The salary wall is famous: every year, a dozen sites publish "the salary you need to buy a home in every state." The second wall is invisible in those lists — whether the loan actually gets approved. This table shows both, side by side: the estimated salary needed for a median home, and the observed FHA denial rates from all 1,187,606 decisioned applications in the 2025 federal record.
| State | Median price | Salary needed | FHA denial rate | Small-loan denial | Small-loan penalty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hawaii | $820,000 | $213,100 | 31.4% | — | — |
| California | $780,000 | $202,700 | 21.0% | 44.7% | 2.26× |
| Massachusetts | $580,000 | $150,700 | 22.3% | 52.8% | 2.60× |
| Washington | $560,000 | $145,500 | 18.1% | 40.9% | 2.51× |
| Colorado | $540,000 | $140,300 | 21.0% | 37.6% | 1.91× |
| New Jersey | $520,000 | $135,100 | 24.5% | 44.0% | 1.96× |
| New York | $480,000 | $124,700 | 24.9% | 34.2% | 1.47× |
| Oregon | $430,000 | $111,700 | 17.7% | 41.1% | 2.63× |
| Rhode Island | $420,000 | $109,100 | 21.5% | 45.9% | 2.38× |
| Utah | $420,000 | $109,100 | 15.0% | 37.5% | 2.72× |
| New Hampshire | $410,000 | $106,500 | 23.2% | 53.8% | 2.74× |
| Maryland | $390,000 | $101,300 | 24.1% | 43.1% | 1.99× |
| Idaho | $385,000 | $100,000 | 15.0% | 38.3% | 4.45× |
| Connecticut | $380,000 | $98,700 | 26.2% | 46.8% | 2.04× |
| Florida | $380,000 | $98,700 | 24.3% | 43.6% | 1.96× |
| Montana | $380,000 | $98,700 | 21.2% | 43.3% | 2.58× |
| Nevada | $380,000 | $98,700 | 17.3% | 36.0% | 2.32× |
| Virginia | $370,000 | $96,100 | 21.6% | 37.9% | 2.02× |
| Arizona | $360,000 | $93,500 | 18.4% | 37.5% | 2.33× |
| Vermont | $350,000 | $90,900 | 26.9% | 41.9% | 1.94× |
| Maine | $350,000 | $90,900 | 23.8% | 48.9% | 2.67× |
| Delaware | $340,000 | $88,300 | 24.8% | 45.9% | 2.06× |
| Alaska | $340,000 | $88,300 | 18.3% | — | — |
| Minnesota | $320,000 | $83,100 | 21.9% | 36.2% | 1.96× |
| Wyoming | $320,000 | $83,100 | 17.5% | 34.4% | 2.47× |
| Texas | $310,000 | $80,500 | 15.7% | 25.5% | 1.71× |
| North Carolina | $300,000 | $77,900 | 21.6% | 38.8% | 2.22× |
| Georgia | $290,000 | $75,300 | 24.6% | 42.8% | 2.06× |
| Tennessee | $290,000 | $75,300 | 20.3% | 37.1% | 2.35× |
| New Mexico | $280,000 | $72,800 | 22.0% | 42.0% | 2.41× |
| South Carolina | $280,000 | $72,800 | 21.0% | 37.6% | 2.11× |
| Illinois | $260,000 | $67,600 | 27.4% | 34.5% | 1.47× |
| Wisconsin | $250,000 | $65,000 | 26.4% | 43.8% | 2.21× |
| Pennsylvania | $250,000 | $65,000 | 25.3% | 37.5% | 1.91× |
| South Dakota | $250,000 | $65,000 | 20.8% | 39.9% | 2.66× |
| North Dakota | $240,000 | $62,400 | 17.7% | 34.4% | 2.55× |
| Michigan | $230,000 | $59,800 | 27.2% | 35.2% | 1.61× |
| Nebraska | $230,000 | $59,800 | 20.5% | 36.6% | 2.46× |
| Indiana | $220,000 | $57,200 | 22.4% | 32.6% | 1.84× |
| Missouri | $220,000 | $57,200 | 20.1% | 32.2% | 2.24× |
| Iowa | $210,000 | $54,600 | 24.9% | 33.2% | 1.63× |
| Ohio | $210,000 | $54,600 | 22.9% | 32.2% | 1.73× |
| Kansas | $210,000 | $54,600 | 22.6% | 33.0% | 2.04× |
| Alabama | $200,000 | $52,000 | 22.8% | 38.6% | 2.31× |
| Kentucky | $200,000 | $52,000 | 21.3% | 33.4% | 2.15× |
| Louisiana | $190,000 | $49,400 | 24.5% | 38.3% | 2.20× |
| Oklahoma | $190,000 | $49,400 | 20.0% | 34.3% | 2.30× |
| Arkansas | $185,000 | $48,100 | 21.0% | 33.1% | 2.27× |
| Mississippi | $175,000 | $45,500 | 24.8% | 41.7% | 2.56× |
| West Virginia | $145,000 | $37,700 | 23.6% | 33.7% | 2.15× |
Rows in orange mark states where a small FHA application was at least 2.5× likelier to be denied than a large one. "Small" = under $150K; penalty = small-loan denial rate ÷ large-loan ($250K+) denial rate; state cells require minimum application counts. Salary estimates: 30-year loan at 6.7%, 20% down, property tax + insurance estimated at 1.6% of price annually, housing cost capped at 30% of gross income, applied to the state median price in our dataset — approximations for comparison, not underwriting thresholds. Denial figures are the observed federal record, not estimates.
The small-loan penalty, in full → Denial rates by lender → The classic salary table →The small-loan penalty measured here is consistent with earlier findings from the Urban Institute, whose work on denial measurement documents that low-balance applications face materially higher denial rates than larger ones even after accounting for borrower credit profiles (see A Better Measure of Mortgage Application Denial Rates and related Housing Finance Policy Center work). FRC's contribution is the current, FHA-specific, lender- and metro-level resolution of that pattern from the complete 2025 record. Urban Institute research →
Open data for this table (CC BY 4.0): state denial rates with loan-size splits →
First published 2026-07-22 by FinanceRateCalc · free to reuse with attribution (CC BY 4.0) · license & publication record