The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently announced that the maximum baseline conforming loan limits for mortgages acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2022 will increase to $647,200 from $548,250.
This makes six consecutive years of increases and is great news because the higher loan limits allow a larger group of borrowers qualify for the loans backed by Fannie and Freddie. The jumbo loan programs have been significantly reduced by banks and lenders in recent months due to COVID/ economic challenges.
FHFA said that “as a result of generally rising home values, the increase in the baseline loan limit, and the increase in the ceiling loan limit, the maximum conforming loan limit will be higher in 2022 in most counties in the U.S.”
Median home values exploded across dozens of housing markets across the country in 2021. In the third quarter, the FHFA announced that its house price index saw the largest increase since the metric was introduced in 2008. House prices increased 18.5% across the nation, while some markets saw even larger increases.
All large metropolitan areas tracked by the FHFA saw house-price increases
Higher loan limits will be in effect in higher-cost areas as well. The new ceiling loan limit in high-cost markets will be $970,800.
Borrowers can use the handy map here to look up the conventional loan limit for their county.
Maximum Conforming Loan Amount for 2022
| Units | Most U.S. | High Cost Locations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $647,200 | $970,800 |
| 2 | $828,700 | $1,243,050 |
| 3 | $1,001,650 | $1,502,475 |
| 4 | $1,244,850 | $1,867,275 |