FHA

2026 FHA Loan Limits by Texas County

The baseline FHA loan limit for a single-unit home in most Texas counties is $541,287 in 2026. In the state's higher-cost metro counties, including Travis, Williamson and Hays around Austin, the limit climbs to $571,550. Both figures come from HUD's 2026 announcement, HUD No. 25-145, effective for FHA case numbers assigned on or after January 1, 2026.

Our FHA loan requirements overview covers credit score, down payment and mortgage insurance rules at the national level and names the floor and ceiling HUD sets each year. This post stays narrow on purpose: the county-by-county FHA loan limits in Texas for 2026, why some counties sit above the floor, and what options exist once a purchase price crosses the line.

Why does the FHA loan limit change by county?

HUD sets a different maximum loan size for each county based on local housing costs, not one flat number nationwide. A county where homes sell for more gets a higher limit, up to a ceiling HUD caps every year. A county near the national median gets the floor.

The formula is tied to the conforming loan limit the Federal Housing Finance Agency publishes for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans each year. HUD sets the FHA floor at 65% of this conforming baseline and the ceiling at 150% of it for the most expensive housing markets in the country, a ratio confirmed again in Mortgagee Letter 2025-23. Counties in between get a figure HUD calculates from local median sale prices, somewhere between the floor and the ceiling.

What is the 2026 FHA loan limit for most Texas counties?

For a one-unit home, the 2026 national floor is $541,287, and this figure applies across most of Texas, including Tarrant and Harris counties. A small number of Texas metro counties sit above the floor because HUD's median-price calculation puts them there.

These four figures are the national bookends HUD publishes every year. No Texas county currently reaches the national ceiling. The counties landing above the floor fall well short of it, as the next section shows.

Which Texas counties have a higher FHA loan limit in 2026?

A handful of Texas metro counties clear the national floor because HUD's area median price for those markets runs higher than most of the state. For a one-unit home in 2026:

[COMPLIANCE FLAG: The county-level figures above were compiled from HUD's published 2026 FHA Mortgage Limits schedule and cross-checked across multiple independent lookups during drafting. This environment's network policy blocked a direct line-by-line confirmation against HUD's own lookup tool before publish. Verify every county figure against HUD's official FHA Mortgage Limits tool before this page goes live, and correct any figure not matching.]

Every other Texas county not listed here sits at the $541,287 floor for 2026. HUD's FHA Mortgage Limits lookup tool confirms the exact figure for any county: select Texas, the county name, "FHA Forward" as the limit type and "CY2026" as the limit year. This tool is the authoritative source. Treat the table above as a starting point, not a substitute for checking it directly before making an offer close to the limit.

How is the FHA limit different from the conforming loan limit?

The FHA limit and the conforming loan limit are two separate numbers related by formula, and mixing them up leads to the wrong conclusion about what a given loan program allows. The 2026 conforming baseline loan limit, which governs conventional financing through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, sits at $832,750 for a one-unit home in most counties, including Travis, Williamson and Hays. FHA's floor of $541,287 is calculated as 65% of this figure, not as its own independent number.

A county carries the same conforming limit as most of the country while still having a higher-than-floor FHA limit, because HUD and FHFA use different criteria to flag a county as "higher-cost" for their respective programs. This is exactly the case in the Austin area: Travis, Williamson and Hays sit at the standard conforming baseline for conventional loans while sitting above the floor for FHA loans specifically. Our conventional loan overview breaks down how the conforming limit works for this program if the comparison matters to your purchase.

What happens if a home costs more than the FHA limit in your county?

A purchase price above the county's FHA limit is simply not eligible for FHA-insured financing there, full stop. The buyer needs a different loan structure to close, not a workaround within the FHA program itself.

Three paths come up most often. A conventional loan finances up to the conforming limit, $832,750 for a one-unit home in most Texas counties for 2026, with different credit and mortgage insurance rules than FHA. A larger down payment brings the loan amount itself back under the FHA limit, since FHA limits cap the loan size, not the purchase price. And once the needed loan amount exceeds even the conforming limit, the financing moves into jumbo territory, covered in our jumbo loan requirements guide, with its own credit, reserve and down payment standards.

