Where $832,750 reaches in this county
The 2026 conforming limit is $832,750 for a one-unit home, and Bucks is not a high-cost county, so that baseline is the number here. It goes to $1,066,250 for two units, $1,288,800 for three and $1,601,750 for four.
Against the July 2026 sold medians — $500,000 in Warminster, $550,000 in the Quakertown market, $627,500 in the Chalfont ZIP, $635,000 in Warrington, $667,500 around Langhorne — that ceiling is nowhere near the constraint. Where it starts to bite is Solebury and the New Hope side, and a few of the newer up-county builds, at which point a jumbo loan takes over.
Three percent down, and who gets it
The low-down-payment conventional programs are HomeReady at Fannie Mae and Home Possible at Freddie Mac. Both go to 97% of the value, so 3% down, for buyers whose qualifying income is at or under 80% of the area median income for that specific address.
The dollar limit changes tract by tract, and the agencies refreshed their 2026 figures in June, so nobody should be quoting you a county-wide income number for this. The lender runs the address. Two other pieces are worth asking about: HomeReady carries a $2,500 credit toward the down payment or closing costs for buyers at or under 50% of area median income, available on loans through February 1, 2027, and first-time buyers at or under 100% of area median income get a waiver on the loan-level price adjustments that otherwise push pricing up.
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Give us the price range and roughly where your credit sits, and the licensed Pennsylvania lender who calls you back can price a conventional loan against the alternatives. One call.
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The insurance has an end date
Private mortgage insurance on a conventional loan is not permanent. You can request cancellation once the balance hits 80% of the original value, the servicer must cancel it at 78%, and it ends at the midpoint of the amortization schedule regardless. On a house bought at $400,000 with 3% down, that 78% mark arrives at a balance of $312,000, reached by paying down and by nothing else.
With the county median up 7.5% over the year to July 2026, some owners get there faster than the schedule suggests, but appreciation only helps if you order a new appraisal and the servicer accepts it. Ask what the lender’s process for that is at closing, while somebody is still answering your emails.
Why two identical houses have different escrows
Nobody tells you this the first time. The county last reassessed in 1972, so the assessed value on a listing bears no relation to what the house sells for. County millage is 29.65 for 2026. The school district does the heavy lifting, and the districts are nothing like each other: Pennridge sits at 144.3949 mills for 2026-27, Council Rock at 149.9692, Neshaminy at 198.0124, Bristol Township at 237.1744, and Morrisville at 279.8613, the highest in the county.
Then there is the homestead exclusion, which comes off the school portion for owner-occupants and is set district by district. Pennridge’s relief works out to $339.04 a year per homestead. Morrisville takes $1,427.90 off the assessed value on its 1,706 homestead properties. In Lower Southampton the Neshaminy exclusion is $364.26.
So two buyers paying the same price on opposite sides of a district line can open escrow accounts that differ by real money every month, and the exclusion does not transfer to you automatically. Applications go to the county Board of Assessment by March 1 for the year beginning the following July 1. If the seller had it and you never file, you pay the difference.
Twins, triplexes and the 95% rule
Owner-occupied two to four unit properties go to 95% of the value on both agencies’ rules, and above 80% you have to put in 3% from your own funds. Bucks has more of this stock than people expect: twins in the lower-county boroughs, converted big houses in Bristol and Langhorne, and older buildings along the Delaware Canal towns. Rental income from the other units can help you qualify, on the appraiser’s market rent, not on what the seller says the tenant is paying.
Credit, and how it prices
Six-twenty is the published floor, and 640 on an adjustable-rate loan, but pricing improves in tiers most of the way up and the best of it lands at 780 and above. Since April 22, 2026 Fannie and Freddie also accept VantageScore 4.0, which reads thinner credit files than the older models did — worth asking about if you have been told your file is too short.
Everything on this page is subject to the lender’s underwriting and to the guidelines in force when your loan is delivered.