Below, you will find the current loan limits for San Diego County in 2017, including FHA, VA and conventional. The conventional / conforming caps have been increased for 2017, due to rising home prices in San Diego County. The conforming loan limit for a single-family home was raised to $612,950 for 2017. The FHA and VA limits were also increased to $612,950. See the table below for more.
San Diego County Loan Limits in 2017
The table below shows the 2017 loan limits for San Diego County. There are three separate table rows for the three different mortgage programs that have limits: conforming, FHA and VA. There are also separate columns for the different property types. (A “1-family” property is a single-family home, a “2-family” property is a duplex, and so on.)
| Loan Type | 1-Family | 2-Family | 3-Family | 4-Family |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conforming | $612,950 | $784,700 | $948,500 | $1,178,750 |
| FHA | $612,950 | $784,700 | $948,500 | $1,178,750 |
| VA | $612,950 | $784,700 | $948,500 | $1,178,750 |
Note: If you’re a home buyer purchasing a single-family home in San Diego, refer to the loan limits in the “1-family” column. The other columns are for multifamily properties such duplex and triplex units, which are typically purchased by investors.
Conforming, FHA and VA Limits Increased
In November 2016, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced in that it would be raising the 2017 conforming loan limit for San Diego County, in response to home-price gains. The new (and higher) loan limit for a single-family home is $612,950, as shown in the table above. VA is the same.
In December 2016, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) followed suit and announced it would raise the single-family FHA loan limit for San Diego County to $612,950. That means all of the limits — for FHA, VA and conventional / conforming loans — are aligned for 2017.
Rising Home Price Bring Higher Caps
In November of 2017, the FHFA (a federal housing agency) announced that it was raising the “baseline” conforming loan limit used across the United States. This was done to keep pace with rising home values. The agency also stated it would increase loan limits in certain “higher-cost areas” where it was warranted. San Diego County was one of those higher-cost areas that got increased limits for 2017.
According to the agency’s news release:
“The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today announced that the maximum conforming loan limits for mortgages acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2017 will increase. In most of the country, the 2017 maximum loan limit for one-unit properties will be $424,100, an increase from $417,000. This will be the first increase in the baseline loan limit since 2006. In higher-cost areas, higher loan limits will be in effect.“
The 2017 loan limits for San Diego County were increased from 2016, for the reasons stated above. According to the real estate data company Zillow, home prices in the county rose by around 5% during 2016.
Prices rose even more within the city itself, according to the San Diego Association of Realtors (SDAR). In November 11, 2016, the local Realtor group reported that the median price of a single-family home had risen to $580,000 in October, a gain of 12% compared to a year before.
For these reasons, San Diego County will have higher loan limits in 2017 than in 2016. This means home buyers will have more properties to choose from, without crossing into “jumbo” mortgage territory.
Jumbo Mortgages Widely Available, Harder to Obtain
A conventional home loan is one that is not guaranteed or insured by the federal government. This distinguishes it from government-backed loans like FHA and VA.
When it comes to size, there are two kinds of conventional mortgage loans — conforming and jumbo. A conforming loan can be sold into the secondary mortgage market via Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. A jumbo loan cannot, because it exceeds the size limits for acquisition by Fannie and Freddie.
In short: When a conventional mortgage product exceeds the conforming loan limits shown in the table above, it is referred to as a jumbo loan.
Non-conforming jumbo mortgage loans are still widely available in San Diego County. But they are generally harder to obtain than the smaller conforming loans. That’s because there is more money being loaned, and therefore a higher level of risk. Mortgage lenders sometimes require larger down payments and higher credit scores for borrowers seeking a jumbo home loan in San Diego.
Disclaimer: This page contains FHA, VA and conforming loan limits for San Diego County in 2017. We make every effort to ensure the accuracy of the content we publish, and to guard against errors. Still, there is always a chance of human or computer error that could affect the accuracy of the information we report. As a result, we recommend that you visit the official source to verify current limits for the mortgage product you seek. Conforming loan limits can be verified on FHFA.gov. For VA loan information, visit VA.gov. For FHA-insured mortgage products, visit HUD.gov.