Limits & Programs · 6 min read
Two numbers decide the structure of your Texas mortgage, and most buyers conflate them. The conforming limit is uniform statewide. The FHA limit is lower and varies by metro. Here's both, and what they mean for your purchase.
Written and reviewed by Jonathan Sarver, Licensed Mortgage Loan Officer · NMLS #993872
Last updated July 23, 2026
Key takeaways
For 2026 the conforming loan limit is $832,750 for a one-unit property in every Texas county.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency sets this limit annually. It's the ceiling for loans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will back, and staying under it generally means better pricing and more straightforward underwriting.
Here's the part that surprises people, including some lenders: certain high-cost areas of the country get limits well above the baseline — parts of California, New York, Hawaii. Texas has none. Not Austin, not Dallas, not the priciest zip code in the state. Every Texas county uses the $832,750 baseline.
That makes the jumbo threshold refreshingly simple here. One number, statewide, no county lookup needed.
A common misconception
You may hear that Austin or Dallas has an 'elevated' conforming limit because of home prices. For 2026, that isn't correct — the conforming limit is the same $832,750 in Travis County as it is in the Panhandle.
FHA sets separate, lower county limits — from $541,287 at the Texas floor to $571,550 in the Austin metro.
FHA operates its own limit structure, and this is where county actually matters. The floor is calculated as 65% of the conforming baseline, which for 2026 puts it at $541,287. Metro areas with higher home values sit above that floor.
The gap between conforming and FHA is wide — nearly $300,000 in most of Texas. That means plenty of homes are financeable conventionally but sit above the FHA ceiling, which is a structural decision point rather than a detail.
2026 FHA one-unit limits — selected Texas metros
| Metro / counties | FHA limit |
|---|---|
| Austin metro — Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, Caldwell | $571,550 |
| Dallas–Fort Worth — Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, Denton and others | $563,500 |
| San Antonio metro — Bexar, Comal and others | $557,750 |
| Houston metro — Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery, Waller | $541,287 |
| Most other Texas counties (the floor) | $541,287 |
HUD publishes limits annually. Confirm the current figure for your specific county before making an offer.
Your price relative to these two numbers determines your loan structure, documentation depth, and reserve requirements.
Think of it as three tiers rather than a sliding scale.
Because FHA limits vary by metro while the conforming limit doesn't, an identical price can qualify for FHA in Austin but not in Houston.
Take a $560,000 purchase. In the Austin metro, that sits under the $571,550 FHA limit, so FHA financing with 3.5% down is available. In the Houston metro, where the FHA limit is $541,287, the same price exceeds it — FHA is off the table and you're looking at conventional.
Meanwhile, both purchases are comfortably conventional and neither is jumbo, because $832,750 applies equally. Same house, same price, different set of available programs, purely because of geography.
Both conforming and FHA limits are recalculated annually and typically announced late in the preceding year.
Limits track home price movement, and in recent years they have risen. Any article, calculator, or lender quoting a limit from a prior year is giving you a stale number, which matters most for purchases sitting near a threshold.
If your price is within a few thousand dollars of a limit, confirm the current figure directly rather than relying on a secondhand source — including this page, which we date and update.
$832,750 for a one-unit property, and it applies to every county in Texas. No Texas county qualifies as a high-cost area for 2026, so unlike states such as California or New York, the jumbo threshold is uniform statewide.
Not for conforming purposes. Despite Austin's home prices, Travis County uses the same $832,750 baseline as the rest of Texas. Austin does have an elevated FHA limit — $571,550 versus the $541,287 Texas floor — but that's a separate program with its own structure.
It depends on your metro. The Austin metro is $571,550, Dallas–Fort Worth $563,500, San Antonio $557,750, and Houston along with most other Texas counties sits at the $541,287 floor. HUD publishes these annually, so confirm the current figure for your county before making an offer.
When the loan amount exceeds $832,750 for a one-unit property. Because that limit is uniform across Texas, the jumbo threshold is the same whether you're buying in Lakeway, Houston, or El Paso.
They serve different purposes. FHA is designed to support moderate-priced homeownership, so its limits are calculated as a percentage of the conforming baseline — the floor is 65% of it. Conventional conforming loans serve a broader market and carry a higher ceiling. In most of Texas the gap is close to $300,000.
Jonathan Sarver
Licensed Mortgage Loan Officer · NMLS #993872 · Licensed in Texas
Hill Country Mortgages, Lakeway TX. In mortgages since 2012. Questions about how this applies to your situation? Get in touch.
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