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FHA loan limits cap the amount you can borrow when you get a mortgage backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).
To be clear, these limits cap the amount you can borrow, not the price of the home. With a big enough down payment, you could buy a $10 million property using an FHA loan.
For most FHA borrowers, these limits aren’t limiting, so to speak. Their personal loan amount is capped by their income and existing debt.
However, a few home purchase or refinance borrowers run up against national or local FHA loan limits, which are determined as follows in this article.
Highlights:
- FHA loan limits set the maximum amount you can borrow with an FHA-backed mortgage, but they do not restrict the purchase price of a home.
- Loan limits vary by location, depending on the average home prices in your county or Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).
- For 2024, FHA loan limits for a single-family home range from $498,257 in areas with lower home prices to $1,149,825 in high-cost areas, with special exceptions for places like Alaska and Hawaii.
- Multi-family properties have higher loan limits, with caps adjusted based on the number of units.
- FHA streamline refinances are unlikely to be affected by loan limits, as they generally involve borrowing less than the original loan amount.
FHA loan limits vary by area
We say “FHA loan limits” rather than limit because the borrowing cap varies in different parts of the country. What yours is will depend on the average price of homes in the county or Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) where you buy.
Knowing the limit in your county would be impossibly complicated were it not for a lookup tool on the website of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which manages the FHA.
That site also has a full list of counties and their loan limits for those areas with prices above the floor limit but below the ceiling limit. Another page lists those at the ceiling limit.
The lowest limit for a single-family dwelling we could spot scrolling through the hundreds of counties was $506,000 in Wenatchee, Wash. However, HUD says caps start at $498,257. Those at the ceiling have loan-size caps of $1,149,825.
Calculating the limits
Toward the end of each year, HUD publishes the FHA loan limits for the following calendar year. In 2023, the announcement for 2024 was made on Nov. 28. And we can expect the 2025 limits at around the same time this year.
HUD doesn’t just pluck figures out of thin air. The rules it uses to set them are laid down in statutes.
In 2024, the “national conforming limit” is $766,550. That’s 115% of the area median house price for each jurisdiction averaged out across the nation.
The counties and MSAs with the lowest home prices are capped at 65% of the national conforming limit, and those with the highest are capped at 150% of that limit.
There are exceptions for Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They’re adjusted to account for their higher construction costs. The FHA loan limit for a single-family dwelling in these is $1,724,725 in 2024.
FHA multifamily loan limits
We’ve mentioned single-family dwellings a couple of times. That’s because the limits we’ve quoted so far have been for these one-unit homes.
But, if you’re buying a multifamily property with two, three or four units, the loan limits are higher. The FHA doesn’t lend on buildings with more than four residential units.
Check the table below for limits on multifamily dwellings.
» MORE: See today’s refinance rates
FHA loan limits table
Here are the 2024 loan limits for single-family homes (1 unit) and multi-family dwellings:
| Home prices in the area are: | 1 unit | 2 units | 3 units | 4 units |
| Much lower than the national average | $498,257 | $637,950 | $771,125 | $958,350 |
| Much higher than the national average | $1,149,825 | $1,472,250 | $1,779,525 | $2,211,600 |
| Exceptions (AK, HI, GU and VI) | $1,724,725 | $2,208,375 | $2,669,275 | $3,317,400 |
Remember, there are countless gradations between the lowest and highest FHA loan limits. And the one for your county or MSA will likely be somewhere between the two. So, use the HUD lookup tool or consult its lists (links above) to find yours.
FHA streamline refinances and loan limits
An FHA streamline refi occurs when you trade in your existing FHA loan for another FHA loan. One of these typically involves less expense, paperwork and hassle than a standard refinancing.
There are some rules, notably that you can’t take out more than $500 in cash and must derive some tangible benefit from the refi. So, you might be refinancing to a lower mortgage rate or monthly payment, preferably both.
Some lenders offer no-closing-cost FHA streamlines. But they’ll typically charge a slightly higher mortgage rate to recoup those costs over time.
Often, lenders skip steps such as appraisals and credit checks within the streamlined process. So, your home’s current value is generally irrelevant to the streamline refi and your loan limit. You’ll recall that the limit applies only to the amount you’re borrowing, not your home’s appraised value.
Given that you can add only $500 to your existing mortgage balance with one of these refis, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll bump up against the loan limit for your area.
You’d have had to have taken out an FHA loan very recently (limits almost always rise each year), and that loan would have to have been within $500 of the limit.
Even then, you’re not obliged to take out $500 in cash. So, it’s hard to imagine how an FHA loan limit could ever affect an FHA streamline refinance.
How to get FHA loan limits higher than the national conforming limit
FHA loan limits are caps on borrowing derived from statutes. And they’re not negotiable.
You can’t even get around them by opting for a conventional loan with Fannie Mae- or Freddie Mac-branding. Their loan limits are the same as the FHA’s.
If you have a 20% down payment (or its equivalent for a refi), you could opt for a conventional loan that doesn’t conform with Fannie and Freddie’s rule books. Indeed, if you can afford a “piggyback” second mortgage, you might need only a 10% down payment.
These open up the possibility of jumbo loans, which have no formal loan limits. You’re constrained only by your ability to prove that you’ll be able to keep up with payments.
But, besides that, your only way to get an FHA loan cap higher than the national conforming limit is to move to a county or MSA with higher-than-average home prices.