FHA Loans

FHA loans in San Diego, CA: 2026 limits and what buyers actually pay

Updated November 13, 2026

By Vinura Abeysundara

Head of Growth at TurboHome

Reviewed by:

Vinura Abeysundara

Head of Growth at TurboHome

Kevin Kretzmer

Head Agent, California · CalDRE #01997822

4.1% of San Diego home sales with a recorded financing type closed with an FHA loan from May through October 2026, down from 4.9% a year earlier, while VA loans paid for 8.6%. FHA buyers paid a median $718,000, against $950,000 citywide, and the 2026 FHA loan limit for a one-unit home in San Diego County is $1,104,000. FHA closings came in at a median 100.74% of list and cash closings at 98.18%, so cash buyers got the discounts and FHA buyers paid full price; FHA homes sat a median 18 days on market against 14 for cash.

TurboHome Market Analysis · 4,461 closings · May 1 to Oct 31, 2026 · Last updated November 13, 2026

This guide answers two questions with local data: can you buy a home in San Diego with an FHA loan, and how do FHA offers fare against cash. It uses 4,461 single-family, condo and townhouse closings in our MLS feed from May 1 to October 31, 2026, of which 4,419 (99.1%) recorded a single financing type.

What is the FHA loan limit in San Diego?

The 2026 FHA loan limit for a one-unit home in San Diego County is $1,104,000, according to HUD's FHA mortgage limits lookup (checked November 13, 2026). 60.5% of San Diego closings from May through October 2026 were priced at or under that figure. San Diego County's limit is below the $1,249,125 national ceiling, but the citywide median of $950,000 sits well under it.

Nationally, the 2026 FHA one-unit limit runs from a floor of $541,287 in lower-cost areas to a ceiling of $1,249,125 in high-cost areas. For comparison, the 2026 conforming loan limit is $832,750, with a high-cost ceiling of $1,249,125.

The limit caps the loan amount, not the price. A buyer can pay more than the limit with a larger down payment, so the share of homes priced at or under it understates what FHA can reach.

The FHA rules that decide whether you qualify, from HUD Handbook 4000.1 (checked November 13, 2026):

Down payment and credit score: at least 3.5% down with a credit score of 580 or higher, and at least 10% down with a score from 500 to 579. Scores under 500 are not eligible.
Upfront mortgage insurance: 1.75% of the base loan amount.
Annual mortgage insurance on loans longer than 15 years: 0.50% to 0.55% of the loan a year for base loan amounts up to $726,200, and 0.70% to 0.75% above that, depending on the down payment. With less than 10% down it lasts for the life of the loan; with 10% or more down, 11 years.
Seller and agent credits: interested parties, including the seller and real estate agents, can contribute up to 6% of the sales price toward closing costs, prepaid items and discount points, but not toward the minimum down payment.

How many buyers in San Diego actually use an FHA loan

4,419 of 4,461 San Diego closings from May through October 2026 (99.1%) recorded a single financing type. Of those, 4.1% used an FHA loan (179 closings), against 4.9% in the same months of 2025. Cash grew the most, from 22.9% to 24.8% of these closings, while FHA, VA (8.9% to 8.6%) and conventional loans (58.5% to 57.8%) all slipped. Nearly one closing in eleven used a VA loan, the highest VA share of any California city in this series apart from Chula Vista.

How San Diego buyers paid, share of closings with a single recorded financing type, data table
Financing	Share, May to Oct 2026	Share, May to Oct 2025
FHA	4.1%	4.9%
VA	8.6%	8.9%
Cash	24.8%	22.9%
Conventional	57.8%	58.5%

FHA buyers paid a median $718,000, against $707,000 in the same months of 2025. The citywide median was $950,000, up 4.4% from $910,000, and the median home sold in 15 days, against 18 a year earlier.

Where FHA buyers are closing in San Diego

FHA share. Every figure is in the table below.

