FHA loans in Austin, TX: 2026 limits and what buyers actually pay

5.6% of Austin home sales with a recorded financing type closed with an FHA loan from May through October 2026. FHA buyers paid a median $385,000, against $555,000 citywide, and the 2026 FHA loan limit for a one-unit home in Travis County is $571,550. Austin is the one city in this series where the median closing of every financing type came in below list, FHA included (98.64%). The order still held: FHA buyers paid the most of list and cash buyers the least (95.61%). FHA homes sat a median 63 days on market, against 64 for cash.

TurboHome Market Analysis · 2,988 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 Austin with an FHA loan, and how do FHA offers fare against cash. It uses 2,988 single-family, condo and townhouse closings in our MLS feed from May 1 to October 31, 2026, of which 2,930 (98.1%) recorded a single financing type.

What is the FHA loan limit in Austin?

The 2026 FHA loan limit for a one-unit home in Travis County is $571,550, according to HUD's FHA mortgage limits lookup (checked November 13, 2026). 50.9% of Austin closings from May through October 2026 were priced at or under that figure. That is about half of all closings. Travis County's limit sits above the national floor of $541,287 rather than at it, and the median FHA buyer, at $385,000, paid 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 Austin actually use an FHA loan

2,930 of 2,988 Austin closings from May through October 2026 (98.1%) recorded a single financing type. Of those, 5.6% used an FHA loan (165 closings). There is no comparison with 2025 for Austin: our MLS feed for Austin carries only 26 closings from May through October 2025, too few to compare. Conventional loans paid for 62.5% of these closings and cash for 25.7%, so about one Austin buyer in four paid cash. VA paid for 3.4%.

FHA buyers paid a median $385,000. The citywide median was $555,000, and the median home sold in 54 days.

Where FHA buyers are closing in Austin

1. Easton Park15.2%
2. Garrison Park8.3%
3. Southwest Austin7.1%
4. West Oak Hill5.3%
5. Anderson Mill3.0%
6. Downtown0%
7. Circle C0%
8. Steiner Ranch0%
9. West Campus0%
10. Northwest Hills0%
11. Rosedale0%
12. Zilker0%
13. Tarrytown0%
14. Lakeway0%

0%5%10%15%20%

Easton Park is where FHA and VA buyers actually close in Austin: 15.2% FHA and 11.1% VA, a quarter of the neighborhood's closings between them, in a master-planned area at the city's southeast edge. FHA buyers there paid a median $520,000, against $547,000 for the neighborhood.

Nine of the 14 largest neighborhoods recorded no FHA closings at all in six months: Downtown, Circle C, Steiner Ranch, West Campus, Northwest Hills, Rosedale, Zilker, Tarrytown and Lakeway. Price is not the only reason: West Campus, at a median $288,800, had no FHA closings and 62.8% cash.

FHA by price range in Austin

Austin FHA money sits from $300,000 to $500,000, where 13.2% of closings used FHA. Under $300,000 the share drops to 5.8%, with 46.1% of those closings paid in cash, and from $500,000 to $750,000 it is 3.1%. No closing above $750,000 used FHA.

Do sellers accept FHA offers in Austin?

Here is how Austin 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.

In Austin, every financing type closed below list at the median, in a market where the median home took 54 days to sell. FHA closings came in at a median 98.64% of list, the highest of the four types, against 98.25% for VA, 97.70% for conventional loans and 95.61% for cash. 87.7% of cash closings went below asking, against 60.6% of FHA closings.

FHA homes took a median 63 days to sell, about the same as cash at 64 and longer than conventional loans at 49. FHA buyers paid a median $385,000 against $575,000 for cash, so they were shopping a cheaper part of the market, which is part of the explanation. The closings show what each group paid, not that sellers prefer FHA.

Condos and FHA in Austin

6.3% of Austin's single-family closings and 2.1% of its condo closings used an FHA loan. Of the FHA closings, 89.1% were single-family homes and 6.7% condos. Austin has the largest condo share of FHA closings among the four Texas cities in this series: 6.7% of FHA closings were condos and 89.1% single-family homes. Still, only 2.1% of condo sales used FHA.

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 Austin

In Austin, an FHA offer is most realistic from $300,000 to $500,000 and in neighborhoods like Easton Park, Garrison Park (8.3%) and Southwest Austin (7.1%), where FHA buyers already close. In Downtown, Zilker, Tarrytown and West Campus, where 44.4% to 62.8% of buyers paid cash, nobody closed with FHA in six months.

Austin is one place where an FHA buyer can still negotiate: the median FHA closing came in at 98.64% of list, and 60.6% of FHA closings went below asking. Expect a long wait too, a median 63 days on market for FHA homes.

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 Texas buyers took a median 31 days from accepted offer to closing on a conventional loan (closings November 1, 2025 to October 31, 2026; Texas is a small sample of 37 closings with a recorded financing type). Our own FHA closings are too few to report a median. The median TurboHome buyer refund in Texas was $5,697, also from that small sample. 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 Austin buyers pay.

Methodology

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

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: 2,930 of 2,988 Austin closings (98.1%). 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 Travis 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.

Notes for Austin:

• Austin closings come from ACTRIS, the Austin MLS. Its days on market are cumulative days on market, which keep counting across relistings, the same measure our other Austin pages use.
• The neighborhood table covers the Austin MLS area, not only the city limits: Steiner Ranch and Lakeway are outside Austin city limits.
• Houston is a TurboHome market, served by our licensed Texas agents, but it is not in this series because under 1% of Houston closings in our MLS feed carry a buyer-financing type.

FAQ

Related guides

• FHA loans by city
• How much over asking to offer in Austin
• Days on market in Austin
• Closing costs in Austin
• Price per square foot in Austin
• Condo vs house prices in Austin
• HOA fees in Austin
• Property taxes in Austin
• Low-commission realtors in Austin
• Greater Austin home buying guides
• Texas home buying guides
• How to get cash back when you buy a house
• Answers on commissions and rebates
• What TurboHome costs

About the Author

Vinura Abeysundara

Vinura Abeysundara is a real estate and growth professional with experience scaling homebuying platforms across Canada and the United States. Formerly Head of Growth at Zown, he now works with TurboHome and writes about homebuyer savings, flat-fee real estate, commissions, and technology in real estate.

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About Jake Shuler

Agent, Texas

Jake Shuler is a Texas REALTOR® with more than 10 years of real estate experience and over 200 successful transactions. As an agent at TurboHome, he helps buyers navigate the Texas housing market and writes about homebuying, negotiations, local market trends, and ways buyers can save throughout the process.

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