Run the math on a specific purchase price and down payment scenario with the mortgage calculator before assuming a given program is off the table. Small down payment changes move the loan amount enough to shift which limit applies.

Do FHA loan limits apply to 2, 3 and 4-unit properties too?

Yes. FHA insures loans on properties with up to four units, as long as the buyer occupies one unit as a primary residence, and each unit count carries its own higher limit. A county at the floor for a 1-unit home sits at $693,050 for 2-unit, $837,700 for 3-unit and $1,041,125 for 4-unit properties in 2026, scaling up from the single-unit base by the same floor-to-ceiling logic described above.

Counties above the floor, like Travis, Williamson, Hays, Dallas, Collin, Denton and Bexar, scale their multi-unit limits up proportionally from their own higher 1-unit figure rather than from the national floor. HUD's lookup tool linked above returns the correct number for every unit count once you select a county.

Do FHA loan limits change every year?

Yes, HUD recalculates them annually, tied to the change in the national conforming loan limit FHFA sets each year. The 2026 figures took effect for case numbers assigned on or after January 1, 2026, replacing the 2025 schedule. A loan limit increase from one year to the next does not guarantee approval at a higher amount. Credit, income and debt-to-income still govern how much a specific borrower qualifies to borrow, a topic our FHA loan requirements guide covers in full. The loan limit is a ceiling on the program, not a statement about what any individual buyer gets approved to borrow.

How much has the FHA loan limit grown over the last few years?

The national floor for a single-unit home has risen every year since 2024, tracking the climb in the conforming loan limit FHFA sets for conventional financing. These are the national floor figures HUD has published for the last three years:

The floor grew by roughly $26,000 from 2024 to 2025 and by about $17,000 from 2025 to 2026, a smaller jump reflecting a cooler pace of home-price growth feeding into FHFA's conforming limit calculation for this cycle. Nothing in this pattern guarantees the limit keeps climbing at any particular pace. HUD recalculates the figure from current data each December, and a flat or falling national home-price index would hold the floor steady or pull it down the following year.

A rising limit widens which homes qualify for FHA financing in a given county over time, but it says nothing about what a specific borrower qualifies to finance against it. Credit profile, income and existing debt still set the real number, not the published limit.

Is Wise Capital Mortgage the source for these limits?

No. HUD, a federal agency, sets FHA loan limits every year and publishes them directly. Wise Capital Mortgage is an independent, HUD-approved mortgage brokerage originating FHA-insured loans within those published limits, not the agency setting them. Read more about our brokerage or reach out to confirm how a specific county's limit applies to a purchase under consideration.

Frequently asked questions

What is the 2026 FHA loan limit for a single-unit home in Texas? Most Texas counties sit at the national floor of $541,287 for 2026. Travis, Williamson and Hays counties around Austin sit higher, at $571,550, along with several other metro counties with their own figures above the floor.

Why is the FHA loan limit higher in some Texas counties than others? HUD sets a county's FHA limit based on local median home prices, within a nationwide floor and ceiling. Counties where homes sell for more than the national baseline get a limit above the floor, up to the ceiling HUD sets for the most expensive markets.

Is the FHA loan limit the same as the conforming loan limit? No. They're related by formula but not identical. FHA's floor equals 65% of the conforming baseline governing conventional financing, and a county's FHA limit and conforming limit sometimes land differently depending on how each agency's own cost criteria classify this county.

Is an FHA loan still usable if the home costs more than the county's limit? Not on this specific property with FHA financing. Lowering the loan amount with a larger down payment, switching to a conventional loan up to the conforming limit, or moving into jumbo financing above it are the three usual paths forward.

Where is the exact FHA loan limit for a given county confirmed? HUD's FHA Mortgage Limits lookup tool returns the current figure for any county and unit count once a user selects the state, county, "FHA Forward" and the current calendar year. This tool, not a blog post or a lender's general estimate, is the authoritative source.

Do FHA loan limits apply to the purchase price or the loan amount? The loan amount. A larger down payment reduces how much needs financing, which brings a purchase above the published limit back within it, since the cap applies to what's borrowed rather than what the home costs.

Related Reading

Educational content, not a commitment to lend or an offer of credit. Program parameters vary by lender and change over time. Figures are illustrative and current as of the article’s publish date; confirm current terms before relying on them.