VA Loan Limits in 2026: No Cap With Full Entitlement, an $832,750 Baseline If Yours Is Partial
7 min read · Last updated August 27, 2026
- Veterans with full entitlement have no VA-imposed maximum loan amount in 2026, per VA.gov.
- The 2026 baseline conforming loan limit for a one-unit home is $832,750, up $26,250 from 2025.
- High-cost counties can run as high as $1,249,125, which is 150 percent of the baseline.
- A veteran with partial entitlement typically owes a down payment equal to 25 percent of whatever the purchase price exceeds their guaranty-supported loan ceiling, not 25 percent of the full price.
In this article
- What “no VA loan limit” means for full entitlement in 2026
- Full entitlement vs partial entitlement: why the gap exists
- The 2026 worked example: guaranty math and the down payment gap
- How to find your county’s conforming loan limit
- What restores your full entitlement
- Frequently asked questions
A veteran who still owes $210,000 on the VA loan from his first house is shopping for a second home priced at $750,000, and his lender just told him he needs a down payment, even though VA loans are famous for requiring none. He isn’t being scammed and the lender isn’t wrong. He has partial entitlement, not full entitlement, and in 2026 those two words decide whether a loan limit still applies to him at all. The mechanics of how entitlement gets split in the first place are covered in our guide to second-tier entitlement; this article focuses on what the remaining limit actually means for the math on your next purchase.
What “no VA loan limit” means for full entitlement in 2026
Before 2020, every VA-backed loan carried a maximum amount tied to the county where the home sat. The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019 changed that for veterans with full entitlement, effective for loans that closed on or after January 1, 2020. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ own loan limits page, a veteran whose Certificate of Eligibility (COE), the document that states how much loan guaranty the VA has available for you, shows full entitlement has no loan limit, as long as the veteran can afford the payment and the home’s appraised value supports the purchase price.
That’s a real change from what most people still assume about VA loans, and it’s worth being precise about what it does and doesn’t remove. There’s still a practical ceiling: your lender. The VA no longer sets a dollar cap of its own, but no lender hands over a seven-figure loan with no underwriting behind it. Your income, credit history, and debt-to-income ratio still determine what you can actually borrow. The 2020 law removed the government’s own loan-size limit, not the lender’s judgment.
Full entitlement vs partial entitlement: why the gap exists
Full entitlement is the default for most first-time VA borrowers. You have it if you’ve never used your VA loan benefit, or if you used it before and it has since been restored (more on that below). Your COE shows a basic entitlement figure of $36,000, which the VA describes not as your borrowing limit, but as the maximum amount the agency will repay your lender if you default.
Partial, or reduced, entitlement is different, and it’s more common than veterans expect. You likely have it if any of the following is true:
- You currently have an outstanding VA loan you haven’t paid off
- You paid off a VA loan but still own the home, and haven’t requested restoration
- You had a VA loan foreclosed on, and the VA paid a claim on it
- You short-sold or gave a deed-in-lieu on a home financed with a VA loan
If any of these apply, part of your entitlement is still tied up in the earlier loan, and the 2020 no-limit rule doesn’t reach you. This is exactly where the county-level conforming loan limit set by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the federal regulator that caps the loan size Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can buy, comes back into the picture. Lenders use that figure as the ceiling for calculating how much guaranty your remaining entitlement can support.
The 2026 worked example: guaranty math and the down payment gap
The FHFA raised the national conforming loan limit for a one-unit home to $832,750 for 2026, an increase of $26,250 from 2025’s $806,500, according to FHFA’s own 2026 announcement. Higher-cost counties, where 115 percent of the local median home value exceeds that baseline, get a higher figure, up to a ceiling of $1,249,125, which is 150 percent of the baseline.
Here’s how a veteran with partial entitlement turns that number into an actual borrowing ceiling, using the same guaranty formula VA.gov walks through on its own loan limits page.
