FHA Loans

The floor is lower than your bank told you.

FHA is the loan everyone thinks they know — and most of what people “know” is their bank’s overlay, not the program. The real floor on this shelf is a 580 score at 96.5% financing, there is a documented path with no credit score at all, and after a declared disaster the program will rebuild a Floridian at one hundred percent.

Start the prequalification See the published grids

Who this is built for

First-time buyers without first-time credit

A 580 score with an automated approval keeps the full 96.5% financing. The 620-and-up story you heard is a bank overlay, not FHA.

People with thin or no credit files

Rent, utilities, insurance — a manual file built on nontraditional credit can close with no score at all, at the same leverage.

Buyers whose ratios run hot

A manual underwrite stretches to a 50% debt-to-income ratio with documented compensating factors. High-cost-city math, priced in.

Florida owners after a disaster

The 203(h) program exists for exactly one moment: a presidentially declared disaster took your home. It finances the next one at 100%.

Not sure which of these is you? That is the normal starting point — ten minutes on a call sorts it faster than a week of reading.

Talk it through

What the folklore gets wrong

The credit rule everyone repeats belongs to a bank, not to FHA

Your bank said 620. The program says 580 — and there is a documented path with no score at all.

FHA carries more secondhand misinformation than any program in lending. Three corrections, from the current matrix:

And the one nobody knows until they need it: after a presidentially declared disaster — a hurricane, in this state’s vocabulary — 203(h) finances a replacement home at one hundred percent for the household that lost one. Fixed rate, one unit, standard guidelines otherwise.

“You need at least 620”	The floor is 580	With an automated approval, 580 keeps full leverage. Banks that quote 620 or 640 are quoting their own overlay — shop the overlay, not the program.
“No credit score, no loan”	A no-score path exists	Nontraditional credit — rent, utilities, phone — underwritten manually at conservative 31/43 ratios. The same path serves borrowers ITIN programs turn away for having no U.S. file.
“FHA is capped too low for Miami”	Limits are county-set and move yearly	The ceiling is higher than folklore says and rises most years — and above it, this site’s other pages take over. The right question is your number, not the myth.

Program parameters reflect one program’s current matrices and change without notice. County loan limits are set annually by HUD. Not all applicants will qualify.

How it actually works

Government-insured, program-delivered. The insurance is what buys the flexibility.

The government insures the lender

That insurance — not charity, not luck — is why the credit floor, the leverage and the ratio tolerance are what they are.

You pay for that insurance two ways

An upfront premium that finances into the loan, and a monthly one alongside the payment. The exact figures are set by HUD and belong in your quote, not a webpage.

The automated system reads your file first

A TOTAL Scorecard approval keeps ratios flexible per the findings. If it refers the file, a human underwrites it manually — to 50% with compensating factors.

Everything else is a normal closing

FHA-roster appraisal, title, keys. The property has its own standards — that is a feature protecting you, not an obstacle.

The grids, as published

One program’s current matrices — pick the transaction:

One program’s current FHA purchase matrix — four ways in, one leverage story:

Path	Maximum financing	Condition
Automated approval	96.5% LTV	Credit score 580 and up; ratios per the AUS findings; CLTV to 105% with eligible secondary help
Manual underwrite	96.5% LTV	Debt-to-income to 50% with documented compensating factors
No credit score	96.5% LTV	Nontraditional credit history, manually underwritten at 31/43 ratios
203(h) after a disaster	100% LTV	One unit, fixed rate, presidentially declared disaster; otherwise standard guidelines

Read the third row twice — it is the loneliest fact on this page. A borrower with no credit score at all, documented through rent and utility history, closes at the same 96.5% as everyone else. One-to-four-unit properties qualify across the grid, which is why the house-hacking crowd keeps discovering FHA: live in one unit, let the others help with the payment, all at owner-occupied leverage.

Representative of one program’s FHA purchase matrix, published 06/25/2026. Maximum financing, credit requirements and ratio ceilings are separate limits shown only in combinations that appear together in the source. All FHA loans carry upfront and monthly mortgage insurance premiums set by HUD. Property must meet FHA standards; appraisals by FHA-roster appraisers. Not all applicants or properties will qualify.

