How AI Search Is Recommending VA Loans Lenders: Monthly Trends

Executive Summary

Rocket Mortgage remains the category leader for VA loans lender recommendations in September 2026, with valid recommendation coverage at 70.0%, compared with 67.3% in August 2026. That 2.7-point move falls within normal month-to-month variation, so the leader position is best read as stable rather than newly extended. Rocket Mortgage's mention presence also held steady, appearing in 94.4% of qualified observations in September versus 94.0% in August, and its lead over second-place Navy Federal Credit Union stands at 9.8 points (70.0% vs. 60.2%).

The clearest development this month is New American Funding's decline. Its valid recommendation coverage fell from 18.5% in August to 12.6% in September, a drop of 5.9 points that exceeded normal month-to-month variation and is the only brand-level movement in the category that does so. The decline was accompanied by drops in mention presence (21.0% to 16.7%) and top-three recommendation rate (5.2% to 2.7%).

Every other tracked brand — CrossCountry Mortgage, Fairway Independent Mortgage, Freedom Mortgage, loanDepot, Movement Mortgage, Navy Federal Credit Union, Rate, Rocket Mortgage, and Veterans United Home Loans — moved within normal month-to-month variation on the primary coverage metric. loanDepot posted the largest increase, from 23.6% to 26.5%, and CrossCountry Mortgage rose from 13.3% to 16.0%, but neither move exceeded the applicable threshold for the category.

New American Funding's decline is widening several category gaps. The gap between loanDepot and New American Funding grew from 5.1 points in August to 13.9 points in September, and CrossCountry Mortgage moved from trailing New American Funding by 5.2 points in August to leading it by 3.4 points in September. Both gaps widened primarily because of New American Funding's drop rather than outsized gains by the other two brands.

Each monthly benchmark run begins with 800 prompt-surface observations (562 unique questions in August 2026, 542 in September 2026) collected across the tracked AI/search surface universe. All 800 observations in both months mentioned a tracked brand or competitor. Of those, 715 were relevant and 85 were irrelevant in August, and 735 were relevant and 65 were irrelevant in September. Public brand-level metrics are calculated from the 639 qualified observations in August and 676 in September that survived both qualification stages.

Key Findings

Benchmark Context

The report separates the raw collection universe from the qualified analysis set. Brand-level recommendation percentages are calculated within the qualified benchmark set.

The benchmark-level metrics below summarize category-wide behavior across the same two months, before the brand-by-brand breakdown that follows.

Benchmark-Level Metrics

The recommendation-shaped answer share fell across the two months even as the valid recommendation shortlist share rose. The data does not establish why, but the pattern is consistent with more answers taking a structured shortlist form in September rather than a broader move away from recommendations.

AI Recommendation Trend

Rocket Mortgage Holds a Stable Lead; New American Funding Is the Month's Significant Decliner

Rocket Mortgage retains a commanding lead in VA loans lender recommendations, holding roughly a ten-point gap over Navy Federal Credit Union and a comparable margin over Veterans United Home Loans. The category structure at the top remained stable in September, with the notable exception of New American Funding's decline in the middle of the pack.

The only brand whose movement exceeded normal month-to-month variation was New American Funding. The category's overall shift came less from any single riser and more from the combination of several smaller, non-significant upward movements coupled with New American Funding's decline.

What Changed This Month

Rocket Mortgage: Coverage Holds Steady at the Top

Rocket Mortgage's valid recommendation coverage moved from 67.3% in August 2026 to 70.0% in September 2026, a change of 2.7 points that stayed within normal month-to-month variation. The brand's presence remained nearly universal, with 638 of 676 qualified observations mentioning Rocket Mortgage in September compared with 601 of 639 in August.

Placement metrics moved in a similar direction without crossing significance. Rocket Mortgage's top-three recommendation rate moved from 44.0% to 45.7%, its rank-one rate moved from 22.9% to 24.0% (146 to 162 first-place recommendations), and its average recommended rank moved from 2.34 to 2.23. Taken together, these figures describe a leader whose position held steady rather than one that changed meaningfully month over month.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which high-intent prompt categories are associated with Rocket Mortgage's rank-one placements, and which competitor appears most often when Rocket Mortgage is present but not the top recommendation?

New American Funding: The Category's Significant Decline

New American Funding's valid recommendation coverage dropped from 18.5% in August 2026 to 12.6% in September 2026, a decline of 5.9 points that exceeded normal month-to-month variation. This is the clearest movement in the category this month, and it was accompanied by declines in supporting metrics: raw mention presence fell from 21.0% to 16.7%, and the top-three recommendation rate declined from 5.2% to 2.7%.

