VA County Loan Limits Are Changing in 2026—Here’s What You Need to Know

VA county loan limits are changing in 2026, and today we’re going to cover two things:

1. What the new loan limits are.

2. Why they often don’t matter for VA borrowers.

Let’s dive in.

What Are the New VA County Loan Limits?

For most areas of the country, the standard county loan limit is expected to increase from $806,500 to approximately $819,000 in 2026.

These numbers are anticipated based on current projections and should be officially announced in November. If you’re watching this after the official announcement, just know we’re expecting the standard limit to be around $819,000.

For high-cost areas—such as Alaska, Hawaii, parts of California like Los Angeles and San Francisco, portions of the Washington, D.C. metro area, some areas of Florida, and higher-cost regions of Colorado—the loan limit is expected to increase from $1,209,750 to approximately $1,228,500.

Overall, we’re expecting another increase in VA county loan limits. While it isn’t as large as some of the increases we’ve seen in recent years, it’s still a meaningful adjustment.

Why Loan Limits Often Don’t Matter on a VA Loan

Now let’s talk about the part that surprises a lot of people.

For many VA borrowers, these loan limits don’t actually matter.

Why?

Because beginning in 2020, VA loan rules changed. Today, county loan limits only affect borrowers who have remaining VA entitlement tied up in another active VA loan.

So what does that mean?

If you don’t currently have an outstanding VA loan—or you have one but you’re selling that home before purchasing your next one—you can typically finance 100% of the purchase price, regardless of the county loan limit.

We’ve helped borrowers obtain VA loans for $1 million, $2 million, and even $3 million, all with zero down, because they had full VA entitlement available.

When County Loan Limits Do Matter

County loan limits become important when you’re planning to keep your existing VA loan while purchasing another home with a new VA loan.

Here’s the basic concept.

Take the county loan limit for the county where you’re buying your new home and subtract the original loan balance of the VA loan you’re keeping.

That remaining amount represents your available zero-down VA entitlement.

For example:

Let’s say your Certificate of Eligibility shows you have an existing VA loan with an original loan amount of $300,000.

Now you’re buying in a county where the 2026 loan limit is $819,000.

A simplified calculation would be:

$819,000 − $300,000 = approximately $519,000

That means you’d have roughly $519,000 in remaining zero-down VA eligibility.

Now, there is a little more math involved than that, especially from an underwriting standpoint, but that’s the basic concept and an easy way to understand how county loan limits work when you have an existing VA loan.

The Bottom Line

If you have full VA entitlement because you don’t have another active VA loan—or you’re selling your current home before buying the next one—you generally don’t need to worry about county loan limits at all.

If you’re keeping an existing VA loan and purchasing another home with your remaining entitlement, county loan limits become an important part of determining how much you can finance with no down payment.

I hope this helped explain how the 2026 VA county loan limits work and when they actually matter.

My name is Evan Kaufman.

Take care.