The four floors
There are only four numbers to learn, and none of them is 20%.
An FHA loan asks 3.5% down with a 580 credit score, and 10% between 500 and 579. A conventional loan can go to 3% down through HomeReady or Home Possible at 97% of value. A VA loan asks nothing down and has no loan limit with full entitlement. A USDA loan asks nothing down where the address qualifies, which in this county means the rural upper end.
FHA’s limit for a one-unit home in the Philadelphia metro, Bucks included, is reported at $630,200 for 2026 (LendingTree, July 2026; HUD’s own lookup is where a lender confirms it). That cap sits on the loan, not on the price, which matters more here than people expect.
What that is in real Bucks money
These are median sold prices for July 2026 from Movoto, read August 25, 2026. Movoto’s town pages cover the postal area, so Chalfont takes in New Britain Township and Southampton’s 18966 takes in Holland. Treat them as neighborhood-level, not street-level.
| Town, July 2026 sold median | Median | 3.5% down | 3% down |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feasterville-Trevose | $499,900 | $17,497 | $14,997 |
| Warminster | $500,000 | $17,500 | $15,000 |
| Quakertown | $550,000 | $19,250 | $16,500 |
| Southampton | $569,950 | $19,948 | $17,099 |
| Chalfont | $627,500 | $21,963 | $18,825 |
| Warrington | $635,000 | $22,225 | $19,050 |
Warrington is the one that shows why the FHA cap is on the loan. At the $635,000 median with 3.5% down, the loan is $612,775, comfortably under $630,200. Buy above roughly $653,000 with 3.5% down and the FHA loan runs past the cap, at which point the conversation turns conventional.
Picked up day and night, calls recorded. No credit pull, no application.
Name the town you're looking in and what you have set aside, and a licensed Pennsylvania lender puts real numbers against it on the phone. Worth doing before you start touring.
The form takes about a minute and lands in the same place as the call.
Where the money is allowed to come from
A gift from a family member is fine on the everyday programs. The lender wants a gift letter saying it isn’t a loan and a trail showing which account it left. Money that appeared in your account three weeks ago with no story attached is the thing that slows a file down, so move it early and keep the statements.
Conventional 3% down through HomeReady or Home Possible caps household income at 80% of the area median. A first-time buyer at or under 100% of area median gets the loan-level price adjustments waived, and HomeReady adds a $2,500 credit at or under 50% of area median through February 1, 2027 (Fannie Mae, April 2026). Those percentages turn into dollars by address and household size, and the lender runs the lookup.
The county’s rule about your own funds
Bucks County’s first-time program lends up to $10,000 at 0%, and it has a rule the federal programs don’t: you bring at least 3% of the purchase price in your own funds, plus one month of principal, interest, taxes and insurance. VA borrowers are exempt from the 3%. A First Front Door award or a lender grant can count toward it (county program criteria, revised June 1, 2025).
So a $10,000 county loan doesn’t replace your savings. On a $392,000 purchase, which is where the county’s price ceiling sits, the 3% is $11,760 of your money before the county’s money joins it.
Reserves, and the ceiling nobody expects
Most loan programs ask what’s left in the bank after closing. The county program puts a lid on it: assets after closing can’t exceed six months of PITI, with employer-sponsored retirement accounts excluded from the count. It’s a program for people who need it, and the arithmetic says so out loud.
Jumbo territory is the other end. Above the $832,750 conforming limit for Bucks (FHFA, November 2025), reserves of six to twelve months are normal and the down payment starts at 10%.
The number people forget
Here’s the part people skip. On a $500,000 sale in Warminster, the down payment at 3.5% is $17,500 and your half of the 2% realty transfer tax is $5,000, because the tax is split 50/50 by custom across every Bucks municipality. Add title insurance, the appraisal, the inspection, recording fees and the first year of homeowner’s insurance, and Bankrate put the Pennsylvania average for a buyer at $8,259, about 2.36% of price, in August 2025.
Then there’s escrow. School bills mail July 1 in most Bucks districts and the county and township bills land in February or March, so a settlement date that sits near either one means funding several months of taxes at the table. The closing costs guide lays out the whole line-by-line.