Every number, and where it comes from.

• 49,083

  Mortgages made in 2025, in the whole country, to people buying a two-, three- or four-unit home to live in.

  How to check it. Download the home-purchase records for two-, three- and four-unit properties from the HMDA Data Browser (nationwide, loan purpose: home purchase). In the file, occupancy type 1 is a home the buyer will live in and 3 is an investment property. Count the 2025 rows with occupancy type 1 and action taken 1 (loan originated). The same count gives 50,728 for 2024 and 46,956 for 2023.

  Series Homes count from public data: FFIEC HMDA Data Browser (public mortgage application records)

• 1.4%

  The share of all home-purchase mortgages made in 2025 that went to someone buying a two-to-four unit home to live in: 49,083 of 3,592,033. It was 1.4% in 2023 and in 2024 too.

  How to check it. Divide the count above by all home-purchase loans originated that year, which the Data Browser shows when you select loan purpose: home purchase and action taken: loan originated. 2023: 3,452,630. 2024: 3,534,113. 2025: 3,592,033.

  Series Homes count from public data: FFIEC HMDA Data Browser (public mortgage application records)

• 26.5% and 12.6%

  Applications to buy a fourplex that lenders denied in 2025. 26.5% of the people who would live there were denied. 12.6% of the investors were.

  How to check it. Download the home-purchase records for two-, three- and four-unit properties from the HMDA Data Browser (nationwide, loan purpose: home purchase). In the file, occupancy type 1 is a home the buyer will live in and 3 is an investment property. A denial rate here is denials divided by loans made, plus applications approved but not accepted, plus denials. Withdrawn and unfinished applications are left out. For four-unit homes in 2025 that is 1,209 denials and 3,148 loans for buyers who would live there, and 1,382 denials and 9,059 loans for investors.

  Series Homes count from public data: FFIEC HMDA Data Browser (public mortgage application records)

• 17.4% and 11.4%

  The same comparison across all two-, three- and four-unit homes in 2025. People buying to live there were denied about one and a half times as often as investors. The gap was there in 2023 and 2024 as well, and it has been narrowing.

  How to check it. Download the home-purchase records for two-, three- and four-unit properties from the HMDA Data Browser (nationwide, loan purpose: home purchase). In the file, occupancy type 1 is a home the buyer will live in and 3 is an investment property. A denial rate here is denials divided by loans made, plus applications approved but not accepted, plus denials. Withdrawn and unfinished applications are left out. 2025: 10,809 denials and 49,083 loans for buyers who would live there; 7,005 denials and 52,007 loans for investors. 2024: 18.1% and 11.6%. 2023: 19.4% and 11.6%.

  Series Homes count from public data: FFIEC HMDA Data Browser (public mortgage application records)

• 17.9% to 33.6%

  On FHA loans in 2025, lenders denied 17.9% of people buying a duplex to live in, 33.6% buying a triplex and 34.8% buying a fourplex. The jump comes at the third unit, which is where FHA's self-sufficiency test starts to apply.

  How to check it. Download the home-purchase records for two-, three- and four-unit properties from the HMDA Data Browser (nationwide, loan purpose: home purchase). In the file, occupancy type 1 is a home the buyer will live in and 3 is an investment property. A denial rate here is denials divided by loans made, plus applications approved but not accepted, plus denials. Withdrawn and unfinished applications are left out. Keep loan type 2 (FHA) and occupancy type 1, and work out the rate for two, three and four units separately. In 2024 the three figures were 17.3, 35.9 and 38.9%.

  Series Homes count from public data: FFIEC HMDA Data Browser (public mortgage application records)

• Half

  Of the reasons lenders gave in 2025 for denying people buying a two-to-four unit home to live in, 32.0% were the debt-to-income ratio and 18.7% were the collateral, which means the appraisal. Together that is half of all the reasons given.

  How to check it. In the same records, each denied application carries up to four denial reason codes. Code 1 is debt-to-income ratio and code 4 is collateral. Count each code as a share of all the reasons reported, leaving out 'not applicable'.

  Series Homes count from public data: FFIEC HMDA Data Browser (public mortgage application records)

• 8.1% against 14.3%

  How often credit history was the reason for a denial in 2024: 8.1% of the reasons given to people buying a two-to-four unit home to live in, against 14.3% for people buying a single house to live in. The appraisal runs the other way: 20.1% against 13.8%.

  How to check it. Compare denial reason codes 3 (credit history) and 4 (collateral) for owner-occupied purchases of site-built homes with one unit and with two to four units, using the full 2024 home-purchase file from the Data Browser.

  Series Homes count from public data: FFIEC HMDA Data Browser (public mortgage application records)

• 9.1% and 12.4%

  On ordinary single-unit homes in 2025 it runs the other way. Lenders denied 9.1% of people buying one to live in and 12.4% of investors. Investors are turned down more on houses and less on two-to-four unit homes.

  How to check it. Use the full home-purchase file for the year, keep site-built homes with one unit, and work out the same denial rate for occupancy type 1 and type 3. In 2024 the two figures were 9.3 and 12.4%.

  Series Homes count from public data: FFIEC HMDA Data Browser (public mortgage application records)

• 75%

  The share of the other units' rent that Fannie Mae's rulebook lets a lender count as your income when you buy a two-to-four unit home and live in it. The rest is the allowance for vacancy and upkeep. The rulebook also says this income cannot be netted against the payment.

  How to check it. Open the section and find the words 'multiply monthly gross rent by 75%'. The sentence about netting is in section B3-3.8-01, under Treatment of Rental Income.

  Published figure: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-3.8-02, Rental Income from the Subject Property

• 100%

  FHA's test on a triplex or fourplex. The whole monthly payment may not be more than 100% of the building's net rent, which is the appraiser's rent for every unit, yours included, less at least a quarter. Your salary is not part of the test.

  How to check it. Search the handbook for 'Net Self-Sufficiency Rental Income'. The rule is one sentence, and it applies to three- and four-unit properties only.

  Published figure: HUD Handbook 4000.1, section II.A.1.b.iv(B)(3)(c)

• 6 months

  The payments Fannie Mae's automated system wants left in the bank after closing on a two-, three- or four-unit home you will live in. A duplex counts the same as a fourplex. FHA asks for three months on a triplex or fourplex.

  How to check it. Open the section and read the table of minimum reserves by property type. FHA's rule is in HUD Handbook 4000.1 under reserves for three- to four-unit properties.

  Published figure: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-4.1-01, Minimum Reserve Requirements

• $396,200 and $10,400

  The median net worth of a household that owned its home and of one that rented, in the Federal Reserve's 2022 survey. These are different households. It is not a measure of what buying a home does for any one of them.

  How to check it. Open the report and find the table of family net worth by housing status. The two medians are in the rows for owners and for renters or other.

  Published figure: Federal Reserve Board, Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2019 to 2022

Last checked against the sources on November 11, 2026. Agencies revise their data, and we update these figures when they do.