Compare the lenders. Not just the loan size.

A conforming loan is one Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac can buy, which means it has to fit inside the conforming loan limit the FHFA publishes each year, along with agency underwriting rules. A jumbo loan is above that limit, so the agencies cannot buy it and the loan is held or sold privately instead.

That single structural difference is why jumbo behaves differently from conventional in almost every respect. There is no agency rulebook standardising jumbo credit scores, reserve requirements, income treatment or property rules, so each investor writes its own. Two lenders can look at the same file and reach genuinely different answers without either being wrong.

The applicable conforming limit depends on where the property is and how many units it has. For 2026 the national baseline is $832,750 for one unit, $1,066,250 for two, $1,288,800 for three and $1,601,750 for four.

Most Florida counties use those baseline figures. Monroe County — the Keys — is designated an FHFA high-cost area and carries higher limits at every unit count. The checker at the top of this page uses the published 2026 figure for the specific county and unit count selected, and FHFA republishes the whole table each November for the following calendar year.

Because it is the loan amount and not the purchase price that crosses the boundary, the down payment decides which side of the line a purchase lands on. A higher-priced home with a larger down payment can stay conforming; a lower-priced home with a small down payment can be jumbo.

Jumbo is not one tier. Most lenders step their guidelines at intervals as the loan amount rises — the down payment expected, the reserves required, the credit tier and the number of participating investors all move together.

The practical effect is that guidance which is accurate at one loan size can be wrong at another. At larger loan amounts, expect a narrower lender panel, heavier reserve expectations and a more thorough review of income and assets, and expect the specific thresholds to differ between lenders.

Jumbo borrowers generally need strong credit, but there is no single qualifying score, because there is no agency setting one. Some programs may consider scores around 680 when the rest of the file is strong and the down payment is substantial. Lower-down-payment programs may require scores ranging from roughly 700 to 740 or higher.

Depth matters alongside the score itself: how long the accounts have been open, how many there are, how they have been managed, and whether there is recent derogatory history. A file that prices well on conventional can still draw scrutiny on jumbo, because the investor is keeping the risk rather than selling it.

20% down commonly produces stronger pricing and broader lender choices, and it is the point at which the largest number of jumbo programs are available. 10% or 15% down may be available to qualified borrowers, generally with higher credit expectations, heavier reserves and less favourable pricing.

Very large loans may require more than 20% down. And the direction is not one-way: moving extra cash into a property reduces the liquid assets a jumbo lender counts as reserves, which is one of the few places where a larger down payment can make a file harder rather than easier.

A debt-to-income ratio near or below 41% generally creates a stronger jumbo profile. Some lenders may permit a DTI approaching 50% for a strong, complete file — supported by credit, assets, reserves and stable documented income.

Two separate things are worth keeping apart. One is what a lender will approve. The other is what payment actually fits the household, once property taxes, Florida insurance, HOA dues, maintenance and everything else the mortgage does not cover are counted. Being approved for a larger payment does not mean that payment fits your life.

Reserves are post-closing assets — what remains after the down payment and closing costs are paid — usually expressed in months of full principal, interest, taxes and insurance, including HOA dues and mortgage insurance where they apply.

Some programs may require approximately 3 months. Others may require 6 months, 12 months or more. The requirement depends on loan size, LTV, occupancy, the number of financed properties you own and the investor behind the program. Retirement accounts are often counted at a discount to their balance rather than in full, and the discount varies by program. There is no universal reserve figure in jumbo lending.

The standard jumbo lane documents income with tax returns, W-2s and pay stubs, usually across a two-year history. It is the broadest lane and typically the most competitively priced, because the largest number of investors participate in it.

Salaried income with a consistent history is the most straightforward case. Complications arrive when income is variable, recently changed, or comes from more than one source — none of which are disqualifying, but all of which are worth analysing before an offer rather than after.

Self-employed income is calculated from tax returns and business returns, not from deposits or revenue. Legitimate deductions that reduce taxable income also reduce qualifying income, which is why a business owner with strong cash flow can show a qualifying figure well below what the business actually produces.

Many jumbo investors review a two-year history, and the specific averaging rules — how partnership or S-corporation income is treated, whether depreciation is added back, how a year-to-date profit-and-loss statement is weighted — vary by program. This is the single most common reason a jumbo file benefits from analysis before an offer is written.

Bonus and commission income generally needs a documented history before it can be counted, and how much of it counts varies by program. Some average it over two years; some require evidence that it is likely to continue.

Where this income makes up a large share of total compensation, the difference between programs can be the difference between qualifying and not — which is a lender-matching question, not a borrower-fault question.

Income that has declined year over year is reviewed carefully. Depending on the program and the size of the decline, a lender may use the lower recent figure rather than a two-year average, may require an explanation and evidence of stabilisation, or may decline the file.

Declining income may reduce usable qualifying income or prevent approval, and how it is treated varies by investor. Where a decline has a clear and documentable explanation, that documentation belongs in the file from the start.

When tax returns do not support the income a standard jumbo investor needs, a bank-statement program may calculate qualifying income from business or personal deposits over 12 or 24 months instead. These are non-QM loans, priced and underwritten on their own terms.