San Diego neighborhoods with at least 20 closings with a recorded financing type, May 1 to October 31, 2026, by volume. A dash means the neighborhood had no FHA closings. Neighborhood FHA medians rest on few closings., data table
Neighborhood	Closings	FHA	VA	Cash	Median price	Median FHA price
Clairemont Mesa	346	0.6%	2.9%	24.3%	$1,130,000	$702,500
Navajo	308	5.2%	9.1%	22.1%	$966,250	$662,500
Rancho Bernardo	291	2.7%	7.9%	31.6%	$952,000	$550,000
Downtown San Diego	259	1.9%	5.8%	41.3%	$680,000	$435,000
Uptown San Diego	242	0.8%	4.1%	28.1%	$942,000	$792,500
Point Loma	220	1.4%	9.1%	30.9%	$1,342,850	$695,000
Mira Mesa	201	3.0%	4.0%	17.9%	$970,000	$572,500
University City	173	0.6%	1.7%	36.4%	$900,000	$576,000
Rancho Penasquitos	167	0%	6.6%	21.6%	$1,320,000	-
Black Mountain Ranch	160	0%	2.5%	34.4%	$1,950,000	-
Pacific Beach	158	1.3%	1.9%	42.4%	$1,340,000	$895,500
Carmel Valley	130	1.5%	0%	27.7%	$1,700,500	$965,000
North Park	126	0.8%	6.3%	22.2%	$804,000	$425,000
Serra Mesa	106	0.9%	9.4%	22.6%	$980,000	$960,000

Navajo had the highest FHA share of the 14 listed neighborhoods at 5.2%, with an FHA median of $662,500 against $966,250 for the neighborhood, followed by Mira Mesa (3.0%) and Rancho Bernardo (2.7%).

In 11 of the 14, FHA was under 2% of closings, and Rancho Penasquitos and Black Mountain Ranch recorded none. VA is far more common: 9.1% of closings in Navajo and Point Loma and 9.4% in Serra Mesa.

FHA buyers paid far less than their neighbors in some areas: a median $435,000 in Downtown San Diego against $680,000 for the neighborhood, and $425,000 in North Park against $804,000, so FHA buyers there bought the cheaper end of the neighborhood.

FHA by price range in San Diego

Share of San Diego closings by financing type and sale price, May 1 to October 31, 2026, data table
Price range	Closings	FHA	VA	Cash
Under $300K	32	0%	3.1%	68.8%
$300K to $500K	448	5.6%	11.4%	25.0%
$500K to $750K	932	8.3%	14.5%	19.2%
$750K to $1M	961	6.3%	11.3%	19.4%
$1M to $1.5M	1,103	1.5%	4.5%	25.7%
$1.5M and up	943	0%	3.5%	33.1%

FHA peaks at 8.3% of closings from $500,000 to $750,000 and falls to 1.5% from $1 million to $1.5 million and none above $1.5 million. VA runs higher than FHA in every band, peaking at 14.5% from $500,000 to $750,000.

Do sellers accept FHA offers in San Diego?

Here is how San Diego closings compared by how the buyer paid. The closed sales show what each group paid and how long the home sat on the market, not why a seller picked one offer over another.

San Diego closings by financing type, May 1 to October 31, 2026. Sale-to-list is the closed price divided by the final list price., data table
Financing	Closings	Median price	Median days on market	Median sale-to-list	Closed above asking	Closed below asking
FHA	179	$718,000	18	100.74%	58.1%	23.5%
Conventional	2,556	$997,500	15	100.00%	33.2%	48.7%
Cash	1,095	$1,050,000	14	98.18%	19.8%	65.0%
VA	379	$750,000	18	100.01%	51.5%	26.9%

FHA closings came in at a median 100.74% of list, and 58.1% went above asking, the highest above-asking share of the four groups; cash closings came in at 98.18%, with 65.0% below asking.

FHA homes took a median 18 days to sell, the same as VA and longer than cash (14) and conventional loans (15). FHA buyers paid a median $718,000 against $1,050,000 for cash, so the two groups were mostly competing for different homes.

Condos and FHA in San Diego

3.8% of San Diego's single-family closings and 4.5% of its condo closings used an FHA loan. Of the FHA closings, 54.7% were single-family homes and 35.2% condos. Condos used FHA slightly more often than houses (4.5% against 3.8%), and 35.2% of San Diego FHA closings were condos.

FHA insures a condo loan only when the unit is in an FHA-approved condominium project, meets FHA's site condominium definition or has completed FHA's Single-Unit Approval (HUD Handbook 4000.1), so ask your lender to check the building before you write an offer.

What this means for your offer in San Diego

In San Diego, FHA buyers did most of their buying from $500,000 to $1 million and in neighborhoods like Navajo, Mira Mesa and Rancho Bernardo; in Pacific Beach and Carmel Valley, FHA was 1.3% and 1.5% of closings.

With 58.1% of FHA closings going above asking, price an FHA offer here from recent sales of similar homes rather than the list price, and keep any seller credit for closing costs within HUD's 6% limit.

Freddie Mac's weekly survey put the average 30-year fixed rate at 7.11% on November 12, 2026, down from 7.18% the week before and up from 6.24% a year earlier. FHA quotes differ from that average, so compare an FHA quote with a conventional one with mortgage insurance included.

