VA Loan Limits 2026 by County (and Who Has No Limit)

If you have full VA entitlement, you have no VA loan limit in 2026. VA's loan limits page says so directly: "You don't have a loan limit (as long as you can afford the loan amount and the property appraisal supports the purchase price of the home)." The county VA loan limits for 2026, $832,750 in most of the country, with a high-cost ceiling of $1,249,125 (two Hawaii counties go higher, at $1,299,500), come into play only when part of your entitlement is already used. Even then, the county limit is only the starting point: your $0-down figure is the county limit minus four times the entitlement you've used. It is not the most you can borrow.

Is there a VA loan limit in 2026?

For a veteran with full entitlement, no. VA's loan limits page walks through what a Certificate of Eligibility means: a basic entitlement of $36,000 means "You have full entitlement" and "You don't have a loan limit." The page adds that "for a loan that's more than $144,000, we guarantee to your lender that we'll pay up to 25% of the loan amount." The guaranty grows with the loan instead of stopping at a county figure.

Two ceilings still apply, and neither one is a county limit:

• The property's value. "The maximum VA loan on an individual property is either the appraised value of the property or the purchase price, whichever is lower."
• Your lender. Full entitlement doesn't mean any size loan. VA says your lender "will still need to approve you for a loan," sizing it on your credit history, income, debts and assets.

If you're shopping above the conforming line, the VA jumbo loan guide covers how lenders treat those larger loans.

What changed on January 1, 2020

The county limit used to cap the guaranty for everyone. Before 2020, 38 U.S.C. § 3703 set the guaranty on a loan over $144,000 at the lesser of a "maximum guaranty amount" or 25 percent of the loan, and it defined that maximum as 25 percent of the Freddie Mac conforming loan limit for a single-family residence. Above the county limit, a bigger loan did not get a bigger guaranty.

The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019 (Public Law 116-23, approved June 25, 2019) struck that language in section 6(a), headed "Adjustment of loan limit." The statute now treats two groups differently:

• A veteran who is not a "covered veteran" gets a maximum guaranty entitlement of "25 percent of the loan." No county figure appears in that clause.
• A "covered veteran" is one "who has previously used entitlement under this chapter and for whom the full amount of entitlement so used has not been restored…" That veteran's maximum is "25 percent of the Freddie Mac conforming loan limit, reduced by the amount of entitlement previously used by the veteran under this chapter and not restored…"

Section 6(d) of the Act applies the change to loans guaranteed "on or after January 1, 2020." So if you've read that the county limit is the most VA will back, that was the rule for everyone before 2020; since then it applies only to veterans whose used entitlement hasn't been restored. How used entitlement gets restored is covered in how many times you can use a VA loan.

VA county loan limits 2026: the numbers

VA points you to FHFA for the numbers. Its loan limits page says "VA home loan limits are the same as the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) limits," and FHFA announced the 2026 values on November 25, 2025. The baseline went up $26,250 from 2025, matching the 3.26 percent average rise in U.S. house prices FHFA measured between the third quarters of 2024 and 2025. The counts below come from FHFA's full 2026 county list.

The "25% of the limit" column is the starting point of VA's partial-entitlement math, before you subtract anything you've already used. With full entitlement, none of this table caps you.

High-cost counties at a glance

A sample of counties above the baseline, from the highest down:

2026 VA loan limits by state

Across the 50 states, 31 have every county at $832,750. Of the other 19, 17 states plus the District of Columbia have at least one county above the baseline, and every county in Alaska and Hawaii starts at $1,249,125. Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands are at the baseline throughout.

VA loan limits in Texas

All 254 Texas counties are at $832,750 for 2026, including Harris, Bexar, Travis, Dallas, Tarrant, Bell and El Paso. Texas has no high-cost county in FHFA's list, so a Texas buyer with partial entitlement starts from $208,187.50 wherever they buy. More on buying there: VA loans in Texas.

Florida VA loan limits by county

Sixty-six of Florida's 67 counties are at $832,750. The one exception is Monroe County, at $990,150. Miami-Dade, Broward, Duval, Hillsborough, Escambia and Okaloosa are all at the baseline. See VA loans in Florida.

California

Of California's 58 counties, 17 are above the baseline:

• $1,249,125: Alameda, Contra Costa, Los Angeles, Marin, Orange, San Benito, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz
• $1,104,000: San Diego
• $1,035,000: Ventura
• $1,017,750: Napa
• $1,000,500: San Luis Obispo
• $994,750: Monterey
• $941,850: Santa Barbara
• $897,000: Sonoma

The other 41 counties are at $832,750. See VA loans in California.

