California Mortgage Applicants Tops in the Nation With Highest Credit Scores

A study conducted by Mortgage Marvel has concluded that California mortgage applicants, for the second year in a row, have the highest average credit scores in the nation at 754—a full 24 points above the national average of 730. Mississippi mortgage applicants, again for the second year in a row, had the lowest average credit score of 686, 44 points below the national average. The information was compiled by analyzing more than 330,000 mortgage applications received in 2011 by clients of Mortgagebot, a D+H company. Mortgagebot is the owner of Mortgage Marvel and the provider of the PowerSite suite of integrated point-of-sale solutions. Of the states with the highest average credit scores, four are in the West and five are in the Northeast. There was only one state in the top 10, Wisconsin, from another region (Midwest). The Southeast occupied five of the 10 lowest credit score positions. Mississippi, for the second year in a row, had the nation's lowest average credit score.