FHA Loan Limits to Rise Again in the DC Area

• November 28th 2018

by Nena Perry-Brown

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On Tuesday, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced that it would again raise mortgage loan limits for 2019, allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to acquire mortgages of up to $484,350. The 2018 limit was $453,100 for a single dwelling unit. This will be the third year in a row that the agency will raise limits. 

The increase is based on FHFA's Home Price Index, which calculated an average home price increase of 6.9 percent from the third quarter of 2017 to the third quarter of 2018. 

For the immediate DC area, as in most other "high-cost" areas, the loan limits increased to $726,525 for a single dwelling unit, 150 percent higher than the nationwide maximum. The limit for a two-unit building is $930,300, and it is respectively $1,124,475 and $1,397,400 for three- and four-unit buildings.

While Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantee a great deal of mortgages nationwide, often at lower costs and with more favorable lending terms, they are legally bound to only accept loans of a certain amount. The increased loan limits make GSE loan underwriting more accessible to a larger pool of homebuyers.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/fha-loan-limits-to-rise-again-for-third-consecutive-year/14742.