Virginia

FHFA lists Virginia's independent cities separately, so the state has 133 entries. Eighteen are above the baseline. Seventeen sit at the $1,249,125 ceiling: Arlington, Clarke, Culpeper, Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun, Prince William, Rappahannock, Spotsylvania, Stafford and Warren counties, plus the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Fredericksburg, Manassas and Manassas Park. Madison County is at $1,209,750. Virginia Beach and Norfolk are at the baseline.

North Carolina and Georgia

All 100 North Carolina counties and all 159 Georgia counties are at $832,750 for 2026.

How the math works with partial entitlement

This section applies only if some of your entitlement is still charged to an earlier VA loan. VA's page puts it this way: if you don't have full entitlement, "your remaining bonus entitlement is based on the county loan limit where you plan to buy or refinance a home, minus the amount of your entitlement you've already used."

VA's steps, in order:

1. Find the entitlement you've already used. On your COE it's in the table called "Prior Loans charged to entitlement," in the Entitlement Charged column.
2. Look up the One-Unit Limit for the county where the property is located.
3. Multiply that limit by 0.25.
4. Subtract step 1 from step 3. What's left is your remaining bonus entitlement.
5. Multiply it by 4. VA calls that "the maximum amount most lenders would be willing to loan you without your needing to make a down payment."

Worked example: $80,000 of entitlement already used

Say your COE shows $80,000 in the Entitlement Charged column.

• Baseline county ($832,750): $832,750 × 0.25 = $208,187.50. Minus $80,000 leaves $128,187.50. Times 4 is $512,750 with $0 down.
• Ceiling county ($1,249,125): $1,249,125 × 0.25 = $312,281.25. Minus $80,000 leaves $232,281.25. Times 4 is $929,125 with $0 down.

There's a shortcut: the $0-down figure is the county limit minus four times the entitlement you've used. Here that's the county limit minus $320,000, which gives the same $512,750 and $929,125.

Going past the $0-down figure

The $0-down number is not a wall. VA says that "if you're able and willing to make a down payment, you may be able to borrow more than the county loan limit," and that "most lenders require that your entitlement, down payment, or a combination of both covers at least 25% of your total loan amount."

Keep the same veteran and buy a $700,000 home in a baseline county, with an appraisal at or above the price. Most lenders measure that 25% against the purchase price or appraised value, whichever is less — that is how Ginnie Mae's pooling rules for VA loans state it — so 25% of $700,000 is $175,000. Your $128,187.50 of remaining entitlement covers part of it, which leaves about $46,812.50 to bring as a down payment. A quick way to get there: take 25% of the gap between the price and your $0-down figure, here 25% × $187,250.

The same $700,000 home in Monroe County, Florida, where the $0-down figure is $670,150, needs about $7,462.50 down on that math. In a ceiling county such as Fairfax, Virginia, the $0-down figure of $929,125 is above the price, so the 25% test is met with nothing down.

If the appraisal comes in below the price, you also bring the difference in cash. These examples leave out the VA funding fee and closing costs, and the 25% test is what VA says most lenders require, so ask your lender how it applies it to your file.

Already used your VA benefit once?

A VA-experienced specialist can run your county's number against your COE and show whether you'd need anything down.

Run my numbers

How to look up your county's 2026 limit

1. Start with our county loan limit lookup. For the official figure on any county, FHFA's 2026 list is the source.
2. Use the county where the property is, not where you live now. VA's instruction is to check "the property's county loan limit."
3. Read the One-Unit column only, whatever the number of units.
4. Mind FHFA's naming. Virginia's independent cities are separate rows (Alexandria City, Fairfax City and so on). Connecticut is listed by planning region, such as Greater Bridgeport Planning Region, rather than by county.
5. Confirm what your COE shows. If your basic entitlement is $36,000, VA says you have full entitlement and none of this applies. Our COE guide explains how to read it.

Bottom line

With full entitlement there is no VA loan limit. Your loan is capped by the appraisal or the price, whichever is lower, and by what a lender approves. County limits matter only when some entitlement is still in use. In that case, take 25% of your county's One-Unit Limit, subtract what you've used, and multiply by 4 to find your $0-down ceiling. For 2026 that county limit is $832,750 across Texas, North Carolina and Georgia, $990,150 in Florida's Monroe County, $1,249,125 in 10 California counties and 17 Virginia counties and cities, and $1,299,500 in Maui and Kalawao, Hawaii.

VeteranHomeMatch is a referral service, not a lender. To find out which side of the entitlement line you're on and what that means in your county, take the 2-minute eligibility check.