San Diego FHA Loans - Buy Up to About $1.14M with 3.5% Down

For 2026, the FHA loan limit in San Diego County is $1,104,000 for a single-family home. That's up from $1,077,550 in 2025. It lets you finance a home priced up to about $1.14 million with 3.5% down. Note that this is a San Diego County figure and it's different from LA County's, so always confirm the limit for the county the property actually sits in.

FHA requires 3.5% down with a credit score of 580 or higher. On a $737,000 downtown San Diego condo that's $25,795, and on a $782,000 Southern San Diego home it's $27,370. 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 buyers in a market this expensive.

You can qualify for an FHA loan in San Diego with a score as low as 580 for the 3.5%-down option, or 500 to 579 with 10% down. Your score also drives your rate and your mortgage insurance cost, not just approval. For buyers in the low 600s, FHA is often cheaper than a conventional loan at the same score, which is a big reason it's popular here. If yours is on the edge, let's talk before you apply.

Yes, and in San Diego this is where FHA buyers spend most of their time, since condos are the affordable entry point. Two things have to check out. The building needs to be FHA-approved, or your unit needs FHA single-unit approval. And because a lot of older San Diego condos are under HOA pressure right now, FHA will look hard at the HOA's budget, reserves, and any special assessments. I check both the approval status and the HOA's financial health before you commit, so an approval problem or a looming assessment doesn't blow up your deal late.

On a standard 3.5%-down FHA loan, the annual mortgage insurance premium stays for the life of the loan. It doesn't drop off automatically. Most San Diego buyers get rid of it by refinancing into a conventional loan once they've built enough equity. If you put 10% or more down on FHA, the premium can fall off after 11 years instead.

It depends on your credit, your down payment, and whether you've served in the military. FHA usually wins for buyers with scores under about 680 or thin savings. Conventional often wins at 700-plus credit with 10% or more down, because you can drop mortgage insurance at 20% equity. And if you're a veteran or active-duty, a VA loan usually beats both. I run all of them side by side on your actual numbers so you choose on math, not on a rule of thumb.

Plan for roughly 2% to 5% of the purchase price in closing costs, so on a $900,000 San Diego home that's about $18,000 to $45,000, 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 San Diego's more balanced 2026 market I can often structure that concession into the offer to lower your out-of-pocket cost.

Usually not at those price points. FHA in San Diego caps out at a $1,104,000 loan, and homes in La Jolla, Del Mar, Carmel Valley, Encinitas, and Carlsbad typically sell well above that. If you're set on a coastal or North County home just over the line, you have two paths: put more down to bring the loan under the FHA cap, or move to a conventional or jumbo loan. FHA fits the rest of the city comfortably, so a lot of it comes down to which neighborhood you're targeting.

Yes. FHA is the loan most often paired with down payment assistance in San Diego. California's CalHFA MyHome program can layer a deferred second loan on top of an FHA first mortgage to help cover your down payment, and there are other assistance programs that work with FHA depending on your credit and income. These have their own minimums and income limits, so let's look at what you've got saved and what you'd actually qualify for.

Yes, and it's one of the smartest and most underused FHA moves in San Diego. 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 and count most of the projected rent toward qualifying. The 2026 FHA multi-unit limits in San Diego County are much higher than the single-family cap, running from roughly $1.4 million for a duplex up to around $2.1 million for a fourplex. North Park and City Heights have real small-multi stock, so if house-hacking interests you, let's map out what you'd qualify for. (Confirm the exact multi-unit figure for your target property at pre-approval, since HUD can adjust limits mid-cycle.)