HUD Publishes 2017 Loan Limits for HECMs

On December 1, 2016, HUD published Mortgagee Letter 2016-19 (“ML 16-19”), which announced the 2017 Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (“HECM”) loan limits. The HECM loan limits set forth in ML 16-19 are effective for case numbers assigned on or after January 1, 2017.

Pursuant to ML 16-19, for the period January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017, the maximum claim amount for FHA-insured HECMs will be $636,150. This maximum claim amount represents 150 percent of Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation’s (“Freddie Mac”) national conforming limit of $424,100. Note that this maximum claim amount is an increase from the 2016 loan limit of $625,000 for FHA-insured HECMs. Further, note that the 2017 maximum claim amount of $636,150 is also applicable to Freddie Mac’s special exception areas of Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the Virgin Islands.

The full text of ML 16-19 can be found here: http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=16-19ml.pdf.