For 2026, the conforming loan limit is $832,750 for a one-unit home in most of the United States, and up to $1,249,125 in high-cost counties. A loan above the limit for the county where the home sits is a jumbo loan. "Super-jumbo" is not a separate regulated class at all — it is a market term lenders use for loans well above the ceiling — and everything in this article about limits, pricing and underwriting applies to both.
The 2026 limits, county by county
Each year the Federal Housing Finance Agency sets the largest loan Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will buy from lenders; the Housing and Economic Recovery Act requires the baseline to move with the average US home price. For 2026 the FHFA set the baseline at $832,750, up $26,250 from 2025, reflecting the 3.26% rise in its house price index between the third quarters of 2024 and 2025.
Where 115% of the local median home value exceeds the baseline, the limit is set higher, up to a ceiling of 150% of the baseline — $1,249,125 for 2026. Statute sets separate figures for Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the US Virgin Islands, where the one-unit baseline and ceiling for 2026 are $1,249,125 and $1,873,675. FHFA reports that limits rose in all but 32 counties or county-equivalents.
In FHFA's county-by-county file, 3,075 of the 3,235 entries carry the $832,750 baseline; just 160 sit above it. That split matters more than the headline number, because the limit is local:
| County | 2026 one-unit limit |
|---|---|
| Orange County, CA (Newport Beach, Laguna Beach) | $1,249,125 |
| Los Angeles County, CA (Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Malibu) | $1,249,125 |
| New York County, NY (Manhattan) | $1,209,750 |
| Pitkin County, CO (Aspen) | $1,209,750 |
| Teton County, WY (Jackson Hole) | $1,249,125 |
| King County, WA (Seattle, Medina) | $1,063,750 |
| Miami-Dade County, FL (Miami, Coral Gables) | $832,750 |
| Palm Beach County, FL | $832,750 |
| Collier County, FL (Naples) | $832,750 |
| Maricopa County, AZ (Scottsdale, Paradise Valley) | $832,750 |
Two buyers taking the same $1,500,000 loan stand in different worlds. In Orange County it sits inside the conforming box; in Miami-Dade it is jumbo, because that county's limit is the baseline. County is the first thing to establish, and the site's market pages carry the limits for the counties where the program's readers tend to buy — for example Newport Beach, Manhattan and Miami–Coral Gables.
What counts as jumbo, and what "super-jumbo" means
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau defines the boundary: each year Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHFA set the maximum loan the enterprises will buy, and larger loans are jumbo mortgages. Jumbo is a size classification measured against the local limit, not a product type. A loan is not "jumbo" in the abstract; it is jumbo in its county.
Above some informal point — there is no official threshold — lenders and brokers begin saying super jumbo mortgage. The phrase carries no legal weight: no regulator defines the class, no statute sets its floor, and a super-jumbo loan is underwritten under the same federal rule as every other consumer mortgage. What the word signals in practice is scale. The larger the loan, the more of the lender's own balance sheet sits behind it, and the more weight its private standards carry relative to the regulated minimums.
What jumbo loans cost
A conforming loan can be sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, which stand behind a deep secondary market. A jumbo cannot; the lender keeps the loan or sells it privately, so the credit risk sits with the lender and its investors. The CFPB notes the consequence: the cost of obtaining a jumbo mortgage may be higher than the cost of a conforming one.
Pricing, down payment requirements, reserves and fees are each set lender by lender. That makes "the jumbo rate" a fiction; the only meaningful comparison is written term sheets from several lenders on the same day, for the same loan size, down payment and documentation.
What the loan size itself does to the monthly payment is standard arithmetic. The table assumes a 30-year fixed rate of 6.5% — an assumption for illustration, not a rate offer or a market quote.
| Loan amount | Monthly payment | Total interest over 30 years |
|---|---|---|
| $832,750 (baseline limit) | $5,263.55 | $1,062,127 |
| $1,249,125 (ceiling) | $7,895.32 | $1,593,190 |
| $3,200,000 (80% of a $4M home) | $20,226.18 | $4,081,424 |
| $4,000,000 | $25,282.72 | $5,101,780 |
Two things the table makes plain. First, the conforming ceiling is not a luxury threshold: even the maximum conforming loan in the country's most expensive counties costs less than $8,000 a month at the assumed rate. Second, the loans this site's readers actually need are several multiples of the limit, and their interest compounds accordingly — $5,101,780 over thirty years on $4,000,000. The jumbo calculator runs the same math on any price.
