Every county in the country has a number attached to it. Most homeowners never hear about it until a loan officer mentions it halfway through a conversation about refinancing. That number is the county loan limit, and in a handful of expensive places it changes what kind of loan you can get, how much cash you can take out, and, for some veterans, how much you can borrow without a down payment.
This guide explains how county loan limits work, why high-cost areas get a higher number, and what the 2026 figures mean if you own a home in Florida, the Carolinas, Maryland, or Virginia. All figures below are the 2026 values. They reset every January, so check the year on anything you read.
What a county loan limit actually is
A county loan limit is the largest mortgage that certain loan programs will back in that county. The best-known version is the conforming loan limit. It is the biggest loan that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can buy from the lender that made it. Loans at or under the limit are called conforming loans. Loans above it are usually called jumbo loans, and they follow a separate set of rules.
The limit is set by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. For 2026, the FHFA set the baseline conforming loan limit at $832,750 for a one-unit home. That was up $26,250 from 2025. The increase tracks the change in home prices measured by the agency's own house price index.
The baseline applies to most counties in the country. In FHFA's 2026 county table, 3,235 counties and county equivalents are listed. Only 160 of them sit above the baseline.
How high-cost areas get a higher county loan limit
The rule comes from the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. A county qualifies as high-cost when 115% of its local median home value is higher than the baseline limit. When that happens, the county's limit rises to 115% of that median value, up to a hard ceiling.
The ceiling is 150% of the baseline. For 2026 that works out to $1,249,125 for a one-unit home. Of those 160 high-cost counties, 75 are at the full ceiling. The rest land somewhere between the baseline and the ceiling.
A few details trip people up:
- The limits are generally set by metro area. Every county in the same metro usually shares one number, even if home prices differ a lot from one end of the metro to the other.
- Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have their own higher baseline of $1,249,125 and a ceiling of $1,873,675.
- Two-, three-, and four-unit properties have higher limits. At the 2026 baseline, a two-unit home tops out at $1,066,250. At the ceiling it is $1,599,375.
The 2026 county loan limits in the Southeast
The figures below come straight from FHFA's published 2026 county list.
Florida has exactly one high-cost county: Monroe County, which covers the Keys. Its 2026 one-unit limit is $990,150. Every other Florida county, including Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Duval, sits at the $832,750 baseline.
North Carolina and South Carolina have no high-cost counties in 2026. Charlotte, Raleigh, Charleston, and Hilton Head all use the baseline.
Maryland has several. Montgomery, Prince George's, Frederick, and Charles counties are at the $1,249,125 ceiling as part of the Washington, D.C. metro. Calvert County sits just under it at $1,209,750.
Northern Virginia is similar. Fairfax, Arlington, Loudoun, Prince William, Stafford, and Spotsylvania counties are among those at the ceiling, along with the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Fredericksburg, Manassas, and Manassas Park.
If your county is not named here, you are almost certainly at the baseline. You can confirm it on FHFA's county list, which is linked from the release above.
Why the county loan limit matters on a refinance
Most people think of loan limits as a buyer's problem. In practice, they come up more often on cash-out refinances, because that is when a homeowner asks to borrow against equity that has grown for years.
The pattern is consistent. Conventional guidelines generally cap a cash-out refinance on a one-unit primary home at 80% of the appraised value. The county loan limit then sets a second cap on top of that. You can borrow whichever is lower, if you want to stay conforming.
Take three homeowners with the same goal: pull equity out to pay off high-interest debt.
- A homeowner in Charlotte owns a home appraised at $1,100,000. Eighty percent is $880,000. The county limit is $832,750. A conforming loan stops $47,250 short of the full 80%.
- A homeowner in the Keys owns a home appraised at $1,200,000. Eighty percent is $960,000. Monroe County's limit is $990,150, so the full 80% fits inside a conforming loan.
- A homeowner in Montgomery County, Maryland, owns a home appraised at $1,400,000. Eighty percent is $1,120,000. The county limit is $1,249,125, so it fits with room to spare.
The percentage was identical in all three cases. The first homeowner did nothing wrong. Their county simply has a lower ceiling than their home's value would suggest.
When a loan goes over the county loan limit, it does not mean the answer is no. It means the loan moves into jumbo territory, where pricing, reserve requirements, and documentation can be different. Sometimes the right call is to borrow a little less and stay conforming. Sometimes the extra cash is worth the jumbo terms. That depends on what the money is for and what it costs over the life of the loan, which is why the payment alone never tells you enough.
