How Hard Is It to Get a Mortgage in December 2025?

Many buyers are asking the same thing right now: Why does getting a mortgage feel so hard?

Honestly, it’s not just you. Prices are still elevated, rates haven’t fallen as much as people hoped, and lenders seem a bit more cautious this year.

Still, many borrowers are getting approved (especially those who meet the same basic eligibiilty requirements as years past). Here’s what’s going on, and how to make your path to homeownership easier.

Table of Contents

1. 4 reasons getting a mortgage is harder
   1. 1. Home prices
   2. 2. Interest rates
   3. 3. Lenders may be more cautious
   4. 4. Proposed 50-year mortgage may not help
2. Mortgage approval readiness checklist
3. Prequalification vs. preapproval
4. How hard is it to get a mortgage now?
   1. If you have bad credit
   2. You have student loans
   3. Second home
   4. Prefab house or mobile home
5. Quick wins to make mortgage approval easier

4 reasons getting a mortgage is harder right now

A few things in late 2025 are teaming up to make you wonder if now is a good time to buy a house.

1. Home prices are still high

First, home prices shot up during the pandemic and never really came back down. According to FRED data, the average U.S. home price climbed from $323,000 in early 2020 to a peak of $525,100 in mid-2022. As of the second quarter of 2025, prices were still hovering around $512,800.

So yes, they’ve dipped (yay!). But not in the way you might have been crossing your fingers for.

2. Interest rates are still high, too

Mortgage rates followed the same roller coaster as home prices. According to FRED, they bottomed out at 2.65% in January 2021, jumped to 7.79% in October 2023, and have settled above 6% in late 2025.

Rates are definitely better than 2023, but they’re nowhere close to where they were in 2019. And high rates paired with high prices can result in sky-high monthly payments for even modest houses.

3. Lenders may be more cautious right now

A 2025 Federal Reserve survey found that banks reported “tighter or basically unchanged lending standards” across most mortgage types. They also noted:

• Weaker demand for several kinds of residential mortgages
• Standards that feel unchanged on paper but stricter in practice
• Modest tightening for non-qualified jumbo loans
• Higher demand for HELOCs (likely because they’re easier to add on to an existing mortgage)

This study tells us that official rules maybe haven’t changed much, but the experience definitely feels slower or stricter for most homebuyers.

4. The proposed 50-year mortgage may not help

There’s been talk about the White House exploring a 50-year mortgage to help increase affordability. But really, there’s one benefit of this proposal (lower mortgage payments) and a whole host of concerns.

For example, economists say a 50-year mortgage could mean:

• A payoff horizon that stretches way beyond your typical working years
• An unfathomable amount of total interest paid on said mortgage
• More years spent “upside down” in negative equity if the market takes a hit

All these factors culminate into one overarching reality: Yes, it is harder to get a mortgage in 2025. It’s not just in your head.

But here’s what you can do about it.

Mortgage approval readiness checklist

How hard it is to get a mortgage right now really comes down to your file. These mortgage terms are the first things lenders check, and stronger numbers in each category generally make the whole process feel easier.

Credit score

Your credit score is one of the biggest signals of how “easy” it is to get the type of mortgage you want.

• 740+ – Strong credit. Easiest approvals and the best rates.
• 620–739 – Typical range. Works for many conventional loans and USDA loans.
• 580–619 – Typically okay for FHA and VA loans.
• Below 580 – Not likely to get approved unless you have other compensating factors or find a specialized mortgage lender for bad credit.

Debt-to-income ratio (DTI)

Your DTI shows how much of your monthly income already goes toward debt. High DTI is one of the biggest reasons you may feel it’s hard to get approved for a mortgage in 2025.

Here’s what different ranges mean:

• 35% or lower: Great approval odds.
• 36%–45%: Typical max for many lenders.
• 46%–50%: Still doable depending on the loan program.
• Anything above that: Not likely to get approved.

Down payment

Your down payment amount can also influence how hard it is to get a mortgage.

