Press Release News

The Federal Housing Administration has announced new loan limits today for 2024 for its Single Family Title II Forward and Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) insurance programs. The loan limits are expected to increase in the coming year due to strong home price appreciation over the past year. 

HUD’s Assistant Secretary Julia Gordon said, “The statutory loan limit increases announced today reflect the continued rise in home prices seen throughout most of the nation in 2023. The increases to FHA’s loan limits will enable homebuyers to use FHA’s low-down-payment financing to access homeownership at a time when a lack of affordability threatens to shut well-qualified borrowers out of the market.”

Each year, FHA needs to update its annual loan limits using the formula prescribed in the National Housing Act. This formula makes use of the county or metropolitan statistical area (MSA) data to derive new loan limits for three different cost categories established by law.

The new FHA mortgage loan limits will be effective from January 1, 2024. FHA loan limits will remain the same in 96 counties and the maximum loan limits will rise in 3138 counties. 

The National Housing Act (NHA) requires FHA to set Single Family Forward mortgage loan limits at 115% of area median house prices. FHA calculates the forward mortgage limits by county and MSA. 

FHA has to establish its floor and ceiling loan limit based on the national conforming loan limit decided by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). 

For 2024, the national conforming loan limit for a one-unit property is $766,550. The FHA has set a minimum national loan limit floor of $498,257 for a one-unit property, which is 65 percent of the national conforming loan limit. This floor applies to areas where 115 percent of the median home price is less than the floor limit. Any area where the loan limit exceeds this floor is designated as a high-cost area, and FHA establishes varying loan limits above the floor based on the respective median home prices in each area.

The FHA-insured HECM (Home Equity Conversion Mortgage) maximum claim amount is determined as 150 percent of the Freddie Mac national conforming limit, which is $766,550 for 2024. Unlike other FHA loan limits, the HECM limit does not vary by Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) or county. Instead, a single HECM limit applies to all HECM loans, regardless of the property’s location.