Mortgage Lender in Montgomery County, MD: 2026 Guide
Short answer: Montgomery County is the most expensive place mortgage lenders in Maryland write loans, and it is a high cost county by federal definition. The 2026 conforming loan limit here is $1,249,125, the combined property tax rate in the unincorporated county is $1.1521 per $100 of assessed value, and Maryland stacks a state transfer tax, a county transfer tax and a tiered recordation tax on the same settlement. A lender who does not price those three things correctly will hand you a good faith estimate that is wrong by thousands. That, not marketing, is what local actually means here. The Ken Byrne Team at JB Financing closes these in Montgomery County every month.
Most guides to picking a mortgage lender in Montgomery County give you a list of adjectives. Responsive. Experienced. Trustworthy. None of that is checkable before you are already under contract, so this guide is written the way we would want to be checked ourselves, as mortgage lenders in Virginia, Maryland, DC and West Virginia.
This one is built the other way round. Below are the specific 2026 numbers that govern a purchase anywhere in Montgomery County, from Rockville and Silver Spring to Bethesda, Gaithersburg and Germantown, every one of them traced to the agency that publishes it, and the questions you can ask a lender to find out in about four minutes whether they actually work here.
The numbers that set your budget in 2026
| What | 2026 figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Conforming loan limit, one unit | $1,249,125 | FHFA, Montgomery County MD, CBSA 47900 |
| Conforming limit, two unit | $1,599,375 | FHFA |
| Conforming limit, three unit | $1,933,200 | FHFA |
| Conforming limit, four unit | $2,402,625 | FHFA |
| FHA high cost ceiling, one unit | $1,249,125 | HUD, effective for case numbers assigned on or after January 1, 2026 |
| FHA national floor, one unit | $541,287 | HUD |
| 30 year fixed average | 6.66% | Freddie Mac PMMS, week of August 27, 2026 |
| 15 year fixed average | 5.98% | Freddie Mac PMMS |
| Median list price, Montgomery County | $599,000 | Realtor.com via FRED, July 2026 |
| Median days on market | 38 | Realtor.com via FRED, July 2026 |
| Active listings | 2,105 | Realtor.com via FRED, July 2026 |
Loan limits from the FHFA 2026 county file, row 24031 Montgomery County MD. Rate averages are national survey averages, not quotes. Your rate depends on credit, loan size, occupancy and program.
Two things in that table matter more than the rest. Run them through our affordability check before you shop.
The first is $1,249,125. That is the ceiling, the highest conforming limit in the country, and Montgomery County gets it because it sits in the Washington metro area. A buyer in most of Maryland crosses into jumbo territory at $832,750. Here you do not cross until $1,249,125, which with twenty percent down covers a purchase price of roughly $1.56 million. If a lender quotes you jumbo pricing on a $900,000 house in Bethesda, they have used the national baseline instead of the county limit, and you are being priced out of a product you actually qualify for.
The second is the shape of the market. The median list price is $599,000, down from $656,225 in July 2025. Active listings are up about eighteen percent year over year, from 1,788 to 2,105. Median days on market went from 36 to 38. That is not a crash and it is not a boom. It is a market where a buyer has slightly more room to negotiate than a year ago and slightly less reason to waive everything in sight.
What Maryland settlement actually costs, and why it surprises people
This is where out of state lenders get Montgomery County wrong most often. Maryland charges three separate taxes at settlement, and two of them are large.
| Tax | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Maryland state transfer tax | 0.5% of consideration | Reduced to 0.25% and paid entirely by the seller when the buyer is a first time Maryland homebuyer purchasing a principal residence |
| Montgomery County transfer tax | 1% of the selling price | Set by the county, separate from the state tax |
| Montgomery County recordation tax | Tiered, see below | Base $2.08 per $500 plus a school increment of $2.37 per $500 |
Rates from Maryland Tax-Property Article 13-203 and the Montgomery County Department of Finance.
The recordation tax is the one nobody predicts, because it is tiered on the amount above $500,000. Montgomery County Bill 17-23 set these rates, effective October 1, 2023.
| Consideration band | Rate per $500 |
|---|---|
| Base rate, all amounts | $2.08 |
| School increment, all amounts | $2.37 |
| $500,000 to $600,000 | $2.30 |
| $600,000.01 to $750,000 | $5.75 |
| $750,000.01 to $1,000,000 | $6.33 |
| $1,000,000.01 and over | $6.90 |
Source: Montgomery County Department of Finance, Bill 17-23 recordation tax changes.
