The 2001 single family loan limit for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be $275,000 up from this year's $252,700. The Federal Housing Finance Board today announced the results of its monthly interest rate survey for October 2000, which includes the average one-house sale price for October, the statutory index for calculating the conforming loan limits. The October 2000 one-house price index is $200,800 up from last year’s $184,500.

This year’s loan limits involve a straight calculation based on the statutory formula, which looks at the October to October change in the home price index. Complexity has arisen in the past when the index has declined.

The other 2001 conforming loan limits are:

Under the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Charter Acts, the loan limits are 50% higher for first mortgages in Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The base FHA loan limit is indexed at 48% of the conforming loan limit and will be $132,000 in 2001, up from this year’s $121,296. The maximum FHA one-family loan limit for "high cost" areas, indexed at 87% of the conforming loan limit, will increase to $239,250 in 2001, up from this year’s limit of $219,849. The 2001 FHA loan limits for two, three and four family properties will be:

Please be cautioned that all the areas at the current FHA maximum high cost limit of $219,849 will not automatically go to the new maximum of $239,250. HUD uses its own internal data to determine the new mortgage limits for the various high cost areas and we will not know the specific limits for each high cost area until they are published in a Mortgagee Letter. In addition, in Alaska, Guam, Hawaii and the Virgin Islands, HUD may establish limits as much as 50% higher than the high cost limits stated above. HUD expects to publish a Mortgagee Letter on around January 1, 2001 with a complete listing of all areas with high cost limits and these new limits will go into effect at that time.

The VA loan limit is set independently of the conforming loan limits and remains at the current level.