2026 Texas loan limits: who actually cares about a 3.26% bump

Archive note: This article explains the December 2025 announcements that set calendar-year 2026 limits. For current lookup use the Texas conforming-limit reference, the Texas FHA county table, or the county loan-limit directory. The primary datasets are FHFA's conforming-limit data and HUD's 2026 county limit file.

Two announcements in the last few weeks moved the loan limit numbers for 2026.

On November 25, the Federal Housing Finance Agency published the 2026 conforming limits. On December 11, HUD followed with Mortgagee Letter 2025-23 setting the FHA limits. Both apply to their respective calendar-year 2026 transactions under the agencies' effective-date rules.

Here are the numbers and, more importantly, who they actually affect.

Conforming loan limit, by the numbers

The 2026 baseline conforming loan limit for a single-family home is $832,750. That is up from $806,500 in 2025. The 3.26 percent increase matches the FHFA House Price Index change between Q3 2024 and Q3 2025. By statute, the limit moves with the index every year, not by political choice or industry lobbying. So this is not a windfall, it is a mechanical adjustment.

For multi-unit properties, the 2026 baseline limits are:

• Two-unit: $1,066,250
• Three-unit: $1,288,800
• Four-unit: $1,601,750

The high-cost ceiling for single-family properties is $1,249,125, which is 150 percent of the baseline. Texas has no counties designated as high-cost under the conforming program, so this ceiling does not apply to anyone buying in-state. The baseline $832,750 is the operative number from Brownsville to Amarillo.

FHA limits, county by county

FHA works differently. Limits float between a floor and a ceiling based on local median home prices, set county-by-county by HUD under Mortgagee Letter 2025-23.

The 2026 FHA floor for a one-unit property is $541,287. The ceiling is $1,249,125, same as the conforming high-cost number.

Most Texas counties sit at the floor. Twenty-five counties go higher because their median home prices push them up. Here is the breakdown:

• Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos MSA (Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, Caldwell counties): $571,550
• Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington MSA (eleven counties): $563,500
• San Antonio-New Braunfels MSA (eight counties): $557,750
• Glasscock County (non-metro, Permian Basin): $813,050

Glasscock is the outlier and a recurring oddity. It is a small rural county whose median home values run high because of oilfield economics. HUD formula puts it just below the high-cost ceiling. There are not many transactions there in a given year, but the math is the math, and if you are financing a Glasscock County purchase with FHA, you have room.

Multi-unit FHA floors for 2026 are $693,050 for two-unit, $837,700 for three-unit, and $1,041,125 for four-unit. These matter for investor and house-hack scenarios where you live in one unit and rent the others.

The full 254-county table is on the Texas FHA loan limits page with search, sort, downloads, and the underlying HUD data.

VA and Texas VLB

VA loan rules did not change. If you have full VA entitlement, there is no loan limit. That has been true since the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act took effect January 1, 2020. The conforming limit only enters the picture for VA borrowers with partial entitlement or those running two VA loans at the same time. For those scenarios, the new $832,750 is the math anchor.

The Texas Veterans Land Board raised its Home Loan maximum to $832,750 in early January. VLB and the federal VA guaranty are separate programs with separate requirements; the Texas VA entitlement and VLB reference explains the distinction and links to both agencies.

Who this actually matters to

Most borrowers do not bump up against loan limits at all. If you are shopping for a $400,000 house, the 2026 limits change nothing for you. The pricing on a $400K conforming loan is functionally identical between 2025 and 2026.

The numbers matter most for two specific groups.

Borrowers right at the old conforming-to-jumbo edge. If your loan amount lands above $806,500 and at or below $832,750, the calendar moved that amount into conforming territory. Jumbo pricing, reserves, documentation, and appraisal requirements vary by lender; conforming is not automatically cheaper on every file.

Borrowers just above the new limit. If your scenario lands at $840K to $870K against the new $832,750 baseline, there is a real comparison worth making: retain more cash with a jumbo structure or increase the down payment enough to reach conforming territory. The answer requires live pricing, reserve needs, and the expected use of that cash.

Run the math: the $1.06M scenario

Concrete example. You are buying a $1,060,000 home with 20 percent down. Loan amount: $848,000. That is $15,250 above the conforming limit, which knocks you into jumbo.

If you bring an additional $15,250 down (so 21.4 percent instead of 20 percent), your loan drops to $832,750. Now you are conforming.

The pricing difference between conforming and jumbo varies over time and by lender. The comparison needs actual same-day loan estimates, including rate, points or lender credits, mortgage insurance if any, reserves, and cash left after closing. The extra $15,250 does not have a universal payback period.

Worth noting: this math gets less obvious as you go further above the limit. At a $900K loan amount, you would need to bring an extra $67K to convert to conforming. At that point, you are trading $67K in your bank account (which is earning something) against the rate spread on the additional borrowed amount. No universal rule. It comes down to your specific cash position, what your liquid funds are earning, and the live pricing spread that day.