§ MONEY · 3 MIN READ
Your Rent Just Started Counting
For decades the mortgage system ignored the biggest bill most of us pay on time every month. As of this spring, the rules changed. Here is what moved and what you have to do to benefit.
By Culture
THE SHORT VERSION
Here is a number that should make you angry, then make you move. About 45 percent of Black households own their home. About 74 percent of white households do. That gap has barely moved in fifty years. One of the quiet reasons is a scoring system that never counted the one bill most renters pay on time, month after month, for years: the rent.
That started to change on April 22, 2026.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that two newer credit scores are now approved for mortgages those agencies back. The scores are called VantageScore 4.0 and FICO 10T. Until then, lenders were required to use an older FICO model, one that mostly saw credit cards and loans.
The newer scores are built to look at more of your life. Rent payments. Utility bills. Phone bills. If that history is in your credit file, these models can use it. FHFA Director Bill Pulte said twenty one large lenders are in the first wave using VantageScore 4.0. FICO 10T comes later. On July 1, Fannie Mae published the historical data lenders need to start trusting the new numbers.
A score can only count what it can see. Your landlord almost certainly does not report your rent to Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion. So the new rules open a door, but you still have to walk your history through it. Here is how.
