Long Beach FHA Loans - Buy a Home Here with as Little as 3.5% Down

For 2026, the FHA loan limit in Long Beach (LA County) is $1,249,125 for a single-family home. That's the high-cost ceiling, and it's well above the roughly $879,000 citywide median, so an FHA loan reaches every neighborhood in Long Beach. Limits are higher for 2-to-4-unit properties.

FHA requires 3.5% down with a credit score of 580 or higher. On a $660,000 Central Long Beach home that's $23,100, and on a $705,000 North Long Beach home it's $24,675. If your score is between 500 and 579, the minimum is 10% down. The money can also come as a gift from family, which helps a lot of first-time buyers in this market.

You can qualify for an FHA loan in Long Beach with a score as low as 580 for the 3.5%-down option, or 500 to 579 if you put 10% down. Score matters for your rate too, not just approval, so if yours is on the edge, let's talk before you apply. A few weeks of cleanup can change your pricing more than people expect.

Yes, but the condo has to clear one extra step. The building needs to be on FHA's approved list, or your specific unit needs FHA single-unit approval. A lot of Long Beach's condo stock, especially the older buildings downtown, near Alamitos Beach, and in Belmont Shore, isn't automatically approved. I check the FHA approval status before you fall in love with a place, so you don't waste an offer on a unit that can't be financed the way you planned.

On a standard 3.5%-down FHA loan, the annual mortgage insurance premium stays for the life of the loan. It doesn't fall off on its own. The way most Long Beach buyers get rid of it is by refinancing into a conventional loan once they've built enough equity, often within a few years given how prices move here. If you put 10% or more down on FHA, the premium can drop after 11 years.

It depends on your credit and your down payment. FHA usually wins for buyers with scores under about 680 or thin savings, because it's more forgiving and cheaper to get into. Conventional often wins at 700-plus credit with 10% or more down, because you can drop mortgage insurance at 20% equity and avoid FHA's life-of-loan premium. I run both side by side on your actual numbers so you're choosing on math, not on a rule of thumb.

Plan for roughly 2% to 5% of the purchase price in closing costs, so on a $700,000 Long Beach home that's about $14,000 to $25,000, separate from your down payment. That covers lender fees, title, escrow, appraisal, and prepaid taxes and insurance. FHA lets the seller cover up to 6% of the price toward your closing costs, and in a lot of Long Beach deals I can structure that into the offer to lower what you bring to the table.

Yes, FHA offers close in Long Beach all the time, but presentation matters in a competitive market with older housing stock. Some listing agents are wary of FHA appraisals on 1920s and 1930s homes that may need repairs. The fix is a strong, clean offer and a lender who picks up the phone and reassures the listing agent that your file is solid. That's a big part of what I do for my buyers, and it's often the difference between an accepted FHA offer and a rejected one.

Yes. FHA is one of the most first-time-buyer-friendly loans in Long Beach, and it allows your entire down payment to come from a gift from a family member. You can also pair FHA with California down payment assistance programs like CalHFA MyHome to cut your out-of-pocket cost even further. Let's look at what you've got saved and what help is available, then build a plan around it.

Yes, and this is one of the most underused FHA moves in Long Beach. You can buy a 2-to-4-unit property with 3.5% down as long as you live in one unit as your primary residence, then rent the others to help cover the mortgage. The 2026 FHA limits in LA County are higher for multi-unit: around $1,599,375 for a duplex, $1,933,200 for a triplex, and $2,402,625 for a fourplex. Long Beach has real small-multi stock in the older neighborhoods, so if house-hacking interests you, let's map out what you'd qualify for.