Say a veteran has $40,000 of entitlement already charged to a prior VA loan that’s still outstanding, and wants to buy in a county sitting at the 2026 baseline limit:
| Input | Amount |
|---|---|
| Entitlement already charged to the prior VA loan | $40,000 |
| 2026 FHFA one-unit conforming loan limit (baseline county) | $832,750 |
| Full guaranty available at this limit (25% of $832,750) | $208,187.50 |
| Remaining bonus entitlement (guaranty minus entitlement charged) | $168,187.50 |
| Loan amount most lenders will approve with $0 down (remaining entitlement x 4) | $672,750 |
$672,750 is the most this veteran can typically borrow with no down payment, using the VA’s own guaranty formula. If the home costs more than that, the veteran isn’t shut out of the purchase. The lender will usually still close the loan, called a VA jumbo loan in industry shorthand, but will ask for a down payment covering 25 percent of the gap between the purchase price and that guaranty-supported ceiling, not 25 percent of the whole purchase price.
On a $750,000 purchase against a $672,750 ceiling, that’s a $77,250 gap, and 25 percent of that gap comes to about $19,313. Compare that to a conventional buyer putting 10 percent down on the same $750,000 home, which is $75,000, and the entitlement math still runs heavily in the veteran’s favor. It’s a real number though, not zero, and a loan officer should confirm the exact figure against your COE before you make an offer.
How to find your county’s conforming loan limit
Every county gets its own figure from the FHFA, not just the national baseline. Before assuming the $832,750 number applies to your purchase, look up your specific county through FHFA’s conforming loan limit page, which links to the current one-unit limit for every county in the country. A veteran house-hunting in a high-cost metro area, like parts of California, Hawaii, or the Washington, D.C. suburbs, will typically see a limit well above the baseline, sometimes at or near the $1,249,125 ceiling. A veteran buying in most of the rest of the country will see the flat $832,750 figure.
This isn’t a number that changes on its own or stays fixed year to year. It moves once a year, in December, when the FHFA recalculates it against its own house price index. If you’re planning a purchase for next year, check the lookup tool again closer to your closing date rather than working off a figure you saw months earlier.
What restores your full entitlement
Partial entitlement isn’t permanent. According to VA’s home loan eligibility page, you can restore entitlement used on a prior loan if at least one of the following is true:
- You sold the home financed with the prior loan and paid that loan off in full
- A qualified veteran buyer agreed to assume your loan and substitute their own entitlement for yours
- You paid the prior loan off in full but kept the home, which allows a one-time restoration only
That last option matters most to veterans who paid off a starter home years ago and want to buy again without selling it, for example to keep it as a rental. It works exactly once. If you’ve already used that one-time restoration, the only path back to full entitlement is selling the property tied to the old loan or having another veteran assume it.
You can request restoration online through VA.gov, ask your lender to submit it for you, or file VA Form 26-1880 directly. None of this happens automatically. Assuming your entitlement restored itself the moment your mortgage balance hit zero is one of the most common mistakes veterans make in this process. Confirm your COE actually reflects the restoration before you make an offer on a new home.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if I have full or partial VA loan entitlement? Check your Certificate of Eligibility (COE), the VA document that states your entitlement amount. A basic entitlement of $36,000 means full entitlement and no VA-imposed loan limit. A lower balance means entitlement is still tied up in a previous loan you haven’t paid off, sold, or had restored.
Does the 2026 conforming loan limit apply to me if I have full entitlement? No. The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act removed the VA-imposed maximum for veterans with full entitlement starting in 2020. Your lender still sets its own borrowing limit based on income, credit, and debt-to-income ratio, but the VA no longer caps the loan amount itself.
What happens if I want to buy above my county’s conforming loan limit with partial entitlement? You can still buy above the limit. Your lender will likely require a down payment covering 25 percent of the amount your purchase price exceeds the loan amount your remaining entitlement supports with zero down. This is sometimes called a VA jumbo loan.
Can I restore my entitlement without selling my first home? Yes, in one specific case. If you’ve paid off the prior VA loan in full but kept the home, you can request a one-time restoration of entitlement. Outside that, entitlement typically restores when you sell the home and pay off the loan, or when a qualified veteran buyer assumes it.
Is the conforming loan limit the same in every county in 2026? No. The $832,750 baseline applies to most of the country, but counties where median home values run higher get a higher limit, up to $1,249,125 in the highest-cost areas. Check your specific county before assuming the baseline number applies to your purchase.
