A Hidden Fee is Making Minnesota’s Housing Crisis Worse & First-Time Home Buyers Are Getting Hit the Hardest

A mortgage credit-scoring fee has surged more than 1,500% in four years, adding another cost for Minnesota homebuyers already squeezed by the housing crisis.

Big Picture

Minnesota’s housing affordability crisis has many drivers: rising interest rates, a persistent supply shortage, and home values that climbed 14% over five years while owner incomes fell 4%. But one cost buried in the mortgage process has begun drawing growing scrutiny of its own: a credit scoring fee that has surged more than 1,500% in four years, with, until recently, very little notice amongst lawmakers and the general public.

The Fair Isaac Corporation, known as FICO, controls roughly 90% of the mortgage credit scoring market. For years, it operated as the only score accepted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-backed enterprises that underwrite the majority of U.S. mortgages. That arrangement left lenders, and ultimately borrowers, with no alternative.

The result: the cost of pulling a credit report for a mortgage has jumped from $50 to $540 since 2022, driven by a 1,567% increase in FICO’s per-score fees, compounded by additional hikes from the three major credit bureaus.

Why It Matters

For Minnesota’s aspiring first-time buyers, that increase is hitting at the worst time.Over 643,000 Minnesotans are currently spending more than 30% of their income on housing.

A May 2026 report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis found that the Twin Cities region failed to meet all three of its key housing affordability benchmarks for the first time since they were established in 2022. Now, some say these credit check price increases are adding yet another rock to the pile.

FICO’s own investor reports attributed revenue growth to “higher mortgage origination scores unit price,” not increased volume or product improvement. The company’s revenue reached nearly $2 billion in fiscal year 2025, and its stock price has risen from $439 in 2022 to $1,092 as of May 2026.

For borrowers, transparency is limited. Fees are often embedded in closing costs and mortgage disclosures, making it difficult for buyers to identify or contest the charges. With no competing score previously approved for government-backed loans, consumers had no market alternative.

What’s Changing

This started to change in April, when the Federal Housing Finance Agency formally approved VantageScore 4.0 for use with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Federal Housing Administration mortgages, the first time a competing model has been accepted in the government-backed market.

Moreover, earlier this month, a state attorney general subpoenaed FICO for its alleged anticompetitive practices, claiming harm to consumers, including families desiring to buy a home. But polling data suggests there is greater public appetite for even broader accountability. A nationwide survey found 74% of voters support rolling FICO’s fees back to 2022 levels, and 77% support a formal antitrust investigation by the DOJ or FTC.

Bottom Line

What has yet to materialize is requiring FICO to justify its price increases.

While Congressional leaders, and now a state attorney general, have asked for documents and input from FICO, advocates say there is a lingering accountability gap Washington has yet to fully close.

Until that gap is closed, we should continue to expect Congress to push for Congressional hearings and a formal regulatory antitrust review by the FTC or DOJ of FICO’s pricing practices to provide oversight in a market that seemingly lacks transparency.