Jumbo Loan

A jumbo loan is a mortgage with a loan amount above the conforming loan limit set each year by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). Because jumbo loans cannot be purchased by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, they are funded through private investor programs — each with its own rules on credit, down payment, reserves, and documentation.

For 2026, any loan amount above $832,750 on a one-unit property is a jumbo loan in every Louisiana parish. The FHFA resets this number each November for the following year, so the threshold moves over time. Louisiana does not have any high-cost designated areas, so the baseline limit applies statewide.

Jumbo loans are not inherently harder to qualify for than conforming loans — they are different. Guidelines vary by investor, so one program may want a 20% down payment and another may allow 10% for the same borrower. Rates also move independently of conforming rates and can be higher, equal, or occasionally lower depending on the market. Who you work with and how your file is structured matters more on jumbo than it does on a standard conforming file.

Why This Matters: Jumbo files reward preparation. Walking through credit, down payment, reserves, and income documentation before you make an offer helps you match the file to the right program — and often saves meaningful money over the life of the loan. In some cases, a bigger down payment keeps you conforming entirely, or a VA loan with full entitlement eliminates the need for jumbo pricing altogether.