For most Wilmington buyers the floor is 580 with an FHA loan and 620 with a conventional loan, and VA sets no minimum score at all. Those are the program minimums, not what your lender will actually approve, and the practical answer in this market is that a score in the low 600s gets you a loan while a score above 740 gets you a better payment on the same house.
We hear this question in two very different tones. One is a buyer who assumes the number is 700 and has been waiting a year for no reason. The other is a buyer at 590 who has been told by a cousin that they cannot buy at all. Both are wrong, and the published rules are specific enough to settle it.
Here is what the loan programs themselves say, from their own guides rather than a lender’s marketing page.
The actual published minimums
FHA is the lowest door. The FHA Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1 sets what it calls the Minimum Decision Credit Score, or MDCS, which is the median of three reported scores, the lower of two, or the only score if just one is reported. On eligibility it is direct: a borrower is not eligible for FHA-insured financing if the MDCS is less than 500. Above that, the handbook ties the score to how much you can borrow. At an MDCS at or above 580 the borrower is “eligible for maximum financing,” which on a purchase is 96.5 percent of the adjusted value, meaning 3.5 percent down. Between 500 and 579 the borrower is “limited to a maximum LTV of 90%,” meaning 10 percent down HUD Handbook 4000.1, read October 17, 2026.
Conventional loans run on Fannie Mae’s Selling Guide. For manually underwritten loans the minimum representative credit score is 620 for fixed-rate loans and 640 for adjustable-rate mortgages. For loans run through Desktop Underwriter, the guide states that “a minimum credit score is not required for DU loan casefiles,” because the system weighs credit alongside the rest of the file Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-5.1-01, dated April 22, 2026. In practice most Wilmington conventional buyers are underwritten through that automated system, so 620 functions as the common floor rather than an absolute one.
VA is the outlier, and it matters here given how many of our buyers come through Camp Lejeune and the Coast Guard. The VA purchase loan page sets no credit score number. It requires that “you meet our, and your lender’s, standards for credit, income, and any other requirements,” plus a Certificate of Eligibility U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, VA-backed purchase loan page, last updated January 7, 2026. The score bar on a VA loan is set entirely by the lender, which is why two lenders can give the same veteran different answers on the same day.
What the score difference costs on a real Wilmington price
Program minimums are about eligibility. The money is in the down payment and the rate.
- New Hanover County median sale price: $448,000, three months ending August 2026 Redfin, August 2026
- Brunswick County median sale price: $409,000, three months ending August 2026 Redfin, August 2026
- 30-year fixed average: 7.40 percent; 15-year fixed: 6.71 percent Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ending October 15, 2026
- FHA maximum purchase LTV at a 580 score: 96.5 percent. At a 500 to 579 score: 90 percent HUD Handbook 4000.1, read October 17, 2026
Run those together on the New Hanover median. At 96.5 percent LTV on $448,000 the loan is $432,320, and at 7.40 percent the principal and interest payment is about $2,993 a month. At 90 percent LTV the loan is $403,200 and the payment is about $2,792. The payment is lower, but the cash you need at the table goes from $15,680 to $44,800, a difference of $29,120. Those are our own calculations from the figures above, and they exclude taxes, insurance and mortgage insurance, which are substantial on the coast.
That $29,120 is what a score between 500 and 579 costs a buyer at the Wilmington median. It is not a rejection. It is a cash requirement most first-time buyers cannot meet, which is why the 580 threshold is the one worth chasing. In Brunswick County the same 96.5 percent math on a $409,000 median gives a loan of $394,685 and a principal and interest payment of about $2,733 at 7.40 percent, again our own calculation.
Above the minimums, the score affects your interest rate rather than your eligibility, and the spread between tiers changes constantly. We do not publish a rate-by-score table because any number we printed would be stale within the week. Your lender can price your actual file in both directions, at today’s score and at the score you would have after one specific change, and that is the comparison worth asking for. Our mortgage update tracks where the market rate sits week to week.
What to do if your score is close
Most buyers who are 20 or 30 points short are short for reasons that move quickly. These are the three we see most in our Wilmington pre-approval conversations.