TurboHome's own California buyers took a median 28 days from accepted offer to closing on a conventional loan, against 14 days with cash (closings November 1, 2025 to October 31, 2026). Our own FHA closings are too few to report a median. The median TurboHome buyer refund in California was $14,663. 59% of TurboHome's California buyers who stated a preference (91 of 155) chose cash credits at closing. On an FHA purchase, a cash credit at closing counts toward HUD's 6% limit on interested party contributions and can pay closing costs, prepaid items and discount points, but not the 3.5% down payment.

Before a TurboHome buyer writes an offer, their agent runs a comparable-based valuation of the home and an AI offer-acceptance prediction, so the offer price rests on recent sales of similar homes rather than a citywide average. See also how much over asking San Diego buyers pay.

Methodology

Source: TurboHome's MLS closings data (our MLS feed), closings from May 1 to October 31, 2026, compared with May 1 to October 31, 2025.

Filters: single-family homes, condos and townhouses only; closings under $50,000 excluded. Financing shares use only closings where the MLS buyer-financing field carries a single value: 4,419 of 4,461 San Diego closings (99.1%). The financing mix counts every closing with a single recorded financing type. The table comparing financing types also requires a recorded days on market from 0 to 730 days, which drops a few listings per city, so its FHA count and median can differ slightly from the financing mix. Neighborhoods are those with at least 20 such closings. Prices, days on market and sale-to-list ratios are medians.

Coverage: Buyer financing is not reported in every MLS. San Francisco, Houston and Katy have almost no buyer-financing data (8% of San Francisco closings carry a financing code, and under 1% of Houston closings), and in Los Angeles and Pasadena the closings with a financing code skew far cheaper than those without one ($845,000 against $1,450,000 in Los Angeles). We left those cities out of this series rather than publish a biased share. Sacramento is left out because its sample is too small.

FHA loan limits: the San Diego County one-unit limit is from HUD's FHA mortgage limits lookup (FHA Forward, CY2026), checked November 13, 2026. These are the 2026 limits. HUD announced them in December 2025, and they apply to FHA case numbers assigned January 1 through December 31, 2026, so expect new figures for 2027. National floor and ceiling: NAR (December 11, 2025) and NAHB. Conforming limits: Rocket Mortgage (updated January 5, 2026).

FHA rules: HUD Handbook 4000.1, last revised November 26, 2025, checked November 13, 2026; annual mortgage insurance rates from Mortgagee Letter 2023-05. Mortgage rate: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, November 12, 2026.

TurboHome figures: TurboHome's own closings over $50,000 from November 1, 2025 to October 31, 2026. Our own FHA and VA closings are too few to report as medians.

FAQ

What is the FHA loan limit in San Diego in 2026?

$1,104,000 for a one-unit home. San Diego is in San Diego County, and that is HUD's 2026 FHA limit for the county (checked November 13, 2026); 60.5% of San Diego closings from May through October 2026 were priced at or under it. The limits apply to FHA case numbers assigned in 2026 and are expected to change for 2027.

How many San Diego home buyers use an FHA loan?

4.1% of San Diego closings with a recorded financing type used an FHA loan from May through October 2026 (179 closings), against 4.9% in the same months of 2025. FHA buyers paid a median $718,000, against $950,000 citywide.

Do sellers in San Diego accept FHA offers?

Yes. FHA closings in San Diego came in at a median 100.74% of list price from May through October 2026, and 58.1% closed above asking, against 98.18% and 19.8% for cash. FHA homes took a median 18 days to sell, against 14 for cash.

Can I use a buyer's agent rebate with an FHA loan?

Usually yes, as a credit toward closing costs. HUD's FHA handbook (4000.1, last revised November 26, 2025, checked November 13, 2026) counts real estate agents and sellers as interested parties, and together they can contribute up to 6% of the sales price toward your origination fees, other closing costs, prepaid items and discount points. Those contributions cannot pay the 3.5% minimum down payment, and anything above 6% or above your actual costs is treated as an inducement that lowers the price your loan is based on, so tell your lender about the rebate early.

Who are the flat-fee buyer's agents in San Diego?

TurboHome is a flat-fee buyer's brokerage with licensed agents in San Diego. Its agents handle tours, offers, negotiation and closing for a flat fee instead of a percentage commission, and TurboHome refunds the rest of the buyer-side commission to the buyer at closing. For other companies that refund part of the commission, see the companies that refund the buyer's agent commission in California.

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