How FHA uses county loan limits
FHA loans have their own county limits, set each year by HUD. They use a floor and a ceiling instead of a single baseline.
For 2026, HUD set the FHA one-unit floor at $541,287 and the ceiling at $1,249,125. The floor is 65% of the national conforming limit. The ceiling matches the conforming high-cost ceiling. Counties in between get a limit based on local home prices, so a county can have one FHA limit and a different conforming limit.
For a homeowner in a baseline county, this matters. The FHA limit there is always below the conforming limit, and often well below it. A cash-out refinance that fits easily under the conforming number may not fit under the FHA number in the same county.
How county loan limits work for VA loans
This is the part veterans most often hear wrong.
Since January 1, 2020, there are no county loan limits for veterans with full VA entitlement. If you have never used your benefit, or you used it and had it fully restored, VA does not cap how much you can borrow. Your income, your credit, and the lender's own guidelines still apply. The county number does not.
County loan limits come back into play when part of your entitlement is still tied up in another VA loan. That happens more than people expect. A veteran who kept a former home as a rental, or who bought again before selling, may still have entitlement attached to that first loan.
In that case VA uses the county limit to figure out how much entitlement you have left. Remaining entitlement is 25% of the county loan limit, minus the entitlement already in use. A lender will generally want the VA guaranty, plus any down payment, to cover 25% of the new loan.
Picture a veteran with $100,000 of entitlement still tied to an earlier home:
- In Montgomery County, Maryland, 25% of $1,249,125 is $312,281. Subtract the $100,000 in use and $212,281 remains. That supports a loan of about $849,125 with no down payment.
- In Monroe County, Florida, 25% of $990,150 is $247,538. Subtract $100,000 and $147,538 remains. That supports a loan of about $590,150 with no down payment.
For the same veteran with the same history, that is a difference of almost $259,000 in no-down-payment buying power. Above those amounts, a down payment can make up the gap. The benefit is still there. It has been earned and it is still owed. The county number decides how far the remaining part reaches.
If you have entitlement tied up in a property you plan to sell, restoring it first can remove the county limit from the picture entirely. A loan officer can pull your Certificate of Eligibility and show you exactly where you stand.
When county loan limits change
FHFA announces the next year's conforming loan limits in late November. The 2026 values were announced on November 25, 2025. HUD follows with FHA limits, usually in December. New limits apply to loans delivered or endorsed in the new calendar year.
The 2027 values had not been published when this was written in November 2026. We will not guess at them. What we can say is how the timing affects you. If you are close to a limit and your closing date could land on either side of January 1, the year the loan closes and is delivered can matter. Ask about it early, before the appraisal is ordered, rather than after.
What to do with this
Smart people miss this every day. The county loan limit is rarely on the first page of anything, and it only shows up once the numbers are already in motion.
Three questions are worth asking before you refinance or buy:
- What is the 2026 county loan limit where the home is located, for the number of units it has?
- Does the loan I want sit above or below that line, and what changes if it does?
- If I am a veteran, is any of my entitlement still in use, and would restoring it change my options?
A GoodLoan loan officer can answer all three in one conversation, using your actual county, your actual home value, and your actual goals. We look at the whole picture: the total cost, the fees, the payment, and what the loan does for your household over the years you will have it. We are licensed through the NMLS, and we say no a lot, because a loan that does not fit your numbers is not a loan we want to make.
Frequently asked questions
What is the conforming loan limit for 2026?
For a one-unit home in most of the country, it is $832,750. In high-cost counties it can go up to $1,249,125. In Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the baseline is $1,249,125 and the ceiling is $1,873,675.
How do I find my county loan limit?
FHFA publishes a full county list each year alongside its announcement. HUD publishes FHA limits by county, and VA uses the FHFA figures. A loan officer can confirm your county's number for the property type you have.
Are there any high-cost counties in Florida or the Carolinas?
In 2026, Monroe County, Florida, is the only one among those three states, at $990,150. Every other county in Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina uses the $832,750 baseline.
Do county loan limits apply to VA loans?
Not if you have full entitlement. They apply when part of your entitlement is still in use on another VA loan, because VA uses the county limit to calculate how much entitlement remains.
What happens if my refinance is above the county loan limit?
The loan becomes a jumbo loan, which follows different pricing and documentation rules. You can also choose to borrow at or under the limit and stay conforming. The better choice depends on the full cost and on what the extra cash would do for you.
Will the county loan limit change next year?
Almost always. FHFA resets the limits each year based on home prices and typically announces them in late November. Treat any figure you read as tied to a specific year.
