FHA accepted appeals for those counties where it did not already have a comprehensive listing of property sale transactions for the look-back period (January – August 2008), and where the median price from the transactions provided by the appellant was higher than the median price used in the preliminary loan-limit calculations completed by FHA last month. There were no changes to the 2009 HECM loan limits from these appeals. The HECM loan limit is the national conforming loan limit of $417,000 for all areas except for certain high-cost counties in the special exception areas listed in the National Housing Act (Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, Virgin Islands).

A complete schedule of FHA mortgage limits for all areas is available through the internet at https://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/hicostlook.cfm

The mortgage limits described in this notice are effective for those loans which have credit approval on or after January 1, 2009, and apply to mortgages insured under the following Sections of the National Housing Act:  Sections 203(b) (FHA’s basic 1-4 family mortgage insurance program), 203(h) (mortgages for disaster victims), 203(k) (rehabilitation mortgage insurance), Section 255 (Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECM)) and 234(c) (condominium units).  There will be no further appeals of FHA loan limits for 2009.

Source: HUD