FinanceRateCalc · KY · 2025 federal record
FHA denial rates by lender in Louisville/Jefferson County, KY
Which door an applicant knocks on changes the odds more than almost anything else visible in the public record. Here is what the 4 highest-volume FHA lenders in this metro actually did in 2025.
Spread between the softest and strictest door
12.5
percentage points · 14.3% vs 26.8%
The doors
Freedom Mortgage
435 decisioned applications here
14.3%
United Wholesale Mortgage
786 decisioned applications here
14.8%
Pennymac Loan Services
194 decisioned applications here
18.6%
Rocket Mortgage
582 decisioned applications here
26.8%
Metro FHA denial rate: 21.6% across 6,593 decisioned applications (national: 22.1%). Smaller loans in this metro were denied at 41.6% versus 15.9% for larger loans — a 2.62× 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