Best Mortgages of 2025

Your shortcut to the best mortgage lenders for you

Our Nerds researched more than 300 mortgage products, narrowing down to just one winner per category.

Find a top mortgage lender — fast

Click the categories you’re interested in to see the winners.

WHY OUR NERDS LOVE IT

Rocket Mortgage originates a significant volume of first-time-buyer-friendly FHA loans. It also offers a low-down-payment mortgage and gives qualified buyers help with closing costs.

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WHY OUR NERDS LOVE IT

Rocket Mortgage does a significant volume of cash-out refinancing, with competitive average rates and a convenient online experience.

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WHY OUR NERDS LOVE IT

U.S. Bank makes it easy to apply online for a mortgage or preapproval and offers assistance for first-time buyers. Its average time to close is faster than industry standard.

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WHY OUR NERDS LOVE IT

Repeat winner PNC Bank originates a significant volume of HELOCs, with a convenient online application, no required initial draw and flexible terms.

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WHY OUR NERDS LOVE IT

PNC Bank wins again with a wide variety of jumbo loan options, easy-to-browse rates and competitive fees.

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WHY OUR NERDS LOVE IT

Wells Fargo offers several refinancing options, including a streamlined refi for FHA loans, with lower-than-average rates and fees.

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WHY OUR NERDS LOVE IT

Navy Federal Credit Union originates a significant volume of VA loans while offering impressively low average rates and fees.

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WHY OUR NERDS LOVE IT

Pennymac offers FHA loans with very low average rates and a convenient customer experience.

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WHY OUR NERDS LOVE IT

Rate, one of NerdWallet's top five mortgage lenders overall, offers several loan options with inclusive credit requirements.

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Frequently asked questions

NerdWallet's award winners are chosen through a rigorous evaluation process involving 44 writers and editors. NerdWallet's ratings formulas for credit cards, for example, consider the type of card being reviewed (such as cash back, travel, or balance transfer) and the card's rates, fees, rewards, and other features. For mortgages, we evaluate loan average rates and fees, loan types and products, online rate information, ease of application and other factors. For more info, see our methodologies.

Our team of nerdy experts is composed of writers and editors — based all across the country — who have a combined 546 years of journalistic experience reviewing and writing about personal finance products for consumers.

Yes. Writers and editors use comprehensive scoring formulas that assess each financial product’s key features, weighting them according to their importance to consumers.

Nope. Editorial team members are solely responsible for creating all product reviews and ratings, and these assessments reflect their opinions alone. Only products that meet the editorial team’s standards appear in our Best-Of Awards lists, meaning no company can “buy” an award.

Our Best-Of Awards are given annually to the top financial products on the market. Our other “best” articles may:

• be longer than our Best-Of Awards list
• offer additional consumer choices
• get updated as products change or are discontinued and as new products emerge

This year's Best-Of-Awards list winners were chosen in mid-October 2024.

Frequently asked questions

Yes. Writers and editors use comprehensive scoring formulas that assess each financial product’s key features, weighting them according to their importance to consumers.