Florida jumbo loans: the 2026 limit and what changes above it

Your mast, their bridge

The listing has a dock. An actual dock, with a boat lift and a sunset that looks filtered even when it isn't. You've already pictured coffee out there. Then you ran the numbers, and a word you'd only ever seen on a seafood menu came up: jumbo. (In Florida, that could mean the shrimp or the mortgage. Today it's the mortgage.)

Here's what it means. Every year the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA, the agency that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) sets the largest loan those two will buy from lenders. A loan at or under that size is "conforming." A loan even a dollar over it is a jumbo mortgage.

Picture one of those drawbridges along the Intracoastal. If your mast clears it, you motor right under, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's shared rulebook is your channel. If your mast is too tall, the bridge has to open, and now you're on the bridge tender's schedule. With a jumbo, the bridge tender is the lender (or the investor who buys the loan), and each one writes its own rules.

That's not bad news. Big boats go through those bridges all day. It just means a few things work differently, and it pays to have someone who knows the tenders.

1. Conforming limit

Up to $832,750 for a one-unit home in most Florida counties in 2026.

2. The Keys

Monroe County's one-unit limit is higher, at $990,150.

3. Lender's rules

Above the limit, each lender sets its own down payment, credit and savings rules.

How tall is the bridge in your county?

For 2026, FHFA set the conforming limit for a one-unit home at $832,750, up $26,250 from 2025. That's the bridge height in 66 of Florida's 67 counties, from Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach to Orange, Hillsborough, Duval and Collier.

The one exception is Monroe County, the Keys, which FHFA treats as a high-cost area. Down there, the bridge is taller (fitting, for a county that's mostly bridges):

Now the part that trips people up. These limits are for the loan, not the price.

Take a $1,000,000 home in Broward. Put 20% down and the loan is $800,000. You clear the bridge. Put 10% down and the loan is $900,000. The bridge opens.

Same house. Same price. Different trip.

One more Keys quirk: in Monroe, a loan between $832,750 and $990,150 is still conforming. You'll hear it called "high-balance," and it follows Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's rules, not jumbo rules.

On the bridge tender's schedule

Because each lender writes its own jumbo rules, there's no single answer. But when we read the jumbo guidelines several lenders publish, the same themes kept surfacing. Consider it the bridge tender's checklist:

• Down payment: many jumbo programs top out at 80% of the price, which means 20% down. A few go as low as 10% down on a primary home for strong borrowers. (Reasonable.)
• Credit: many programs start around a 680 credit score, and higher scores open up bigger loans and smaller down payments. (Fair enough.)
• Savings: lenders commonly want reserves, money left in the bank after closing, of about six to 12 months of house payments, and more as the loan grows. (Okay, that's a lot of months.)
• Appraisals: above a loan of about $2,000,000, lenders commonly ask for two full appraisals instead of one. (Two strangers with clipboards, admiring your crown molding.)
• Paperwork: income and assets get a closer look, often with full tax returns and bank statements. (Naturally.)

Take a breath. These are starting points, not a test you pass or fail. Your income, your savings and the property all shift what fits. And remember your cash to close covers more than the down payment; Florida closing costs walks through the rest.

Lower the mast, or split the load

A jumbo can be a great fit. But if your mast barely brushes the bridge, it's worth asking whether you could clear it instead. Two options come up a lot:

• Lower the mast. On a $1,000,000 home in most of Florida, a down payment of $167,250 brings the loan to $832,750, right at the limit.
• Split the load. A "piggyback" keeps the first loan at or under the limit and adds a separate second loan for part of the gap. With 10% down on that same $1,000,000 home, the first loan could be $832,750 and the second $67,250.

Here's an opinion you're free to argue with: squeezing under the limit just to say you did isn't always the smart move. Sometimes keeping more cash in the bank beats a smaller loan, and sometimes one loan is cleaner than two.

Condos on the water, homes for winter, places that pay rent

A lot of Florida's priciest homes aren't anyone's year-round address. Each kind brings its own wrinkle:

• Condos: a high-rise condo gets two reviews, yours and the building's. Florida condo mortgages explains what the building review checks.
• Second homes: many jumbo programs lend on second homes too, sometimes with different down payment or credit rules than for a home you live in. (Snowbirds, this one's for you.)
• Rentals: if the home will earn rent, a loan built around the property's income may fit better. See DSCR loans in Florida.

Most people who end up near the jumbo line didn't plan to. They fell for a dock, or a view, or a school zone, and suddenly the math got serious and the rules got fuzzy. That's the moment people tend to go quiet and guess. It's the worst moment to guess, and the best one to ask.

Nobody should find out how tall the bridge was after they've already hit it.

So bring your price and your down payment to a call. Then you'll know before you cast off whether you're sailing under, waiting for the bridge to open, or finding a smarter channel.