Supporting placement figures moved in the same direction: the brand's top-three recommendation count fell from 33 to 18 observations, while its single rank-one recommendation held steady across both months.

The distinction worth noting is that New American Funding's decline was not a matter of sentiment, which held steady near 0.9 net positive across both months. The drop was concentrated in both mention frequency and how often those mentions translated into recommendations, consistent with the presence and coverage figures above. The benchmark cannot on its own establish why fewer qualifying answers included the brand.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which specific prompts or competitor surfaces account for New American Funding's reduced mention and recommendation presence?

loanDepot: Coverage Rises, Placement Quality Slips

loanDepot's valid recommendation coverage rose from 23.6% in August 2026 to 26.5% in September 2026, a gain of 2.9 points that remained within normal month-to-month variation. The brand's mention presence increased from 34.7% to 39.5%, and its valid recommendation count rose from 151 to 179 observations.

At the same time, the brand's placement quality moved lower. The top-three recommendation rate declined from 10.9% to 7.4%, and the rank-one rate dropped from 1.9% to 0.6%, with first-place recommendations falling from 12 to 4. This creates a divergence where loanDepot is being recommended more often but less prominently within those recommendations.

The picture here is mixed: broader coverage alongside weaker positioning. The brand appears in more answers but ranks lower within them, which can matter commercially when AI surfaces present only a short list.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which competitor is capturing the top-three positions that loanDepot lost, and across which prompt types?

Notable Gap: loanDepot and CrossCountry Mortgage vs. New American Funding

The gap between loanDepot and New American Funding widened from 5.1 points in August to 13.9 points in September, and the gap between CrossCountry Mortgage and New American Funding shifted from New American Funding leading by 5.2 points in August to CrossCountry Mortgage leading by 3.4 points in September. Both gaps widened across the series.

These divergences reflect New American Funding's decline as much as any gains by the other two brands. For lenders tracking mid-tier competitive position, the reshuffling among loanDepot, CrossCountry Mortgage, and New American Funding is the most notable part of the category this month.

Highest-priority diagnostic: What changed in how these three lenders are differentiated across the surfaces where New American Funding lost ground?

Buyer-Intent Interpretation

The qualified observations in both August and September fell entirely into the Brand Recommendation cluster. None of the qualified observations registered in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison clusters, which means the public benchmark cannot yet answer questions about how VA loans lenders are positioned on price, value, or direct head-to-head comparison.

For lenders, this means the current benchmark reflects which brands AI systems choose to recommend and how prominently, but it does not yet reveal how those systems describe trade-offs on cost or features. Those questions would need dedicated investigation at the company level.

Brand Opportunity Summary

The benchmark identifies where attention is warranted; a company-level analysis is needed to explain why.

Evidence Behind the Benchmark

The aggregate metrics are built from prompt-level observations capturing the query, the AI surface used, the recommendation outcome, the rank at which a brand appeared, the sentiment expressed, and citations where exposed. Company-level analysis can go deeper into the specific prompts a brand wins and loses, which competitors appear when a brand is not recommended, and which external sources shape AI answers. Source presence is not automatically treated as proof of causation.

About This Benchmark

This report is part of the LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery research program.

• AI Industry Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Industry Market Discovery Metrics
• AI Industry Market Discovery Standards

Report-Specific Interpretation Notes

• Small counts apply at the lower end of this category; a brand like Movement Mortgage with 23 valid recommendations in September can shift several points with a handful of changes.
• The qualified denominator (676 in September) differs from the raw collection universe (800), and brand percentages are computed only within the qualified set.
• Month-over-month movement identifies changes worth investigating; it does not by itself establish the cause of those changes.
• This series covers two comparable months (August and September 2026); a longer series will strengthen pattern detection.

Next Step

The Public Benchmark Shows Where a Brand Is Winning or Losing. A Company-Level Audit Shows Why.

Beneath the aggregate percentages sit the questions that determine commercial impact: which high-intent prompts is a brand winning outright, which competitor takes the recommendation when a brand loses, what attributes AI systems associate with each lender, and which external sources are shaping those answers. For a lender like New American Funding, the benchmark shows a significant decline but cannot by itself reveal whether the cause is a shift in source material, a change in how prompts are phrased, or a competitor gaining stronger third-party validation.

A company-specific AI visibility audit maps those prompt, surface, competitor, ranking, sentiment, and evidence-source patterns into a prioritized visibility strategy. It moves from what the benchmark measures to why a brand holds its current position and what would change it.

Request an AI visibility audit