California mortgage guide

California Loan Limits by County, 2026

Reviewed by Loi Tran, Loan Officer, NMLS 454267. Last reviewed October 14, 2026.

In this guide

1. Key numbers
2. The 58-county table: conforming and FHA, one unit, 2026
3. How to read your county's numbers
4. Who the limits affect — and who should look elsewhere
5. Requirements and costs the limits connect to
6. Worked examples: classifying three loans
7. Common mistakes
8. Questions buyers ask

For 2026, the one-unit conforming loan limit is $832,750 in most California counties and rises to a ceiling of $1,249,125 in the highest-cost counties, while FHA limits run from a floor of $541,287 to the same $1,249,125 ceiling on a different county pattern. Find your county in the table below: the conforming figure classifies a conventional loan, and the FHA figure caps an FHA loan.

Key numbers

The 58-county table: conforming and FHA, one unit, 2026

Conforming limits are FHFA's, for loans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will acquire in 2026. FHA limits are HUD's, for FHA case numbers assigned in 2026. Multi-unit limits are higher in both programs; the pattern by county is the same.

How to read your county's numbers

The tier rule. At or below $832,750, a conventional loan is a standard conforming loan in every California county. Above $832,750 but at or below your county's conforming limit, it is a high-balance conforming loan — still a conforming loan, with high-balance pricing and rules. Above your county's limit, it is a jumbo loan: no agency limit applies because no agency will buy it, and each lender sets its own terms. The boundary is the loan amount, not the home price — a $1,400,000 home with $600,000 down is a $800,000 loan, and a conforming one.

Why the FHA column follows a different pattern. FHA sets its county limits from the same median-value data but inside its own floor and ceiling: 65% and 150% of the conforming baseline. That is why Alpine County's FHA limit ($736,000) sits below its conforming limit ($832,750), why Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado, and Yolo share an FHA limit of $764,750 while their conforming limit stays at the baseline, and why 41 counties share the conforming baseline while their FHA limits spread across several values.

VA loans have no VA-set limit for a borrower with full entitlement. The county conforming limit matters to a VA buyer only when part of the entitlement is already used — then the remaining entitlement is figured from 25% of the county limit minus the entitlement in use, and a down payment is typically required above that. A veteran with full entitlement is limited by the lender and the appraisal, not by the table.

Who the limits affect — and who should look elsewhere

The limits matter most to buyers whose loan lands near a boundary. If your loan is within a few thousand dollars of $832,750 or of your county's limit, a slightly larger down payment can move the loan into the cheaper tier — run that arithmetic before you finalise the down payment, because the saving repeats every month of the loan. High-balance loans also carry their own constraints: they require automated underwriting on the Fannie Mae side and cap leverage lower than standard conforming at the top end, so a loan that fits the county limit on size can still fail on loan-to-value.

If your loan is far above your county's limit, the table has done its job — you are shopping jumbo lenders, and the comparison moves to jumbo-specific terms: reserves, loan-to-value caps, and documentation depth, which vary by lender far more than agency rules do.

Requirements and costs the limits connect to

Program rules. The conforming limit is an eligibility rule for agency purchase, set by FHFA under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act formula: the baseline moves with the FHFA House Price Index (up 3.26% between the third quarters of 2024 and 2025, which is how $832,750 was reached), and a county rises above the baseline when 115% of its median home value exceeds the baseline, up to the 150% ceiling. The 2026 limits apply to loans acquired in 2026; FHA's apply to case numbers assigned on or after January 1, 2026.

Lender overlays. A loan inside the county limit is not automatically approved — credit, income, appraisal, and reserves still decide the file, and lenders add their own overlays on top of agency rules, especially in the high-balance band. Treat the limit as the first gate, not the decision.

Costs. Crossing from high-balance into jumbo, or from conforming into high-balance, changes pricing and can change mortgage-insurance and reserve requirements. There is no fee for the limit itself; the cost of a boundary is the difference in the loan terms on either side of it, which is why the down-payment nudge near a boundary is worth modelling.

