FHA Mortgage Limits

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone, 

My fiance' and I are beginning the process of purchasing a home. We would like to get an FHA loan, so we can take advantage of the low downpayment.

My question/situation is this...

I used the Ginnie Mae affordability calculator that is linked to from the HUD website ( http://www.ginniemae.gov/2x_prequal/intro_results.asp ). When I enter in all our information, it limits our FHA loan to $201,810. For a conventional loan, it is $341,000. My fiance and I have a combined annual income of $91,600 with very little debt.

So here is my question, why is it limiting the FHA estimate to $201,810? I even entered in all kinds of different numbers and it always put that as the limit.

I thought the FHA mortgage limit for where i want to purchase is $287,500 (St. Charles Parish, LA). Is this correct?

I just want to make sure, b/c I don't want to get a shocker when I am told that I have to find a house for $86,000 less than I expected. 

[Anonymous]

I would trust the $287k for the limit in that area. It may be something else bringing it down to $201k though. Have you tried some of the other online calcs for comparison?

[Anonymous]

I don't know of any other online calculators that show FHA limits. Do you? 

I actually went ahead and entered some random state and county and it gave me the same limit, so it must be something weird causing that amount to show up.

[Anonymous]

Oh sorry i meant DTI calcs. That's what will determine your true eligibility amount

[salsa34]

I did those online calculators before I applied and they were way low. we have similar income to you, however, I am on the loan by myself, so only my 45k income was used, very very low DTI and I was preapproved FHA for 240k.  The house I am buying is 205k.  So, see a loan officer before you get too stressed about online numbers.

Message Edited by salsa34 on 06-24-2009 08:15 AM

[Anonymous]

I am not worried about how much we will get approved for. I am sure we qualify for what we would need.
 
My concern is over the FHA limit that the calculator was giving me. I just wanted to make sure that I was looking at the correct FHA loan limit for my area.  If it was just some website’s calculator, I wouldn’t be concerned, but since it was Ginnie Mae it made me question the limits.

[DallasLoanGuy]

apply. 

automated underwriting will accept higher dti than the publishe ratios.

so that is the only way to know what you qualify for

[Anonymous]

i found the ginnie mae calculator to be very, very low. ridiculously low.

it said i'd be approved for an fha loan up to $362000 when all the LOs i've spoken to told me around $550K (of course i'm purchasing nowhere near that though!)

on your income i'd say you could be approved for much more so just give a call to a reliable LO. they could tell you right away what you're potentially eligible for.