New HUD County Conforming Loan Limits Released

In response to the new conforming loan limit requirements included in the Economic Stimulus Package signed into law last month, HUD has released it revised county by county median property prices today. Under the Stimulus Package's guidelines, HUD was directed to re-evaluate its median property prices in order to determine the new maximum conforming loan limits for loans originated between July 1, 2007 and December 31, 2008. The actual FHA and Fannie/Freddie conforming loan limits for each county are based upon 125% of these revised median property prices. Some counties, designated as high cost areas, received their new limits based on 175% of the revised median home prices.

So, all counties across the country now have a new FHA conforming loan amount floor of $271,050 and a Fannie/Freddie floor of $417,000. The new maximum conforming loan amount is $729,750. You can view the new county by county numbers in the PDF provided below.

Examples of changes to our local counties here in Southwest Florida include the following:

Lee County - Median Price $285,000, New FHA Loan Limit $356,250, Fannie/Freddie Limit $417,000

Collier County - Median Price $425,000, New FHA Loan Limit $531,250, Fannie/Freddie Limit $531,250

The projected impact of these changes to the conforming loan limits will hopefully be a boost to the housing market in a couple of different ways. First, it will provide an infusion of capital liquidity into the mortgage market that should help interest rates to fall across the board. Second, it will help a large group of home buyers now qualify for home loans under FHA guidelines that were blocked from doing so before because their required loans amounts to purchase exceeded the old confroming loan limits. Third, many individuals should now be able to refinance their existing loans (like 80/20's) and in many instances, hopefully keep their homes from falling into foreclosure. Lastly, the biggest beneficiaries of these loan amount changes will be individuals purchasing in high cost areas and those needing to refinance jumbo mortgages.

While these changes will not be an end all be all for the housing or mortgage markets, they are another step in the right direction to help begin correcting the ongoing problems of the past few years.

Metro Mortgage Company is a federally regulated Mortgage Banker specializing in Conventional, Jumbo and FHA/VA mortgage loans throughout Florida.

• NAR County Loan Limit List - PDF

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