The BLNM Score is a number from 0 to 100 that we calculate for each lender in each city from public mortgage records. It is our own measure, built only from the data described below. It is not a credit rating, and it is not an opinion of any lender’s customer service.
What goes into the score
We combine four things, all measured for the lender in that city:
- Local volume. How many home loans the lender made in the area. A lender that closes many loans locally has more local experience than one that made a handful.
- Approval rate. Of the applications the lender decided, how many resulted in a loan being made rather than denied.
- Rate competitiveness. The lender’s median interest rate compared with the local median for the same loan type. A lower rate than the local median helps the score.
- Product breadth. How many of the main loan types the lender made locally: conventional, FHA, VA, USDA, and jumbo.
How the four parts are weighted
Each part is scaled from 0 to 100 against the other lenders in the same county, then combined with these weights:
- Local volume: 30%
- Rate competitiveness: 30%
- Approval rate: 25%
- Product breadth: 15%
Lenders that made fewer than 5 loans in the county are listed but not scored, because a handful of loans is too few to compare fairly. Their score shows as a dash.
A higher score means the lender looks stronger on these four measures in that area. Scores are only comparable within the same city page.
Data sources
- HMDA, from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The public loan-level mortgage data that lenders report each year. We use the 2025 data.
- GLEIF. The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation’s public registry, which we use to match lender identifiers to clean legal names and headquarters.
- NMLS Consumer Access. We link to each lender’s page there so you can check its licensing yourself. We do not copy NMLS data.
How often it updates
HMDA data is published once a year. We load the new year when it is released and re-check the data monthly in between. Each city page shows the data year, and the date it was last refreshed when available.
Limitations
- Medians are not quotes. A median rate describes loans made in the past. Your rate depends on your credit, down payment, loan size, and the day you lock.
- Geography. HMDA reports loans by location, and we build city pages from the county the city sits in, so a city page can include loans made elsewhere in the same county.
- Not every lender is in the data. Smaller institutions below HMDA’s reporting thresholds do not appear.
- Rates can be missing. Not every reported loan includes an interest rate. When a lender has no usable rate data, we show a dash and do not guess.
- The score leaves things out. It does not measure service, speed to close, fees, or how a lender treats borrowers. Check reviews and ask for a Loan Estimate from more than one lender before you decide.
Questions about the method? See About and Disclosures.