FinanceRateCalc · VA · 2025 federal record
FHA denial rates by lender in Richmond, VA
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
22.4
percentage points · 14.6% vs 37.0%
The doors
Freedom Mortgage
302 decisioned applications here
14.6%
United Wholesale Mortgage
468 decisioned applications here
20.1%
Pennymac Loan Services
220 decisioned applications here
24.5%
Rocket Mortgage
586 decisioned applications here
24.9%
Nvr Mortgage Finance.
362 decisioned applications here
37.0%
Metro FHA denial rate: 22.4% across 6,388 decisioned applications (national: 22.1%). Smaller loans in this metro were denied at 54.6% versus 18.3% for larger loans — a 2.98× 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