The 2026 limits, and what they cover here
FHA limits are set by metro area, and Bucks County sits inside the Philadelphia figure. The 2026 numbers below are the published ones that lenders and the rate sites are working from; the lender who calls you back confirms the one that applies to your case number.
| Units | Bucks County limit | National floor |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $630,200 | $541,287 |
| 2 | $806,750 | $693,050 |
| 3 | $975,200 | $837,700 |
| 4 | $1,211,950 | $1,041,125 |
Set $630,200 against the county’s July 2026 sold medians and it covers a great deal of ground: $408,807 in the Bristol ZIP, $425,000 around Morrisville, $499,900 in Feasterville-Trevose, $500,000 in Warminster, $569,950 in Southampton, $627,500 in the Chalfont ZIP, $667,500 around Langhorne. It starts to run out in Solebury and on the New Hope side, where a conventional loan goes to $832,750 and a jumbo picks it up after that.
Down payment and credit
The rules are the same in Croydon as they are in Quakertown. A decision score of 580 or better gets you in at 3.5% down; 500 to 579 needs 10%; below 500 is out. Plenty of lenders set a higher floor of their own, so a score in the low 600s is a question to ask out loud on the first call and never one to assume.
Debt-to-income runs 31% for housing and 43% overall on a manually underwritten file, and the automated underwriting system approves higher ratios when the rest of the file is strong. On a $400,000 house, 3.5% is $14,000 down. Your customary half of the county’s 2% transfer tax is another $4,000, which is the line that surprises first-time buyers at the table.
Picked up day and night, calls recorded. No credit pull, no application.
Tell us the town and the year the house was built, and the licensed Pennsylvania lender who calls you back can say what an FHA appraiser tends to write up on stock that age. Ring any hour.
The form takes about a minute and lands in the same place as the call.
The mortgage insurance, in plain numbers
FHA charges two premiums. The upfront one is 1.75% of the loan and gets financed into the balance, so 1.75% of a $386,000 loan is $6,755 added on. The annual premium is charged monthly and depends on the down payment.
| Down payment | Annual premium | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|
| Under 5% | 0.55% | Life of the loan |
| 5% to under 10% | 0.50% | Life of the loan |
| 10% or more | 0.50% | 11 years |
These rates have not moved since 2023. Loans above a threshold that HUD indexes each year pay 0.20 points more in each tier — ask the lender where the line sits for your file. Because the premium at 3.5% down never falls off by itself, the long game for most buyers is a refinance once there is 20% equity in the house.
What the appraiser looks at in Bucks stock
FHA appraisals have a personality, and county housing gives them plenty to work with. Bristol Township holds 17,311 Levitt houses put up between 1952 and 1958, built on concrete slabs in six models. Warminster and Southampton are full of 1950s and 1960s ranchers and split-levels. Bristol Borough was settled in 1681 and has the housing to prove it.
All of that is pre-1978, which puts lead paint rules in play. The usual flags:
- Peeling or chipping paint anywhere on a pre-1978 house, inside or out, including the basement window frames.
- Missing or loose handrails, which on a split-level means most of the stairs.
- A roof at the end of its life, and on a Levitt slab house, any sign of water finding its way in at the perimeter.
- Exposed wiring, open junction boxes, live knob-and-tube in the older boroughs.
- A furnace that won’t fire, a water heater with no relief valve, broken glass.
Repairs get done before closing or handled through an escrow the lender sets up, and who pays is negotiated in the Agreement of Sale. In Langhorne Borough, which has had a local historic district and an architectural review board since 1975, exterior work visible from the street goes through that board as well — worth checking before you promise a seller a two-week turnaround on a paint job.
Two, three and four units
FHA insures buildings of one to four units as long as you occupy one of them. Rent from the others can help you qualify. Three and four-unit buildings must clear a self-sufficiency test, where 75% of the appraiser’s market rent across every unit, yours included, has to cover the whole monthly payment. Two-unit buildings skip that test, which is why twins and duplexes in the lower-county boroughs are the usual first step for a buyer who wants a tenant helping with the mortgage.
FHA through PHFA
PHFA’s Keystone Government Loan puts an FHA first mortgage through the state agency with no PHFA income or purchase-price caps and no first-time rule, and a homebuyer course when the score is under 680. It pairs with the Keystone Advantage second, up to $6,000 at 0% repaid over ten years, which covers a Bucks buyer’s half of the transfer tax on most houses in the county with change left over. More in the PHFA guide.