VA loan limits 2026 by county

A VA loan guaranty protects the lender. With full entitlement, VA guarantees up to 25 percent of the loan amount for loans above $144,000, so no county limit applies; the lender sets the amount it will lend. A veteran who has used entitlement and not restored it (by selling the home or paying off the loan) has remaining entitlement, and the county limit enters the calculation.

VA's steps: take the county's one-unit conforming limit, multiply by 0.25, and subtract the entitlement already charged (shown on the Certificate of Eligibility). In a $832,750 county with $50,000 charged: $208,187.50 minus $50,000 = $158,187.50. Many lenders lend up to four times the remaining entitlement without a down payment: $632,750. Borrowing more usually means a down payment.

Each year FHFA moves the baseline by the change in its house price index between third quarters (3.26 percent for 2026). Where 115 percent of an area's median home value exceeds the baseline, every county of that metropolitan area gets the higher figure, capped at 150 percent of the baseline. Limits never go down: after a price decline the baseline is frozen until the loss is made up. FHFA announces at the end of November; the new limits apply on January 1.