Utilization, not history
Revolving balance relative to limit is the fastest-moving input on a score. Paying a card down before the statement cuts, rather than before the due date, is what gets reported. This is a one-cycle fix in many cases, which is why we ask buyers to talk to a lender first and run the numbers before assuming they need a year.
Do not close old accounts
Buyers trying to tidy up before applying often close the oldest card they no longer use. That can shorten average account age and cut total available credit at the same time. Ask your lender before you close anything.
Get the report, not the app estimate
The score your banking app shows is frequently not the score a mortgage lender pulls, and FHA’s own definition makes the distinction concrete: with three scores reported the median is the one that counts, and with two differing scores the lower one counts HUD Handbook 4000.1, read October 17, 2026. A tri-merge pull from a lender is the only number that decides your loan. Start there and you will know whether you are shopping or repairing. When you are ready to look, our property search and our Buyer Advantage Program are the next two stops.
Every number above is a program minimum, and lenders add their own overlays on top. A lender can require 620 on an FHA loan that HUD would insure at 580, or 640 on a VA loan where VA sets nothing, and that is entirely permitted. So the real answer to what score you need is the lowest overlay among the lenders who will actually work with you, which is a reason to talk to more than one. We also cannot quote the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency’s current minimum score or income limit for the NC Home Advantage Mortgage: nchfa.com returned errors to us on October 17, 2026, and the third-party pages that summarize the program disagreed with each other by more than $20,000 on the income cap. Rather than print a number we cannot source, we will say the program exists, it carries its own score and income requirements, and a participating lender should confirm both in writing before you count on down payment assistance. One more honest point: qualifying at the minimum and being comfortable at the minimum are different things. On a coastal purchase, homeowners insurance and flood coverage can add several hundred dollars a month to the payment, and a file that barely clears underwriting has no room for that.
Related questions people also ask
Can I buy a house in Wilmington with a 580 credit score?
Yes, with an FHA loan, if a lender will approve the rest of your file. HUD Handbook 4000.1, which we read on October 17, 2026, makes a borrower with a Minimum Decision Credit Score at or above 580 eligible for maximum financing, which on a purchase is 96.5 percent of the adjusted value and 3.5 percent down. What a 580 does not guarantee is approval, because income, debt-to-income ratio, payment history and lender overlays all still apply, and many lenders set their own floor above 580. Ask two or three lenders what their minimum is rather than assuming the published figure is the operative one.
Does a VA loan have a minimum credit score?
Not from VA. The agency’s purchase loan page requires that you meet VA’s and your lender’s standards for credit and income and that you qualify for a Certificate of Eligibility, without naming a score. Every score requirement on a VA loan therefore comes from the lender, which is why a veteran turned down by one lender should try another before concluding they cannot buy. Lenders that do high VA volume in the Jacksonville and Wilmington area often set lower floors than a general-purpose bank.
Will checking my credit score hurt my mortgage approval?
Checking your own report does not affect your score, and mortgage inquiries are treated differently from other credit pulls. Scoring models generally group multiple mortgage inquiries made within a short shopping window so that rate shopping with several lenders counts as one event rather than several. What does damage a file during underwriting is opening new accounts or taking on new debt after your pre-approval, because the lender re-verifies before closing. Shop lenders freely, then stop opening anything new until you have the keys.
Get a real tri-merge credit pull from a mortgage lender and ask for two pre-approval scenarios: one at your score today, and one at the score you would have after the single change the lender identifies as the biggest lever. That one request turns a vague worry into two numbers you can compare. Send us both and we will tell you what they mean for the Wilmington and Brunswick price ranges actually available to you, and whether waiting is worth it. Schedule a consultation and we will work through it with you.
Sources: HUD Handbook 4000.1, FHA Single Family Housing Policy Handbook, Minimum Decision Credit Score and purchase loan-to-value tables, read October 17, 2026. Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-5.1-01, General Requirements for Credit Scores, dated April 22, 2026. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, VA-backed purchase loan page, last updated January 7, 2026. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ending October 15, 2026. Redfin, New Hanover and Brunswick counties, three months ending August 2026. Payment and down payment figures are our own calculations from those rates and prices.
