% for larger loans — a 2.23× gap.
What this does not say: HMDA contains no credit scores. These are observed aggregates and partly reflect applicant mix, channel and documentation practices — not proof of misconduct, and not a prediction for any individual application. We never recommend lenders and no lender pays us.
Does it stay this way?
Nationally, yes. Across 2018–2025, 80.8% of the variance in large-lender denial rates sits between lenders rather than within them, and the most lenient large lender was the same institution in seven of eight years. Persistent Doors (SSRN)
For agents: a client-ready one-page card for this metro — observed rates, volumes, the small-loan penalty and each lender's 8-year pattern, updated quarterly.
Report Cards → · the data on this page is free forever.
Receipt for these figures: machine-readable claim passport · all 184 metros: metro table · method: The Door Effect