The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has published a mortgagee letter announcing changes to the lending limits for mortgages and home equity conversion mortgages. The limits provide the maximum mortgagesallowed for FHA-insured transactions.
There are no changes, according to the release, to the low cost area and high cost area limits for Title II forward mortgages as referenced in Section II.A.2.a.ii of the FHA Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1 for 2016.
Loan limits did increase in 188 counties, ranging from $350 to $115,350. FHA has published a separate list of counties with loan limit increases. There are no jurisdictions with a decrease in loan limits from the 2015 levels, while loan limits are effective for case numbers assigned on or after Jan. 1, 2016.
Additionally, FHA announced HECM limits providing the 2016 maximum claims amounts for FHA-insured traditional HECM, HECM for purchase and HECM-to-HECM refinances. The HECM nationwide claim amount limitations for 2016 remains unchanged at $625,500 for all areas. These limits are applicable for case numbers assigned on or after Jan. 1, 2016.
For details on FHA’s 2016 maximum HECM loan limits, refer to Mortgagee Letter 2015-29.