What Are FHA Loan Limits and How Do They Work?

For 2026, FHA loan limits run from a national floor of $541,287 for a single-family home in most of the country to a ceiling of $1,249,125 in high-cost counties. Multi-unit properties carry higher caps, reaching $2,402,625 for a fourplex in an expensive market. Every U.S. county sits somewhere between the floor and the ceiling based on local home prices, so the ceiling that matters to you is your county’s, not the national one.

How the 2026 Numbers Are Set

The formula is written into federal law at 12 U.S.C. § 1709, which ties FHA limits to the conforming loan limit that the Federal Housing Finance Agency sets each year for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.¹ For 2026 that conforming limit is $832,750 for a one-unit property.²

From there, three rules do the work. The FHA floor equals 65 percent of the conforming limit and applies to most counties. The ceiling equals 150 percent of the conforming limit and applies in the priciest markets. Counties that fall in between get a limit pegged to 115 percent of the local median home price, capped by the ceiling and boosted, if needed, to the floor.¹ The new limits take effect January 1.

2026 Single-Family Limits

If you’re buying a one-unit home in a low-cost county, the FHA will insure up to $541,287. That figure covers a wide swath of housing markets across the Midwest, the South, and rural areas where median prices sit well below the national average.³

In high-cost counties, the single-family ceiling reaches $1,249,125. This is what you’ll see in parts of coastal California, the New York metro area, and other expensive urban centers. Many counties land between the two extremes with a limit set at 115 percent of the local median price. If you’re shopping near a county line, the limit can change on the other side of the road, so it’s worth confirming your specific county before pre-approval.

2026 Multi-Unit Limits

FHA financing covers properties with up to four units, and the caps scale with unit count. The 2026 floor and ceiling figures are:³

Two-unit: $693,050 floor, $1,599,375 ceiling
Three-unit: $837,700 floor, $1,933,200 ceiling
Four-unit: $1,041,125 floor, $2,402,625 ceiling

Two conditions come attached to these higher caps, and both shape whether the numbers actually work for your deal.

You Have to Live There

An FHA-financed duplex, triplex, or fourplex is not a hands-off investment. At least one borrower must move into a unit as a principal residence within 60 days of closing and keep it as their primary home. Principal residence means the place you live for most of the calendar year. Lenders can sometimes extend the 60-day window with documentation when post-closing repairs get in the way, but you shouldn’t rely on that unless you’ve raised it upfront.

The Self-Sufficiency Test on Three and Four Units

Buying a three- or four-unit property brings in an additional hurdle: the estimated fair-market rent from all units, including the one you’ll occupy, must cover the full monthly principal, interest, taxes, and insurance payment. The appraiser estimates fair-market rent for each unit and then subtracts the greater of the appraiser’s vacancy-and-maintenance estimate or 25 percent of gross rent. What’s left has to equal or exceed monthly PITI.⁴ Where neighborhood rents don’t support the purchase price, the loan won’t qualify no matter how strong the borrower’s personal income is.

Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands

These four jurisdictions get their own, higher ceilings because construction and living costs run well above the mainland. The 2026 special exception ceilings are:³

One-unit: $1,873,625
Two-unit: $2,399,050
Three-unit: $2,899,800
Four-unit: $3,603,925

Individual county limits within these territories still vary with local median prices, so a rural Alaska county won’t automatically sit at the full ceiling.

Looking Up Your County

HUD maintains a free search tool at entp.hud.gov that returns the exact FHA limit for any county.⁵ Enter your state, county, or metropolitan statistical area, and it pulls a table for one-unit through four-unit properties at current calendar-year figures. Running this search before you start touring homes tells you which price ranges are actually financeable with an FHA loan in your market, and lenders pull the same data during pre-approval.

Appealing a County Limit

If you think your county’s limit is too low because HUD’s data missed recent price growth, you can ask for a review. The request has to arrive within 30 days of the annual limit publication and must include home-sales data from the November-through-October look-back period of the prior year. Only counties where HUD lacks its own transaction data are eligible. A successful appeal applies retroactively to case numbers assigned on or after January 1 of that year. Appeals go to FHA’s Resource Center at answers@hud.gov with “Mortgage Loan Limit Requests” in the subject line.⁶

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 USC 1709 – Insurance of Mortgages
2
Federal Housing Finance Agency. FHFA Announces Conforming Loan Limit Values for 2026
3
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. 2026 Nationwide Forward Mortgage Loan Limits
4
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. FHA Single Family Housing Policy Handbook – Transmittal 15
5
HUD.GOV. FHA Mortgage Limits
6
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. 2025 Nationwide Forward Mortgage Loan Limits