$832,750 is the largest conventional loan that stays conforming on a one-unit house in Montgomery County this year. That is the plain national baseline, not a local uplift, and it is the number that quietly decides how many Montgomery County buyers ever need to think about jumbo underwriting at all.
The 2026 limits
| Units | Montgomery County |
|---|---|
| 1 | $832,750 |
| 2 | $1,066,250 |
| 3 | $1,288,800 |
The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced these on 25 November 2025. The increase came from its house price index moving from 405.89713556 to 419.11864149 between the third quarters of 2024 and 2025 — a rise of 3.25735384%, published to eight decimal places in case the seventh mattered. Montgomery County’s row in the agency’s county file reads 42, 091, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA. Read 26 August 2026; the figures are usually restated in late November for the following year, and the lender confirms which set governs the loan.
Baseline, not high-cost, and it matters
Of 3,236 counties in the country, 164 carry limits above the baseline. In Pennsylvania exactly one does, and it is Pike County, holding a New York metro figure from an earlier rule. Every other county in the state, Montgomery included, sits at $832,750 for one unit.
People hear otherwise because FHA labels this metro limit type H, which in FHA’s vocabulary means only that its limit clears the national floor. Different agency, different word, same county. For conventional purposes there is no high-cost designation here.
What $832,750 actually covers here
More than the reputation of some of these townships suggests. Bryn Mawr’s median sale in July 2026 was $875,000. Twenty percent down on that is a $700,000 loan, which is conforming with $132,750 to spare. Lower Merion Township is not automatically jumbo country, and neither is Whitpain, Lower Gwynedd or Upper Dublin.
On the multi-unit side the room is larger still. A three-unit building at $1.2 million is inside the $1,288,800 ceiling. The lender still has its own view of rental income, reserves and occupancy, and none of that is set by the limit.
Under 20% equity a conventional loan carries private mortgage insurance, priced by the mortgage insurer and the lender against the specific file. No figure for it appears here, and no rate, payment or approval is offered anywhere on this site.
The monthly number is a local question
The loan size is federal. Everything under it is decided in this county, and mostly by the school district. Upper Merion Township totals about 36.60 mills; Cheltenham Township totals 73.48. The same house is taxed at roughly twice the rate two townships apart, and the reason Upper Merion’s school levy is only 25.03 mills is the King of Prussia commercial base carrying a share of it.
A mill is a dollar per thousand of assessed value, and assessed value in Montgomery County is a 1996 number. The Common Level Ratio factor for documents dated 1 July 2026 through 30 June 2027 is 3.36, so assessed value runs about market value divided by 3.36. The county’s own worked example puts a $556,546 house at a $171,193 assessment paying $935 to the county and $84 to the community college. Sixty-five mills in Norristown on a $250,000 house comes to roughly $4,840 a year, not the $16,250 the raw millage suggests.
The transfer tax does not vary at all. It is 2.000% at every address in the county — 1% state, 0.5% municipal, 0.5% school — customarily halved between buyer and seller, with both parties jointly and severally liable and the agreement of sale controlling who pays.
What to do next
Bring the price, the township and how much is going down. Call the line, or put it in the form and send it along, and a licensed Pennsylvania mortgage lender calls you back to check whether conventional is the shape that fits. If somebody has already told you the house is too expensive for a conforming loan, get that checked before you believe it.