HELOC Approval and Denial Rates by State, 2025: An Analysis of HMDA Loan-Level Data

This note reports how often lenders approved home equity line of credit (HELOC) and closed-end home equity loan applications in the United States in 2025, using the public Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) 2025 Snapshot loan-level data released by the FFIEC and CFPB. We kept consumer-purpose applications on owner-occupied one-to-four unit homes, excluding reverse mortgages and home purchase lending, and counted an application once a lender decided it. Lenders approved 67.1% of 1,829,336 decided HELOC applications and 66.0% of 725,556 home equity loan applications. Across 45 states and the District of Columbia, HELOC approval ranged from 51.1% in Texas to 80.9% in Iowa. Approval was near 82.0% at debt-to-income ratios of 20% to 43% and 8.0% above 60%, and 25.0% at a combined loan-to-value ratio of 90% to 100%. Debt-to-income ratio was cited in 47.3% of HELOC denials that gave a reason. State, DTI, CLTV and denial reason tables accompany this note as CSV files. Live study page with interactive tables: https://lendermatch.io/data/heloc-approval-rates/ Data source: HMDA 2025 Snapshot National Loan-Level Dataset (FFIEC and CFPB), nationwide loan-level CSV from the FFIEC HMDA Data Browser API: https://ffiec.cfpb.gov/v2/data-browser-api/view/nationwide/csv?years=2025&actions_taken=1,2,3&loan_purposes=2,31,32,4,5 (retrieved October 22, 2026). Method: principal residence, consumer purpose, 1 to 4 units, not reverse; loan purposes home improvement, refinance, cash-out refinance, other and not applicable. HELOC = open-end line of credit; home equity loan = closed-end subordinate lien. Approval rate = (originated + approved, not accepted) / (originated + approved, not accepted + denied). Denial reason shares count each reason once per denial across the four HMDA reason fields. Files: paper.pdf (research note with method, tables, verification and limitations); state, DTI and CLTV approval tables and national denial reasons for HELOCs and home equity loans (CSV); DATA-DICTIONARY.md. Published by LenderMatch (lendermatch.io), a brand of LMK Media.