Many borrowers at this size choose an interest-only structure for the early years. The same $3,200,000 at the assumed 6.5% starts at $17,333 a month interest only, then steps to $27,875 when principal repayment begins. How interest-only jumbo mortgages work covers that loan in detail.
How jumbo underwriting differs
The federal floor for every consumer mortgage is the CFPB's ability-to-repay rule, Regulation Z at 12 CFR 1026.43. A lender must make a good-faith determination that you can repay, based on verified information: your income or assets other than the home itself, your debt obligations, and your monthly debt-to-income ratio or residual income, with the records treated as reliable evidence. The regulation applies identically to a $500,000 loan and a $5,000,000 one. Jumbo status changes nothing at this layer.
The differences sit in two places above the floor.
The Qualified Mortgage line. A loan that meets the Qualified Mortgage requirements — no interest-only period, no negative amortization, no balloon payment, a term of 30 years or less, verified income or assets, limits on points and fees — carries a presumption that the lender followed the ability-to-repay rule. Most fixed-rate jumbo loans are made as Qualified Mortgages. An interest-only jumbo is not: the CFPB lists an interest-only period among the features a Qualified Mortgage cannot have. Such loans are still made; the lender simply has to document repayment ability without the presumption, and for an interest-only loan it must qualify you against the principal-and-interest payment that applies after the interest-only period ends.
The lender's own standards. Because a jumbo cannot be sold to the enterprises, each lender writes its own credit box and keeps the risk. The common elements, in lender materials and practice: a larger down payment than the conforming minimum, full documentation of income and assets, a close look at liquid reserves left after closing, and credit history weighed against the size of the loan. The specifics vary enough that two lenders can approve and price the same borrower differently. Ask each one for its requirements in writing — down payment, reserve months, how it counts restricted or illiquid assets — before paying for an appraisal.
The deduction cap
One cost sits outside the loan itself. IRS Publication 936 limits the home mortgage interest deduction to interest on the first $750,000 of debt, or $375,000 if married filing separately, for loans taken out after December 15, 2017; debt from before December 16, 2017 keeps a $1,000,000 limit. On a $4,000,000 loan the deduction reaches a little under a fifth of the balance. The interest still gets paid in full; only the deduction is partial. Your CPA can translate that into an after-tax rate for your case.
Where the program fits
The Family Office Mortgage is built at a size where the conforming question is already settled. On the program's standard terms, a $4M home — the program's floor — carries a mortgage of $3,200,000, well above the highest limit available anywhere in the country. Every mortgage arranged through the program is a jumbo, made by a third-party lender and underwritten under the rule described above. The program is not a lender, a bank or a government program; it works with your lender or one it introduces, and you qualify in the usual way.
What the program adds sits beside the mortgage, not inside it. Roughly half the price is committed at closing: 20% as the down payment and up to 30% as the contribution to a structured financial product, with a bank financing further funding of it. On the $4M reference home that is $2,000,000 at closing, against a $3,200,000 mortgage that is interest only at an assumed 6.5% for $17,333 a month for fifteen years, then $27,875 a month of principal and interest. From year 16, the instrument's projected payout — about $340,000 a year — is designed to make those payments, sized to the $334,505 annual total. The rate is an assumption, the payout is projected, and the mortgage still runs its full thirty years.
That shape suits a specific household: one buying a home of $4M or more, holding $5M or more in assets beyond the home, with income of $500,000 or more, intending to keep the home for the long term, and comfortable committing about half the price at closing. It does not suit a household below those levels; a buyer who wants to minimize capital at closing, for whom a conforming or standard jumbo with 20% down is the direct route; or one likely to sell within a few years, because the instrument needs its fifteen years to build. The program page states the structure in full, and the eligibility page will tell you plainly whether it is built for you.
