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Conforming Loan Ceiling Raised to $729,750 for High Cost Area such as Marin County

March 6th, 2008 2:58 PM

Great news we have been waiting for!

New FNMA and FHA loan limits announced today.

14 California counties saw their loan limits for FHA, Fannie and Freddie bumped all the way up to the $729,750 cap. Most were in the San Francisco Bay Area or northern California (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara) with five more in the L.A. area (Los Angeles, Orange, San Benito, Santa Barbara, and Ventura).

The limits are calculated at 125% of the HUD published medium prices, whith a floor of $271,050 and $417,000, respectively, not to exceed $729,750.

This is expected to stimulate the housing market significantly by bringing an infusion of capital into the mortgage market, which should result in lower interest rates across the board; with a direct impact on high-cost areas such as Marin which previously required borrowers to take out costlier jumbo mortgages.

NAR research points out that the increased limit will help an additional 138,000 Americans to own their home and will allow nearly 200,000 homeowners to refinance and potentially keep their home.

An NAR economic impact study anticipated that housing inventory would be reduced and home prices would be strengthened by two to three percentage points.

Mortgage maximums as of Wednesday March 05, 2008

High Cost

One-Family

Two-Family

Three-Family

Four-Family

MARIN

$729,750

$934,200

$1,129,250

$1,403,400

The current BASIC standard mortgage limits for FHA insured loans are

			One-family		Two-family		Three-family		Four-family
	Fannie/Freddie		$417,000		$533,850		$645,300		$801,950

HIGH COST area (such as Marin) limits are subject to a ceiling based on a percent of the Freddie Mac Loan limits The ceilings are currently:
		One-family	Two-family	Three-family	Four-family
	Fannie/Freddie	$729,750	$934,200	$1,129,250	$1,403,400

Section 214 of the National Housing Act provides that mortgage limits for Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, and the Virgin Islands may be adjusted up to 150 percent of the new ceilings. This results in new ceilings for these areas of:
		One-family	Two-family	Three-family	Four-family
	Fannie/Freddie	$1,094,625	$1,401,300	$1,693,875	$2,105,100

This is a listing of the FHA single family mortgage limits. This listing was downloaded from the Department's Computerized Home Underwriting Management System. Since mortgage limits are updated constantly, please contact the Homeownership Center if you believe this information is in error.

Posted by Sylvia Barry on March 6th, 2008 2:58 PMPost a Comment (0)