High-Balance Loans
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Last updated: 08/2025
Welcome to TopOne Mortgage—your Rockville based correspondent lender with in-house warehouse funding for lightning-fast closings. If your dream home costs more than the standard conforming cap but less than the jumbo threshold, a high-balance loan (also called a high-cost or super-conforming loan) lets you borrow at near-conforming rates with only 5 % down.
What Makes a Loan ‘High-Balance’?
A high-balance loan sits above the national conforming limit ($806,500 in 2025) yet below the local high-cost ceiling set by FHFA.
- In Fairfax, Arlington, Montgomery, and D.C., the 2025 one-unit high-cost limit is $1,209,750.
- Loans up to that number still follow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines—so rates run much closer to conforming pricing than to jumbo.
- Credit score: 680 + (740 + earns best pricing).
- DTI: ≤ 45 % (50 % with strong compensating factors).
- Down payment: as low as 5 % for primary homes; PMI may apply until 80 % LTV.
- Appraisals: need only one report in most cases—unlike many jumbo loans that require two.
Why choose a High-Balance Loan from TopOne?
- Lower rates than jumbo: super-conforming pricing averages 0.125 %–0.25 % below comparable jumbo.
- 5 %-down options: great for move-up buyers who haven’t built 20 % equity yet.
- One appraisal, one set of guidelines: underwritten by automated DU® or LPA® findings.
- Local tax savvy: we structure loans to capture Maryland recordation-tax credits and Virginia grantor-tax exemptions—often shaving hundreds off closing costs.
- Fast closings: rapid underwriting + warehouse line = most high-balance files close in 21–30 days.
- Proactive loan reviews: We check in with past clients each year and let you know if market rates drop enough to make a refinance worthwhile.