NerdWallet shows you interest rates. We show you two parallel lives — the one you're choosing, and the one you could have.
We simulate two financial timelines based on different mortgage decisions. Life A uses your current path. Life B uses the optimized decision. The difference compounds over time — showing not just the money gap but the life milestones affected.
Investment returns assumed at 6% annually for cash not spent on housing. Home appreciation at 3.5% annually. Inflation at 3%. Educational use only — not financial advice.
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.