FHA refinancing is not one product. The same program publishes three, and the third is the one people cannot believe exists:

Door	Maximum financing	Condition
Rate-and-term	97.75% LTV	Credit score 580 with automated approval
Cash-out	80% LTV	Credit score 580 with automated approval
Streamline, credit-qualifying	No appraisal-driven cap	Score floor 580–620 depending on whether the loan is already serviced in-house
Streamline, non-credit-qualifying	No appraisal-driven cap	On loans already serviced in-house: NO minimum credit score. The payment history is the file.

The streamline is FHA’s quiet masterpiece: an existing FHA loan can refinance without an appraisal-driven leverage cap — total financing to 105% of value, and to 125% counting eligible subordinate liens — because the program already insures the risk. On the non-credit-qualifying version of an in-house loan, there is no minimum score at all; twelve months of payment history does the talking. One overlay from this program worth planning around: new secondary financing is permitted only on a streamline — a purchase or standard refinance cannot layer a new second lien here.

Representative of the same program’s FHA Standard Refinance and FHA Streamline matrices, published 06/25/2026. Streamline transactions require an existing FHA-insured loan and a demonstrated benefit; non-credit-qualifying terms shown apply to loans already serviced by the lender, with a 580 floor otherwise. CLTV figures include eligible subordinate financing. Not all applicants will qualify.

Bankruptcy or foreclosure in the story? The clocks live here →

The overlays that decide FHA files

Secondary financing has one door

At this program, a new second lien rides only on a streamline refinance. If your plan involves down-payment help recorded as a lien, that is a conversation for the structuring stage — before the contract, not after.

A power of attorney cannot cash out

POA closings are barred on cash-out refinances. Deployed, abroad, or managing a relative’s affairs — flag it early and we structure around it.

Deed restrictions that outlive foreclosure kill files

Some resale-restricted and assistance-encumbered properties carry restrictions that survive foreclosure. Those are ineligible — and invisible until someone reads the deed. I read the deed.

The appraiser is not negotiable

FHA-roster appraisers only, and the property must meet FHA minimum standards. Peeling paint and dead water heaters really do hold closings hostage — inspect with FHA eyes before you offer.

The down payment can be financed behind this loan

Down payment assistance sits behind an FHA first as a second loan sized to the minimum investment — combined financing to 100% or 101.5%, forgivable or repayable, from a 600 score, with no income limits on the lender programs. What each version costs is on the assistance page.

Florida’s Hometown Heroes runs behind FHA too

The state’s own assistance — $10,000 to $35,000 as a deferred second with no monthly payment, for named occupations and those who serve, repaid when you sell or refinance. The 2026 rules and the funding status are on its page.

Manufactured homes are financed here too

A manufactured home on land you own, permanently affixed and titled as real property, is eligible on FHA — 96.5% financing from a 580 score and 90% from 550, with the home needing a build date of June 15, 1976 or later. The manufactured housing page sets those terms beside the conventional, VA and USDA versions, two of which reach the full value.

Ratios above 50 need receipts

Past 50% debt-to-income, documented compensating factors are required — reserves, residual income, a payment history that shames the ratio. Possible, not casual.

Renovation FHA runs through this desk

The 203(k) rehab program is available here in both of its forms — Limited for cosmetic work, Standard once the plan turns structural. It finances the purchase and the repairs in one loan and appraises the house on what it will be worth finished, which is how a property that fails an ordinary appraisal gets bought at all. The renovation page sets it beside the conventional, VA and USDA equivalents — worth comparing, because which of the seven fits is decided by the scope of the work rather than by the agency you started with.

What you actually hand over

Income and employment, the normal way

W-2s and paystubs, or the documentation your situation calls for. FHA is a full-documentation program.

Credit — or its stand-ins

A traditional report if you have one. If you do not: twelve months of rent, utilities, phone, insurance — the nontraditional file is real and underwriters use it.

Your own contribution, sourced

The required investment can include documented gift funds from family. Paper trails matter more than balances here.

Patience for the property side

FHA appraisal with minimum property standards, and repairs negotiated before closing when the house needs them. Build it into the timeline.

