what is a jumbo mortgage anyway?
Currently, a jumbo mortgage is a mortgage loan that exceeds $417,000. A loan that exceeds $417,000 is considered a “non-conforming” loan and will be underwritten as a jumbo. All lenders have caps on jumbo mortgages, but you will find they vary from lender to lender. If you call three different banks, you will often hear three different “maximum loan amounts” regarding their jumbo loans. Sometimes the maximum loan amount is as low as a million dollars, but it seems that the average maximum loan amount is $2,000,000. Of course, because home values change over the years, the jumbo loan limits have changed in kind. Every few years, the jumbo mortgage loan limits are raised. Also, it should be noted that- due to higher home values in general- Alaska and Hawaii have higher jumbo loan minimums, or for that matter, conforming loan maximums. Definition of jumbo mortgage loan, paraphrased from Wikipedia: A jumbo mortgage is a mortgage with a loan amount above the industry standard definition of