They carry different pricing, down-payment and reserve requirements than full-document jumbo, and they are not automatically a substitute for every declined jumbo application. They are also distinct from DSCR: a bank-statement loan can be used on an owner-occupied home, while DSCR qualifies on an investment property's rental cash flow and is not a route for a primary residence.

Banks that keep jumbo loans on their own balance sheet can price them against the wider relationship, which is why a relationship discount is a genuine feature of jumbo lending rather than a marketing device. The discount is usually tied to deposits or managed investments held at the institution.

What matters is the full shape of the arrangement, not the headline discount: how much has to move, how long it has to stay, whether the discount is permanent or conditional, what happens to the rate or payment if the assets are later moved, and what those assets would have earned elsewhere. A discount that requires locking up a large sum at a low return is not free.

Portfolio lenders are often competitive on jumbo ARMs because an adjustable loan suits a balance sheet better than a 30-year fixed does. The wholesale side is frequently competitive on fixed jumbo. Neither is universally cheaper.

An ARM comparison needs more than the initial rate: the initial fixed period, the index and margin, the first-adjustment cap, the periodic cap, the lifetime cap, and the payment if the rate adjusted to that cap. Then it needs an honest estimate of how long the loan will actually be held. An ARM whose fixed period comfortably outlasts the expected hold is a different decision from one that does not.

Some jumbo programs offer an interest-only period, during which the payment covers interest and no principal. The payment is lower during that period and the balance does not fall; when the interest-only period ends, the payment recalculates to amortise the full balance over the remaining term, which can be a substantial step up.

Interest-only availability, the length of the period, credit and reserve requirements and pricing all vary by program. It is a cash-flow option with a trade-off attached, not a cheaper loan.

Jumbo cash-out refinancing generally carries tighter LTV limits and heavier reserve expectations than a purchase or a rate-and-term refinance, and pricing usually reflects the additional risk. Some programs also cap the cash proceeds.

The appraised value drives everything, and on a high-value or unusual property that value is the least predictable part of the file — which is why the appraisal planning matters more on a jumbo cash-out than almost anywhere else in lending.

Some jumbo programs require two appraisals above a certain loan amount, and where two are required, lenders commonly use the lower of the two values. The threshold varies by investor.

That has a practical consequence worth planning for: a second appraisal adds both cost and calendar time, and on a property with few comparable sales it adds uncertainty. Both belong in the timeline before a closing date is agreed.

High-value properties are harder to appraise because there are fewer comparable sales, and unusual features — acreage, waterfront, a private dock, a guest house, bespoke construction — may contribute less to appraised value than they cost to build.

Lenders also differ on what they will lend against. A property that is straightforward for one investor can be outside another's appetite entirely, which makes property review part of lender selection rather than a step that follows it.

Jumbo condominium financing adds a second underwrite: the project itself. Owner-occupancy ratios, the share held by any single owner, budget and reserve adequacy, litigation, and — a live issue for Florida — structural-integrity reserve studies and any special assessments all bear on whether a lender will finance a unit in the building.

Requirements vary by investor, and a project acceptable to one lender may not be acceptable to another. On a Florida condominium it is worth establishing the project's standing early, because it can decide the lender before the borrower's own profile is even reached.

Second-home jumbo programs are common for Florida vacation properties. Pricing generally runs above a comparable primary residence, reserve requirements are typically heavier, and lenders look at the stability of the primary residence alongside the new file.

Occupancy is underwritten, not merely declared. Distance from the primary residence, how the property will be used, and any rental arrangement all bear on whether a file is genuinely a second home or an investment property.

Investment-property jumbo financing carries the heaviest expectations of the three occupancies: larger down payments, heavier reserves, and a narrower panel of participating lenders. Reserve requirements often scale with the number of financed properties owned.

Where the property's own rental cash flow is the qualifying basis rather than personal income, that is a DSCR loan — a distinct product with its own rules, not a variant of jumbo. Which route fits depends on occupancy and on how the income is documented, and the two should not be treated as one category.

There is no single waiting period after a bankruptcy, foreclosure, short sale or deed in lieu that applies across jumbo lending. Requirements are set by each investor and vary with the type of event, whether it was a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13, whether there were extenuating circumstances, how credit has been rebuilt since, and the rest of the file.

Any specific number of years quoted as a universal jumbo rule should be treated with suspicion. What is reliable is that the event, its documentation and the credit history since it are reviewed directly — so the honest answer comes from checking the actual loan details against actual lender guidelines.

A jumbo file moves at the speed of its documentation. Two years of tax returns with all schedules, two years of W-2s and recent pay stubs where they apply, business returns and K-1s for self-employed income, two months of statements for every account holding down-payment or reserve funds, and current mortgage, tax and insurance statements for every property owned — that is the core.

Assembling it before an offer rather than after does two things. It lets the income be analysed while there is still time to change the loan terms, and it is the difference between a file that can move quickly and one that cannot. An accelerated closing may be available for an organised, fully documented file; timing still depends on the program, the borrower and the property, including appraisal, title and insurance.