• 0% down – Available with VA or USDA loans if you qualify.
• 3% down – Typical minimum for many first-time conventional buyers.
• 3.5% down – Standard FHA minimum.
• 5% down – Common starting point for non–first-time conventional buyers.
• 10–20% down – Lowers your monthly payment; may be required for jumbo loans.

Employment and documentation

Missing documents are a big reason your mortgage approval can drag on. Lenders usually look for:

• 2+ years of steady employment (same job or same field)
• W-2s and pay stubs (if employed)
• Tax returns and profit & loss statements (if self-employed)
• Bank statements to verify assets and down payment
• Letters of explanation for anything unusual

Prequalification vs. preapproval: Why it matters

If you’re wondering how hard it is to get approved for a mortgage, getting preapproved first can remove much of the mystery.

You can start with prequalification (a quick estimate based on the numbers you share with a lender), but it’s more of a ballpark estimate.

Preapprovals hold way more weight. This is where a lender verifies your credit, income, debts, and documents to confirm what it’s actually willing to lend. Because it’s based on your actual financial data, it carries more weight with both lenders and sellers. It can also catch issues early, before you fall in love with a house only to find out you don’t qualify.

Now let’s run through some scenarios. First:

How hard is it to get a mortgage if you’re applying in 2025?

Data from The Federal Reserve Study shows it’s not technically harder to get a mortgage eligibility-wise than it was a few years ago. It just may feel stricter because lenders seem to be double-checking more things than usual.

What can help: Get prequalified or preapproved to spot weak areas in your financial profile; shop with one of the best mortgage lenders, like SoFi.

How hard is it to get a mortgage if you have bad credit?

You will most definitely struggle to find approval if you have bad credit (defined as a FICO score below 580).

It might not be a hard “no” with every lender, or, especially if you’re on the cusp between bad and fair, you may be limited to certain programs. For example, FHA loans allow scores as low as 580 (sometimes 500 with a 10% down payment).

What can help: Make a bigger down payment, add a co-borrower, or spend a few months focusing hard on credit repair.

Is it hard to get a mortgage with student loans?

Student loans don’t automatically make it hard to get a mortgage unless they push your debt-to-income ratio (DTI) over a lender’s limits.

What can help: Make your student loan payments on time and understand how much your monthly payment influences your DTI.

How hard is it to get a mortgage on a second home?

Getting approved for a second-home mortgage is possible, but lenders tend to scrutinize them more closely because they’re considered riskier than primary homes.

What can help: Having a larger down payment and a lower DTI than for a primary residence.

Is it hard to get a mortgage on a prefab house or mobile home?

It can be harder to get a mortgage for a mobile or prefab home, mostly because the lender rules are more specific. The home usually needs to be HUD-certified and permanently installed. Some buyers use chattel loans instead of traditional mortgages, but they often come with higher rates.

What can help: Shopping lenders that specialize in manufactured housing

Quick wins to make mortgage approval easier

If you’re feeling like the process is harder than it should be, here are a few things you can do that move the needle surprisingly fast.

1. Start with your credit cards. Even paying a few hundred dollars toward balances can drop your utilization and bump your score more than people expect. It’s one of the only “quick fixes” that actually works.
2. Next, pull your credit reports and scan for anything weird. This could include an old account reporting late, a balance that doesn’t match, a loan you paid off months ago.
3. If your DTI is making it harder to get a mortgage, look at your smaller debts. Sometimes paying off a $75-per-month store card or consolidating two high-interest debts into one lower-interest loan could be enough to flip your ratio into the “acceptable” zone.

What causes a mortgage denial (and what to do next)

If you’re ever denied a mortgage, it doesn’t feel good. But often times, it’s caused by one of a few things: your credit history is thin, your income wasn’t consistent enough on paper, your DTI was too tight, or the lender needed more documentation than you gave them. Sometimes it’s simply that a lender had stricter rules than you realized.

If you’re denied, ask the lender for specifics. Lenders are required to tell you why, and their reasoning can help you pinpoint why it might feel harder for you to get a mortgage in 2025.