Worked examples: classifying three loans

• Sacramento County, $800,000 loan. $800,000 is at or below the $832,750 baseline, so this is a standard conforming loan — even though Sacramento's FHA limit is $764,750, which would cap an FHA loan below this amount. Same home, same price: the two programs draw the line in different places.
• Ventura County, $1,000,000 loan. $1,000,000 is above the $832,750 baseline and at or below Ventura's $1,035,000 county limit, so this is a high-balance conforming loan. In neighbouring Los Angeles County the same loan is also high-balance (limit $1,249,125); in Riverside County it would be a jumbo loan, because Riverside's limit is the $832,750 baseline.
• San Diego County, $1,104,001 loan. San Diego's limit is $1,104,000. One dollar over the county limit makes the loan a jumbo loan. A down payment larger by a single dollar of loan amount — or an appraisal-supported price adjustment — keeps it conforming.

Common mistakes

1. Comparing the home price to the limit. Limits apply to the loan amount. Price minus down payment is the number to classify.
2. Using last year's figures. The baseline rose from $806,500 in 2025 to $832,750 in 2026, and the ceiling from $1,209,750 to $1,249,125. A page still showing the old pair is a page to close.
3. Assuming the FHA and conforming limits match. They share a ceiling and nothing else. Alpine, Mono, Nevada, San Joaquin, Solano, Stanislaus, and Mendocino counties all have FHA limits that match neither the floor nor their conforming figure.
4. Thinking a VA loan is capped by the county limit. With full entitlement there is no VA-set loan limit. The county figure only enters when entitlement is partly used.
5. Forgetting multi-unit homes have higher limits. Two-to-four-unit properties carry their own, higher limits in both programs — do not classify a duplex loan with the one-unit table.

Questions buyers ask

What is the conforming loan limit in my county?

Find your county in the table. Forty-one counties sit at the $832,750 baseline; ten sit at the $1,249,125 ceiling (Alameda, Contra Costa, Los Angeles, Marin, Orange, San Benito, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz); seven sit in between.

Is my loan high-balance or jumbo?

Above $832,750 and at or below your county's limit: high-balance conforming. Above your county's limit: jumbo. The worked examples above walk through all three cases.

Why is my county's FHA limit different from its conforming limit?

FHA works inside its own floor ($541,287) and ceiling ($1,249,125), set at 65% and 150% of the conforming baseline, and assigns county limits from median values within that frame — so the two columns diverge in most counties.

Do these limits apply to refinances?

Yes. The same county limits classify a refinance loan; a cash-out or rate-and-term refinance above the county limit is a jumbo refinance with jumbo terms.

When do the 2026 limits take effect?

FHFA's limits apply to loans the agencies acquire in 2026. HUD's FHA limits and the $1,249,125 HECM maximum claim amount apply to case numbers assigned on or after January 1, 2026.

What is the limit for a duplex or fourplex?

Higher than the one-unit figures in both programs — for example, the FHA ceiling rises to $1,599,375 for two units, $1,933,200 for three, and $2,402,625 for four. Ask for the multi-unit figure for your county before classifying the loan.

Sources

• FHFA — FHFA Announces Conforming Loan Limit Values for 2026 (November 25, 2025; fetched October 14, 2026): baseline, ceiling, the 115% formula, and the House Price Index change.
• FHFA — Conforming Loan Limits: the 2026 county limit files (fetched October 14, 2026).
• HUD News Release 25-145 and Mortgagee Letter 2025-23: 2026 FHA floor and ceiling and the HECM maximum claim amount (fetched October 14, 2026).

County rows: conforming values follow FHFA's 2026 county list; FHA values follow HUD's 2026 county limits, both published for 2026 and read on October 14, 2026.

A California mortgage question? Talk with Loi directly.

A consultation is a conversation, not an application. Loi will walk through your numbers, say plainly whether the loan fits, and tell you what it would take to qualify — whether or not you move forward. No credit pull to start.

Call Loi — 415-297-6703 Get a consultation Apply with Loi at Loan Factory