Mortgage requirements by state: what actually changes at the state line
For 2026 the baseline conforming loan limit on a one-unit home is $832,750, and $1,249,125 in high-cost areas. The Federal Housing Finance Agency set both in its announcement of 25 November 2025, read on 21 September 2026, and it revises them every November for the January that follows. That figure is published county by county rather than state by state, which makes it the first of them to change when you cross a line on a map, and it is not the only one.
Quick answers
- Conforming, 2026: $832,750 baseline for one unit, $1,249,125 ceiling in high-cost areas, which is 150 percent of the baseline. Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the US Virgin Islands run on separate statutory provisions, and their baseline is $1,249,125, the same figure that is the ceiling everywhere else, with their own ceiling higher still. FHFA also recorded that the 2026 values rose in every US county or county equivalent bar 32 (FHFA, conforming loan limit values for 2026, announced 25 November 2025, read 21 September 2026).
- FHA, 2026: a floor of $541,287 and a ceiling of $1,249,125 for one unit, published separately from the conforming values and on the same annual cycle (FHA Mortgagee Letter 2025-23, dated 11 December 2025, effective for case numbers assigned on or after 1 January 2026; last read against the source on 24 August 2026, because HUD blocks automated requests).
- Six things are set by your state, not your lender: which county limit applies, how property is assessed and taxed, what it costs to transfer and record the deed and the mortgage, what homestead protection exists and by when you have to claim it, who licenses the loan officer, and which assistance programs run where you are buying.
- Almost everything else is federal and identical everywhere: the loan programs, the underwriting standards behind them, and the disclosure clock described below.
BEDRWay is not a lender or a mortgage broker. We are not licensed to originate mortgages in any state, we set no rates and quote none, and nothing here is an offer of credit. We introduce you to one licensed loan officer who works where you live, and only that person can tell you what you would be offered.
The loan limit is a county number, and it moves every year
Two ceilings sit over a US mortgage and they are published by different agencies on different documents. The conforming limit decides whether Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac can buy the loan, which is what separates a conventional loan from a jumbo one. The FHA limit decides how large an FHA-insured loan may be. Neither is a single national number.
FHFA sets the baseline from its own house price index and then raises it locally: wherever 115 percent of the area median home value exceeds the baseline, the county carries a higher limit, capped at 150 percent of the baseline. For 2026 that cap works out to $1,249,125, which is 150 percent of $832,750. So a buyer in an expensive coastal county and a buyer two states inland can both be looking at a conventional loan at sizes that differ by more than $400,000, with nothing about either borrower involved.
The practical consequence is the part competing pages skip. You cannot look up your state, because the number is not held at state level. You look up your county, and the state page tells you which counties in that state carry more than the baseline. Loan limits for 2026 takes the whole of it in one page: the conforming baseline and ceiling by number of units, how the FHA floor and ceiling are derived from them, why jumbo is a county-dependent word, and where to look a county up. The loan-to-value calculator is the right tool once you know which ceiling you are under.
What is identical in all fifty states
The disclosure clock
Regulation Z runs on business days and the two deadlines that matter are fixed nationally. A lender must deliver or mail the Loan Estimate no later than the third business day after receiving your application (12 CFR 1026.19(e)(1)(iii)(A)), and must make sure you receive the Closing Disclosure no later than three business days before consummation (12 CFR 1026.19(f)(1)(ii)(A)). Both were read on the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations on 21 September 2026. Neither clock is negotiable by state, and neither is shortened by a busy closing calendar.
Buying a home carries no right to cancel
This one is worth stating plainly because it is widely misreported. The three-business-day right of rescission does not apply to a residential mortgage transaction, which is the regulation's term for the loan used to acquire or construct the home (12 CFR 1026.23(f)(1), read 21 September 2026). The right belongs to borrowing against a principal residence you already own, which is why it shows up on the refinance side and not here. On a purchase, the protection you have is the disclosure clock above, not a cooling-off period afterwards.
The programs themselves
Conventional, FHA, VA and USDA rules are national. A 620 credit score means the same thing in Ohio as in California, and the debt ratios a lender works to do not change at a border. Those belong on the home loans page, which covers the programs, what every lender checks and the documents to have ready, and this page deliberately does not repeat them.
Licensing is national in design and state in fact
The SAFE Act encouraged the states, through the Conference of State Bank Supervisors and the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators, to stand up a single Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry (12 U.S.C. 5101, read 21 September 2026). The register is national; the licence inside it is issued by a state agency, and that agency is where a complaint goes. Each state page below names the one that supervises lenders there.
What your state decides
Six requirements really do move at the state line. The table names the mechanism; the state pages carry the figures, because each one is sourced and checked against its own publisher rather than generalized here.
| Requirement | Who sets it | Why it moves |
|---|---|---|
| Conforming and FHA loan limits | FHFA and HUD, by county | Local median home value against the national baseline |
| High-cost counties | FHFA, by county | Whether 115 percent of local median value clears the baseline |
| Property tax | State law, county assessors | Assessment basis, exemptions and millage differ by jurisdiction |
| Transfer and recording costs | State and county statute | Some states tax the deed, some tax the note, some tax neither |
| Homestead protection | State constitution or statute | Value protected, who qualifies, and the filing deadline |
| The regulator | State financial services agency | Every state licenses originators through its own department |
Two of those surprise people often enough to be worth naming. Property tax is not one rate applied to the price you paid: the assessment basis is set by state law and can sit well below or above a sale price, so a published rate is not a number you can multiply by an asking price and trust. And transfer costs are not a single line item. A state can tax the transfer of the deed, the recording of the new note, both, or neither, and who pays which side is local custom as often as it is statute.
Mortgage requirements by state
Each page names the agency, the statute or the publisher behind every figure, along with the day somebody read it. They are published one state at a time rather than generated, because a state page that is confidently wrong is worse than a state page that does not exist yet.
- Mortgage requirements in California
- Mortgage requirements in Florida
- Mortgage requirements in Ohio
- Mortgage requirements in Tennessee
- Mortgage requirements in Texas
What a published rule cannot settle
Everything above is a published rule. None of it is a decision about you. Whether a particular lender will write a particular loan on a particular property depends on the file, and no page, this one included, can stand in for an underwriter reading it. What this page is good for is arriving at that conversation knowing which of your questions have national answers and which are questions about where you are buying.
Have a licensed loan officer run your real numbers
Free. BEDRWay is not a lender, we connect you with licensed mortgage professionals.