Clark County — Clark County and the Portland-Vancouver metro area will see significant loosening of Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance limits. Starting Jan. 1, the maximum amount of money people can borrow for a single-family homes jumps from $368,000 to $408,250 — nearly an 11 percent increase.
“What we have done is, essentially, increased the inventory of homes from which a borrower or buyer who wants to use an FHA loan can choose,” said Leland Jones with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Nationally, the limits increased marginally, Jones said. But metro areas with hot housing markets such as Seattle and Portland will see more dramatic increases in 2017.
Since FHA loans began during the New Deal, FHA has endorsed 66,591 mortgages in Clark County, valued at $9.1 billion. The 11,635 active FHA mortgages are valued $2.4 billion. There are no income limits on FHA loans, which are used by many first-time homebuyers.
