FHA multifamily loan sizer
FHA sizes every 223(f) and 221(d)(4) loan several ways and insures the smallest answer. Put in the property and this runs the tests a borrower can estimate, with 2026 statutory limits, the ratios HUD set in January 2025 and the 0.25% mortgage insurance premium. The lowest bar is the one that controls.
Estimated maximum FHA-insured loan (illustration, not a quote)
$19,200,000Cash-out test controls
- Statutory limit$28,230,000
120 units at the 2026 207/223(f) per-unit limits, non-elevator, times 270%
- Loan to value$20,880,000
87% of value
- Debt service coverage$19,390,000
net operating income at 1.15x, 5.54% over 35 years plus 0.25% MIP
- Cash-out test$19,200,000
greater of 80% of value or the cost to refinance. This one controls.
- Monthly principal and interest
- $103,611
- Annual MIP (0.25%)
- $48,000
- Upfront MIP
- $48,000
- HUD application fee (0.30%)
- $57,600
- Debt service coverage at that size
- 1.16
- Loan to value or cost
- 80.0%
- Loan per unit
- $160,000
An estimate, not a commitment. The default rate is a benchmark from HUD's own loan file, not a quote; HUD and the lender size the real loan from their own appraisal, underwriting and rate.
The tests, and where each number comes from
Statutory limit. Congress caps the loan per unit, by bedroom count and building type, and HUD indexes the caps every January. The 2026 figures (FR Doc 2026-08795, effective January 1, 2026) are on the limits page. HUD lets every listed area go to 270% of those figures, and Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands to 405% (Mortgagee Letter 2026-05). The sizer uses the dwelling units only; commercial space and the 315% project-by-project waiver are left out.
Loan to value or cost. Since Mortgagee Letter 2025-03 (January 8, 2025), market-rate 223(f) and 221(d)(4) loans go to 87%, and affordable and heavily assisted ones to 90%. Mortgagee Letter 2026-01 added a 90% middle-income tier for 221(d)(4).
Debt service coverage. 1.15 for market rate, 1.11 for the other tiers. HUD counts principal, interest and mortgage insurance as debt service (MAP Guide 3.1.25), so the sizer adds the 0.25% annual MIP. Terms are the program maximums: 35 years for 223(f), 40 for 221(d)(4).
Cash-out and acquisition. A 223(f) refinance can't exceed the greater of 80% of value or the cost to refinance (MAP Guide 3.7.11). An acquisition is also capped at the loan ratio times the purchase cost.
Large loans. At $130 million and up (the 2026 threshold) HUD applies tighter ratios under Mortgagee Letter 2023-14, and the sizer reruns with them. HUD hasn't set a large-loan ratio for the new middle-income tier, so the sizer uses the market-rate one there.
Left out: the replacement-cost and land tests inside Criterion 3 for new construction, Section 8 rent limits, ground leases, the repair cap that pushes heavy work from 223(f) to 221(d)(4), and anything an appraiser or HUD underwriter will change. Treat the answer as the right order of magnitude.
Want the number a lender would use?
Send the deal to the commercial mortgage team at Janover Capital LLC with the rent roll and trailing twelve months. A person at Janover Capital will reply with a view on which program fits and roughly what it might size to. Any terms come from the lender.