The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) will accept VantageScore 4.0 and FICO Score 10T on FHA-insured mortgages for case numbers assigned on or after January 1, 2027. FHA set that date in FHA INFO 2026-21 on September 10, 2026, alongside a preparedness guide for mortgagees. Classic FICO stays eligible, the change covers Title II forward mortgages only, and FHA still requires a tri-merge credit report.
How the announcement arrived
| Date | Document | What it did |
|---|---|---|
| April 22, 2026 | HUD news release no. 26-026 | Secretary Scott Turner and Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director William J. Pulte announced jointly that FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would move to the two models |
| May 21, 2026 | FHA INFO 2026-11 | FHA confirmed its intention to enable the two models alongside Classic FICO, and said implementation dates would follow later in the year |
| September 10, 2026 | FHA INFO 2026-21 | FHA named January 1, 2027 as the implementation date and published the preparedness guide |
FHA INFO 2026-11 said implementation dates and additional guidance would be announced later that year, and that mortgagees should keep using the existing credit report policy in Handbook 4000.1 until the new guidance is published. FHA INFO 2026-21 repeated the same instruction: the preparedness guide “does not change existing FHA policy.”
What happens on January 1, 2027
FHA’s Technology Open To Approved Lenders (TOTAL) Scorecard, the automated underwriting scorecard an approved lender runs an FHA file through, will be updated for case numbers assigned on or after January 1, 2027, for Title II forward mortgages only. The updated version allows the alternative score models into TOTAL decisions. The case number assignment date is the trigger, so a file with a case number assigned on December 31, 2026 sits under the old scorecard whatever else happens to it afterwards.
FHA published two supporting documents with the September 10 message: the FHA Alternative Credit Scores Preparedness Guide, and TOTAL Developer’s Guide Release 5.0 for automated underwriting system vendors. It also scheduled virtual office hours for mortgagees, daily from 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm Eastern on November 16 to 20, 2026 and again on January 11 to 15, 2027.
The tri-merge report requirement is untouched
FHA INFO 2026-11 states that FHA “will continue to require the use of a tri-merge credit report” across all acceptable scoring models. A different score model on the file does not reduce the number of repositories the file pulls from.
That matches what the handbook already requires. Under the credit report requirements for a TOTAL submission, FHA Handbook 4000.1, p. 204, the mortgagee must obtain a tri-merged credit report (TRMCR) from an independent consumer reporting agency, and the report must carry information from at least two credit repositories on credit, residence history and public records, all inquiries in the last 90 days, and credit and legal information not obsolete under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
What the handbook says today
Page 153 of Handbook 4000.1 defines the minimum decision credit score (MDCS): the score reported when all reported scores agree, the median where three are reported, the lower of two where they differ, and the single score where only one is reported. The mortgagee works out an MDCS for each borrower and then uses the lowest MDCS across all borrowers. Where one borrower has no score, the mortgagee takes the lowest MDCS among the borrowers who do have one. A borrower with an MDCS below 500 is not eligible for FHA-insured financing.
Nothing on those handbook pages has been rewritten for the two new models. In the copy this site reads, the credit report section carries its own revision stamp from 2019. FHA has said the handbook governs until the policy update is formally published, so the MDCS arithmetic above is the rule in force on the day this post went up, and the frequently asked questions in FHA’s Resource Center knowledge base are due to be updated when TOTAL Version 5.0 releases on January 1, 2027.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac moved on the same day
The April 22, 2026 HUD release says Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are also moving to VantageScore 4.0 and FICO Score 10T, updating their selling guides with the new scores and accepting VantageScore-scored loans from approved lenders immediately. HUD says that step advances full implementation of the Credit Score Competition Act of 2018. The conventional and the FHA sides moved in the same announcement but on different clocks: the enterprises from April 2026, FHA from January 1, 2027.
Three states of the rule, each with a date
Before January 1, 2027, FHA-insured underwriting runs on Classic FICO. From January 1, 2027, for case numbers assigned on or after that date on Title II forward mortgages, VantageScore 4.0 and FICO Score 10T join it. Throughout, the tri-merge report and the MDCS selection rules in Handbook 4000.1 stand until FHA publishes a policy update.
General Mortgage Knowledge, at 20 percent of the SAFE Mortgage Loan Originator Test, National Component with Uniform State Content, is the content area that names government loan programs with FHA among them (MLO Testing Handbook, 6.1 Content Outline, part 3). Whether or when the test reaches this change is not published anywhere. What a mortgage loan originator (MLO) can rely on is the date rule itself: the case number assignment date decides which version of the scorecard a file goes through.
Sources
- FHA INFO messages, HUD Single Family Housing industry news, FHA INFO 2026-21 of September 10, 2026 and FHA INFO 2026-11 of May 21, 2026
- HUD news release no. 26-026, Homebuying Advances into New Era of Credit Score Competition, April 22, 2026
- FHA Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1, pp. 153 and 204