Some Americans will now be able to use their rent payment history to help them qualify for a mortgage, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte announced on July 8.

In a statement on social media platform X, Pulte said the FHFA will accept the consumer credit-scoring system VantageScore when evaluating consumers’ creditworthiness for mortgages sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“Effective today, to increase competition in the credit-score ecosystem and consistent with President Trump’s mandate to lower costs, Fannie (Mae) and Freddie (Mac) will allow lenders to use the VantageScore 4.0 model without requiring new infrastructure,” Pulte wrote.

In a separate post, Pulte said the new directive will allow Americans to use their rent to qualify for a mortgage.

“Credit history will no longer just include credit cards and loans,” he said. “This is HUGE.”

According to VantageScore’s website, the 4.0 scoring method was introduced by three of the nation’s major credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—in 2017. Unlike traditional scoring methods, it incorporates alternative data sources such as rent, utility, and telecommunications payments.

The website describes it as a “revolutionary model” that “scores approximately 33 million more people than conventional competitors,” meaning lenders can extend credit to a “broader spectrum of creditworthy people.”

Mortgages sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac account for the majority of mortgages in the United States, according to a separate statement from VantageScore, which called the announcement a “historic decision.”

It said the move “significantly modernizes the mortgage Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs), ending a decades-long lack of credit-score competition in the U.S. mortgage market.”

VantageScore said the FHFA’s directive also enforces the 2018 Credit Score Competition Act, which was signed into law by President Donald Trump as part of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act.

That policy change established the use of modern credit-scoring models for mortgages that would be sold to the GSEs, it said.

The FHFA initially mandated that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac accept mortgages scored by VantageScore in October 2022, under the Biden administration, with the agency granting a three-year grace period until the fourth quarter of 2025 for the change to be implemented.

VantageScore said that since then, the Veterans Administration and the majority of the Federal Home Loan Banks, including those in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Dallas, have begun accepting VantageScore 4.0.

The latest move will increase credit-score competition that could enable up to $1 trillion in high-quality mortgage loans, it said.

“While older credit models routinely excluded millions of eligible borrowers, VantageScore 4.0 eliminates the requirement for recent credit activity, which prevented many Americans, including active and recently retired members of the armed services, from obtaining a mortgage,” it said.

The credit-scoring model also removes the requirement for consumers to have a credit history of more than six months, which VantageScore said will help ensure “previously underserved, young-to-credit Americans gain newfound access to financial products.”

VantageScore said it anticipates that an estimated 5 million Americans, including veterans and prospective buyers in rural communities, will benefit from the FHFA’s new directive.

Silvio Tavares, president and CEO of VantageScore, thanked Pulte for his “resolute focus on enacting credit-score competition as required by the law, and promoting efficiency and affordability for creditworthy Americans.”

“Under Director Pulte’s leadership, the FHFA’s long-expected decision to accept VantageScore 4.0 will revolutionize the American mortgage market and grant millions of creditworthy Americans the golden opportunity to own their homes,” Tavares said.

VantageScore is a competitor of FICO, the company formerly known as the Fair Isaac Corporation, which is behind the widely used consumer credit scores.

Shares of FICO were down by nearly 9 percent following the announcement.