Thin credit files, not thin paychecks, are now the leading reason Americans get turned down for a mortgage β and the rent they already pay every month is emerging as the fix.
Zillow said Monday that more than 78,000 renters who paid through its platform had their on-time payments reported to credit bureaus in July, the most in any single month since the program began and 26% more than a year earlier. In the same announcement, the company said its analysis of 2025 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data found insufficient credit history was cited in 32.88% of denials for conventional loans on primary home purchases β narrowly edging debt-to-income ratio, at 32.86%, as the most common reason given.
A record month for rent reporting
Zillow began letting renters who pay through its platform report on-time payments to credit bureaus in 2024, at no cost and on an opt-in basis. It says it has now passed 1.78 million reported payments.
In November 2025 the company extended the service beyond its own payment rails through CreditClimb, a tool powered by the rent-reporting firm Esusu, which allows renters to report on-time rent regardless of how or where they pay.
“Credit history is a barrier standing in the way of too many potential buyers. Rent reporting is a direct way to address that,” said Michael Sherman, general manager and senior vice president of Zillow Rentals. “Every on-time rent payment is evidence of the financial responsibility lenders want to see.”
Zillow said more than one-third of renters planning a near-term move intend to buy their next home β the population the reporting tools are aimed at.
The number behind the pitch: 4 million
The figure Zillow leans on comes from VantageScore. In a November 2025 analysis of more than 600,000 renters, using authenticated rental payment data supplied by Esusu, the scoring company found that nearly 4 million U.S. renters of homebuying age would reach a credit score of at least 620 β the conventional eligibility line under current government-sponsored enterprise guidelines β once on-time rent showed up in their files.
VantageScore also reported that adding rental history improved the predictive performance of its VantageScore 4.0 model by 11%, and that only about 13% of renters currently get any credit benefit from paying rent on time.
“Positive rental payments are highly predictive and allow VantageScore 4.0 to measure a borrower’s true ability to meet mortgage debt obligations,” said Dr. Andrada Pacheco, the company’s chief data scientist. Esusu co-founders and co-chief executives Wemimo Abbey and Samir Goel put it more plainly: “Paying rent on time should be a bridge to ownership, not a barrier.”
Zillow, citing Esusu, said renters who report consistently through CreditClimb-style programs have seen an average credit score increase of 53 points.
Why the timing matters
Rent reporting has been available in various forms for years without moving much volume. What changed is the underwriting side. The Federal Housing Finance Agency approved VantageScore 4.0 for use on all Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guaranteed mortgages in July 2025, making VantageScore the first tri-bureau score that incorporates rental payment data to be accepted across the conventional market.
States have moved in parallel. California, Colorado and New York have enacted rent reporting programs, and VantageScore lists Missouri, New Hampshire, Nevada, Maine, New Jersey, Hawaii, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Washington as evaluating similar legislation.
The policy backdrop is not uniformly supportive. Federal regulators have been pulling back elsewhere on credit-access measures, including the recent decision by seven federal agencies to rescind 2022 guidance on special purpose credit programs. And household credit conditions remain uneven, with consumer credit growth slowing in the second quarter even as card balances climbed.
What it means
The verified facts are narrow and useful: credit history is the top stated reason for conventional purchase denials in the most recent HMDA year; rent reporting volume at the largest listing portal is rising sharply off a small base; and the conventional market now has a scoring model that will read that data.
The 4 million figure is attributed analysis, not an outcome. VantageScore modeled what scores would look like with rental data included; it did not measure how many of those renters then applied for, or received, a mortgage. Zillow and Esusu both have commercial interests in wider adoption, and their figures should be read as company claims about their own data.
RealtyWire’s analysis: the binding constraint is coverage, not scoring. If only 13% of renters get credit for rent today, the gap between a modeled 4 million and any real increase in approvals is an enrollment problem β landlord participation, opt-in rates, and whether lenders actually pull the newer score.
What to watch
Three things: whether the 2026 HMDA cycle shows credit history receding as a denial reason; whether lenders adopt VantageScore 4.0 in volume now that FHFA permits it; and whether the states currently weighing rent reporting bills convert them into law over the next legislative session.
