FHA vs. Conventional in Florida 2026: Why Your County Decides Both Loan Limits

In most states, one FHA number and one conforming number cover the whole map. Florida is not most states. Buy in Miami-Dade and your FHA ceiling is one number; buy an hour away in a rural county and it drops by more than $100,000. Here is the version I give clients, with the county-level detail most national articles skip.

The difference that actually decides it

Both loans charge you for mortgage insurance when you put down less than 20%. The difference is how long you pay it.

On a conventional loan, private mortgage insurance comes off. You can request cancellation once your balance is scheduled to reach 80% of the original value, and your servicer must terminate it automatically at 78% — provided you are current on payments. It is a temporary cost with a built-in end date.

On an FHA loan, it depends on your down payment, and the threshold is 90% loan-to-value:

• Put down 10% or more, and annual mortgage insurance premium drops off after 11 years.
• Put down less than 10%, and MIP stays for the life of the loan.

A standard FHA purchase with 3.5% down is 96.5% LTV. That is well above the threshold, so the MIP never comes off. On a 30-year loan, you pay it for 30 years.

That is the whole ballgame. Everything else is a detail by comparison.

What each one costs

FHA charges an upfront mortgage insurance premium of 1.75% of the base loan amount, typically financed into the loan rather than paid in cash. Then an annual premium of 0.55% at the 3.5%-down tier, or 0.50% if you put down 10% or more and take the 11-year clock — for base loan amounts at or below $726,200. Above that figure, both rates step up by 0.20 points, to 0.75% and 0.70% respectively. That threshold matters in Florida in a way it does not in most states — more on that below.

Conventional PMI has no upfront fee. The monthly cost varies with your credit score and down payment — better credit buys meaningfully cheaper coverage, which is not how FHA works. FHA MIP is the same rate whether your score is 580 or 780.

That last point is worth sitting with. If your credit is strong, conventional almost always costs less. FHA does not reward you for a good score. Conventional does.

Where FHA is still the better loan

I am not talking anyone out of FHA. It exists for good reasons and it is the right answer often.

Credit below 620. HUD allows FHA at a 580 score with 3.5% down, and between 500 and 579 with 10% down. Conventional generally starts at 620. Note that HUD's 580 is a floor, not a promise; most lenders apply their own overlay, commonly in the 600 to 640 range.

Debt-to-income that runs high. FHA is generally more forgiving on DTI than conventional.

Recent credit events. Bankruptcy, foreclosure, collections — FHA's seasoning requirements are typically shorter and its underwriting more tolerant of a rough patch that has since been fixed.

Manual underwriting. When a file does not fit an automated box, FHA has a documented path for a human to make the call. Conventional has less room.

Where conventional wins

The insurance ends. Covered above, and it is the biggest one.

Three percent down is real. You do not need 5% and you certainly do not need 20%. Standard conventional allows 3% down on a one-unit primary residence — but at least one borrower has to be a first-time buyer, and the loan has to be a fixed-rate mortgage. Repeat buyers on standard conventional are held to 5% down.

Income-based programs go further. Fannie Mae's HomeReady and Freddie Mac's Home Possible both allow 3% down with reduced mortgage insurance coverage, for borrowers at or below 80% of area median income.

Your credit score works for you. Better score, cheaper insurance, better rate.

The Florida numbers for 2026

This is where Florida genuinely departs from states like Illinois or Georgia: both the conforming limit and the FHA limit move by county, not just the FHA side.

The baseline conforming loan limit is $832,750 for a one-unit property, and that covers most of the state — including Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Hillsborough, and Orange counties. Monroe County (the Florida Keys) is Florida's one high-cost conforming county, at $990,150.

FHA varies more widely. The statewide baseline is $541,287, but several counties sit well above it:

• Monroe County: $990,150 — the highest in the state, and it matches the conforming limit exactly.
• Collier County (Naples): $764,750.
• Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties: $667,000.
• Martin, Okaloosa, Sarasota, and Walton counties: $603,750.
• A handful of additional counties sit at intermediate tiers between roughly $547,400 and $580,750.
• Everywhere else in Florida — including most of the Panhandle, north Florida, and inland central Florida — stays at the $541,287 baseline.

Two of those figures — Monroe County's $990,150 and Collier County's $764,750 — cross the $726,200 threshold mentioned above. An FHA borrower financing near the top of the range in Key West or Naples lands in the higher MIP tier: 0.75% annually at 3.5% down instead of 0.55%, or 0.70% instead of 0.50% with 10%+ down. That is a real cost difference worth running the numbers on before you assume FHA pricing is the same everywhere in the state.

If you are here on a visa, this decision was made for you

This is the change most people have not caught up to.

HUD's Mortgagee Letter 2025-09 removed non-permanent residents from FHA eligibility entirely, for case numbers assigned on or after May 25, 2025. If you are on an H-1B, L-1, or another temporary work visa, FHA is closed to you. Lawful permanent residents are still eligible on the same terms as citizens.

Conventional financing did not change. Fannie Mae continues to purchase loans made to non-permanent residents on the same terms available to U.S. citizens.

So for a visa-holder buyer relocating to Miami or Orlando for work, conventional is not the better option — it is the only agency option. We wrote about this in more detail in our H-1B and NRI mortgage guide, and for households where one spouse works on an H-4 EAD, that income question has its own answer.

