We’ve been receiving a lot of emails lately about FHA loan limits in 2016. People want to know what the maximum FHA mortgage amount will be in 2016. But we don’t know that yet, because the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has not announced next year’s limits. They usually make that announcement in December of each year, for the the year following. So it’s too early to say.
In December of last year, HUD announced they were carrying the 2014 limits into 2015, without making any changes. They could do the same thing going into 2016, keeping the maximum loan size right where it is. Or they could increase FHA loan limits across the board, or only in certain counties where home prices have risen significantly. We won’t know for a few more months.
In the meantime, here’s a look at the current loan limits for the rest of this year:
Current FHA Loan Limits
The table below shows the maximum FHA mortgage amounts that are currently in place. These could very well be replaced with revised loan limits in 2016. But for now, the caps are as follows:
| Property Size | Low-Cost Area “Floor” | High-Cost Area “Ceiling” |
|---|---|---|
| One Unit | $271,050 | $625,500 |
| Two Units | $347,000 | $800,775 |
| Three Units | $419,425 | $967,950 |
| Four Units | $521,250 | $1,202,925 |
Note: In the table above, a “one unit” property is a standard, single-family home. “Two units” refers to a duplex-style property that houses two separate residents, and so on.
Maximum Mortgage Amount Varies by County
The numbers shown in the table above are simply the floor and ceiling for high- and low-cost areas across the United States. But there’s also a broad spectrum in between. FHA loan limits vary by county, so there are far too many of them to list on this page.
If you want to find the current limits for your county, you can open the PDF file below or visit this page of the HUD website: https://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/hicostlook.cfm
Most U.S. counties can be found in the “low-cost” list above. The much shorter “high-cost” list includes more expensive housing markets in the Washington, D.C. area; New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area; and parts of Hawaii.
Again, the FHA loan limits vary from one county to the next. So you can’t just use the floor and ceiling numbers shown above. You have to find the specific caps for your county, which are included in the two PDF documents above.
Recap: The 2016 FHA loan limits haven’t been announced yet. HUD will probably make this announcement toward the end of December, as they have done in the past. We will update this page when that occurs. Until then, the maximum FHA mortgage amounts shown above will remain in effect.