The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has announced that the maximum conforming loan limits for mortgages acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will remain at existing levels in 2012, with the sole exception of a Connecticut county.
According to the FHFA, the maximum conforming loan limits for one-unit properties – which generally have applied to loans originated since Oct. 1 – are $417,000 in most locations, but are as high as $625,500 in certain high-cost areas in the contiguous U.S. For loans originated prior to October, the maximum loan limit was as high as $729,750 in the contiguous U.S.
The lone anomaly is Fairfield County, Conn., where the 2012 maximum loan limit for one-unit properties will increase from $575,000 to $601,450. The FHFA explained that while other counties also saw increases in home prices, Fairfield County was the only one for which the increase ultimately produced higher loan limits after other terms of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (e.g., the statutory ceiling and floor on loan limits) were taken into account.