Florida's tax bill is light — insurance is the real wildcard

Florida's effective property tax rate averages roughly 0.79% of home value, among the lower rates in the country, and Florida has no state income tax on top of it. If you are used to a high-tax state, your monthly PITI will likely surprise you in a good way on the tax line.

Homeowners insurance is where that good news gets complicated. Florida's insurance market has been genuinely volatile in recent years, and premiums vary enormously by county, construction type, roof age, and flood zone — far more than property taxes do. Because your lender escrows for both taxes and insurance, a high insurance quote pushes your monthly payment and your debt-to-income ratio the same way a high tax bill would in another state. Get an actual insurance quote on a specific property before you assume your payment based on a rate calculator's default estimate — it is often the single biggest reason a Florida payment estimate turns out wrong.

Down payment assistance works with both

Florida offers two distinct paths, and they are not mutually exclusive with FHA — both pair with FHA, VA, USDA, and conventional financing.

FL Assist provides up to $10,000 toward down payment and closing costs as a 0% interest, deferred second mortgage. It is open to first-time buyers, eligible veterans, and buyers purchasing in a targeted area, subject to county-specific income and purchase price limits. It is not forgiven — the balance is due when you sell, refinance, transfer the property, or stop using it as your primary residence.

Florida Hometown Heroes goes further for a specific group of buyers: healthcare workers, K-12 school employees, first responders, law enforcement, court system employees, childcare workers, and military members employed full-time by a Florida-based employer. It provides 5% of your first mortgage loan amount, with a minimum of $10,000 and a maximum of $35,000, structured as a 0%, non-amortizing, 30-year second mortgage with no monthly payment. Like FL Assist, it is a loan, not a grant — it comes due on sale, refinance, payoff, or move-out. The program also waives the standard 1% loan origination fee. Both programs require a minimum 640 credit score.

How to actually decide

Run it in this order.

Is your credit score below 620? If yes, FHA is likely your path, and it is a perfectly good one.

What county are you buying in? Check the FHA limit for that specific county before you assume the statewide baseline applies — the gap between rural Florida and Monroe or Collier County is over $400,000.

Are you a non-permanent resident? If yes, FHA is out. Stop here.

Is your score comfortably above 680? Conventional will almost certainly cost less, both in monthly insurance and in the fact that the insurance ends.

Are you between 620 and 680? This is the genuinely close range, and it deserves an actual side-by-side on your numbers rather than a rule. Ask for both.

And one thing people forget: choosing FHA today does not lock you in forever. If you take FHA because of credit and your score improves, refinancing to conventional later is how you get rid of the life-of-loan MIP. That is one of the better reasons to keep your costs low on the way in — a no closing cost refinance leaves nothing to earn back if you end up making that move sooner than you expected. And if the property is an investment rather than a primary residence, FHA is not an option at all — that is DSCR or non-QM territory, and our Florida DSCR guide walks through how those loans qualify differently.

Common questions

Is FHA or conventional better in Florida?

Neither is better in the abstract. FHA is generally better below a 620 credit score, with recent credit events, or with high debt-to-income. Conventional is generally better above roughly 680, because private mortgage insurance is priced by credit score and cancels at 78 to 80% loan-to-value, while FHA mortgage insurance at 3.5% down lasts for the life of the loan.

What is the FHA loan limit in Florida for 2026?

It depends entirely on the county. The statewide baseline is $541,287, but Monroe County (the Keys) reaches $990,150, Collier County reaches $764,750, and Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties sit at $667,000. Most of the rest of the state, including much of the Panhandle and inland Florida, stays at the $541,287 baseline. The 2026 conforming loan limit is $832,750 statewide, except Monroe County, which is set at $990,150.

Does FHA mortgage insurance ever go away?

Only if you put at least 10% down, in which case the annual premium ends after 11 years. Below 10% down — including the standard 3.5% down purchase — annual MIP lasts for the full loan term. Refinancing into a conventional loan is the usual way borrowers eliminate it.

Can H-1B visa holders get an FHA loan in Florida in 2026?

No. HUD Mortgagee Letter 2025-09 removed FHA eligibility for non-permanent residents for case numbers assigned on or after May 25, 2025. Lawful permanent residents remain eligible. Conventional financing is still available to non-permanent residents on the same terms available to U.S. citizens.

What down payment assistance is available in Florida?

FL Assist provides up to $10,000 as a 0% deferred second mortgage, open to first-time buyers, eligible veterans, and targeted-area purchases. Florida Hometown Heroes provides 5% of the first mortgage (between $10,000 and $35,000) for healthcare workers, teachers, first responders, law enforcement, childcare workers, and military members employed full-time in Florida. Both require a minimum 640 credit score and are deferred, non-forgivable second mortgages.

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Not sure which county's numbers apply to you? Call 630-357-1600, reach me directly at 630-301-8823, or email bsaggar@absmtg.com. Ask for both scenarios priced on your actual numbers — with your county, your score, and your loan amount. That comparison takes one conversation and it is the only way to answer this honestly.

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Figures are current as of August 2026 and are subject to change. 2026 loan limits are set by FHFA and HUD and are adjusted annually. Mortgage insurance premiums, credit score requirements and program terms are set by HUD, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and individual investors, and lender overlays may be more restrictive than agency minimums. FL Assist and Florida Hometown Heroes program terms, income limits and purchase price limits are set by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, vary by county, and are subject to change — confirm current figures before relying on them. Homeowners insurance premiums vary significantly by county, construction, and flood zone and are not set by ABS Home Mortgage, Inc. This article is general information, not financial, tax, insurance, or legal advice.