Fannie Mae Announces 2006 Conforming Loan Limit of $417,000

Fannie Mae today announced that it will apply new conforming loan limits, as determined by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) based on federal data on mean (average) home prices, to increase its single-family mortgage loan limit to $417,000 for 2006.

As a result of the new loan limit, Fannie Mae estimates that in 2006, as many as an additional 466,326 homeowners would be eligible for a conforming loan.

Conforming loan limits may adjust annually. The conforming loan limits adjustments are based on the October-to-October changes in the mean (average) home price, as published by the Federal Housing Finance Board (FHFB). The FHFB figures come from its monthly survey of lenders. Both new and existing homes are included in the survey.

Limits for multi-unit loans for 2006 will be as follows: two-family loans $533,850, three-family loans $645,300, and four-family loans $801,950. The 2006 loan limit for second mortgages will be $208,500.

The maximum amounts for one-to-four-family mortgages and second mortgages in Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands are 50 percent higher than the limits for the rest of the country.

Most loans Fannie Mae purchases are well below the conforming limit. The average loan size for single-family properties in the first three quarters of 2005 is about $172,000.