Want the exact list for your file before you ever apply? Build your document checklist — the list changes with your answers, printable and yours to keep.

Where it wins — and the honest trade-offs

Told straight, because this page is useless otherwise.

Where it wins

The floor is the program’s, not a bank’s

A 580 score with an automated approval keeps full leverage, and a manual file built on rent and utility history can close with no score at all — at the same leverage.

A rough chapter reads differently here

FHA was built to look past the years conventional underwriting punishes hardest. If there is a bankruptcy or a foreclosure in the story, the clocks live here.

Up to four units, same leverage

Live in one unit and rent the rest — the grid does not step down for two-to-four-unit properties the way most programs do.

The streamline has no equal

An existing FHA loan can refinance without an appraisal-driven leverage cap, and non-credit-qualifying doors exist. Nothing else on this shelf refinances that way.

The trade-offs, told straight

The insurance premiums are real money

Upfront and monthly, set by HUD, for as long as the loan runs in most cases. FHA buys flexibility with insurance — when a conventional file is strong enough to skip that cost, I will say so before you sign anything.

The property has to pass its own exam

Minimum property standards fail houses that conventional appraisals wave through. The fixer with real issues may need a different structure — telling you now beats a week-three surprise.

Condo buildings must be FHA-approved

In this market that is a real filter — many towers are not on the list. The condo pages on this site exist precisely for the buildings that fail it.

County limits cap the program

Above the county ceiling, FHA simply stops. That is not a wall — the jumbo and alt-doc pages pick up exactly where it ends — but it is a number we check on day one.

Find out what the real floor means for you

The prequalification takes about six questions and treats a 580 score as a starting point, not a confession. Or send the basics and I will show you the FHA file and the conventional file side by side — premiums included — so the cheaper truth wins. And if the real question is still whether to buy at all, rent against own over the years you actually plan to stay — appreciation, principal paydown, the tax side, and the cost of getting in and back out again.

Start the prequalification Book a call instead

Questions people actually ask

Open the full Q&A — boundaries, limits, and the fine points ▾

+Is 580 really enough for an FHA loan?

At this program, with an automated approval: yes, at full 96.5% financing. Below 580 this matrix does not go. And the practical warning: many banks quote their own 620–640 overlay as if it were FHA — it is not, and shopping the overlay is half the value a broker adds.

+I have no credit score at all. Is that the end?

No. FHA accepts a nontraditional credit file — rent, utilities, phone, insurance, paid as agreed — underwritten manually at conservative 31/43 ratios, at the same maximum financing. It is a real path we build deliberately, not a loophole.

+How much does FHA mortgage insurance cost?

Two premiums: one financed upfront, one monthly. The exact figures are set by HUD, vary with the loan, and belong in a written quote where you can compare them against a conventional file honestly — not in advertising copy. Ask, and the numbers arrive in writing.

+Can I use FHA for a duplex or fourplex?

Yes — one to four units, owner-occupied, at the same leverage. Living in one unit while rent from the others helps carry the property is the oldest wealth-building play in this market, and FHA is usually its cheapest financing.

+My home was damaged in a hurricane. What is 203(h)?

A purpose-built FHA program for households whose home was destroyed or seriously damaged in a presidentially declared disaster: 100% financing on a one-unit replacement home, fixed rate, standard guidelines otherwise. It exists for exactly this state and exactly that day.

+I had a bankruptcy. How long until FHA works?

FHA runs its own clocks and they are often shorter than folklore says — but the honest answer depends on the event, the discharge date and what you have rebuilt since. The after-a-credit-event page maps how the clocks work; bring the dates and I will map yours exactly.

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Loan programs, explained honestly

FHA-insured loans are offered through third-party lenders, are subject to lender approval and full underwriting, and change without notice. Figures reflect one program’s matrices published 06/25/2026, cited beside the tables they support. All FHA loans require upfront and monthly mortgage insurance premiums set by HUD. County loan limits are established annually by HUD. FHA insures loans; it does not approve borrowers, and government insurance is not a guarantee of individual approval. Maximum financing, credit requirements and ratio limits are separate criteria shown only in combinations that appear together in the source documents. Not all applicants or properties will qualify. This is not a commitment to lend. Equal Housing Opportunity.