Notice what happens between $600,000 and $750,000. The premium rate more than doubles. On a county where the median list price is $599,000, a very large number of buyers are shopping right on top of that line. It is worth knowing before you write an escalation clause that carries you over it.
Montgomery County publishes an exemption of $890 that may be available to owners of occupied residential property. Ask your settlement company whether your purchase qualifies. The exact recordation figure is calculated by the settlement company from the recorded consideration, so treat any lender estimate as an estimate until you see the closing disclosure.
The transfer taxes, by contrast, are simple arithmetic. On a $599,000 purchase the county transfer tax is $5,990 and the state transfer tax is $2,995. If you are a first time Maryland homebuyer, the state portion drops to $1,497.50 and the seller pays it. Who pays the county one percent is negotiated in the contract, and in this market that is a real negotiation rather than a formality.
For a fuller breakdown of everything else on the settlement sheet, see our guide to Maryland closing costs.
Want your actual settlement number, not a range?
Send me the address and the price you are thinking about and I will run the transfer, recordation and property tax figures for that specific purchase.
Loans originated by Ken Byrne, NMLS ID# 187129 · ALCOVA Mortgage LLC, NMLS ID# 40508. Equal Housing Lender.
Property tax, the line most buyers underestimate
Montgomery County sets its rates by levy year. The 2026 levy year runs July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, and here is what it looks like. Our payment calculator folds the county rate into a monthly figure.
| Where the property is | Total rate per $100 of assessed value |
|---|---|
| Unincorporated Montgomery County | 1.1521 |
| Gaithersburg | 1.1521 |
| Poolesville | 1.1521 |
| Rockville | 1.1598 |
| Takoma Park | 1.1871 |
| Chevy Chase Village | 1.3250 |
Source: Montgomery County, Maryland 2026 Levy Year Real Property Tax Rate Schedule. Totals include the State of Maryland rate of 0.1120.
Maryland assesses residential property at full market value, phased in over three years, so a recent purchase price is a fair proxy for what you will eventually be assessed at. At the $599,000 median, the unincorporated county rate produces roughly $6,901 a year, or about $575 a month inside your escrow.
That $575 is not a rounding error. On a payment where principal and interest at 6.66 percent with twenty percent down is about $3,079, property tax adds close to nineteen percent on top before you count insurance. A lender who uses a generic one percent assumption for Maryland will under quote your monthly payment by roughly ninety dollars, and you will find out at the closing disclosure.
One more thing worth doing in your first year. Maryland caps how fast the assessment used for county tax can rise through the Homestead Tax Credit, and both the state and Montgomery County set that cap at ten percent. It requires a one time application, it is not automatic on a purchase, and people forget.
Source: Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation, county and municipal homestead credit percentages.
Which loan program actually fits here
| Program | Where it fits in Montgomery County | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Conventional | Anything up to $1,249,125. This is most purchases in the county | Mortgage insurance below twenty percent down, removable later |
| FHA | Credit or debt to income that conventional will not take | Mortgage insurance premium generally lasts the life of the loan at low down payments |
| VA | Any eligible service member or veteran. No down payment and no mortgage insurance | A funding fee unless you are exempt |
| Jumbo | Above $1,249,125 | Tighter reserves, often a second appraisal, usually the slowest to close |
| USDA | Only where USDA maps the address as eligible | Eligibility is address level, so check the map rather than assuming a town qualifies |
The VA point deserves its own paragraph, because it is the single most misquoted product in this county and Montgomery County has a very large federal and military population.
VA does not impose a loan limit on a borrower with full entitlement. The Department of Veterans Affairs states it plainly: you do not have a loan limit as long as you can afford the loan and the appraisal supports the price. The maximum on any individual property is the appraised value or the purchase price, whichever is lower. So a veteran with full entitlement buying a $1.4 million house in Potomac is not automatically in jumbo territory, whatever a call center tells them.
The funding fee is the real cost, and it is fixed by VA.
| Down payment | First use | Subsequent use |
|---|---|---|
| Less than 5% | 2.15% | 3.3% |
| 5% or more | 1.5% | 1.5% |
| 10% or more | 1.25% | 1.25% |
Source: VA, purchase loan funding fee rates effective April 7, 2023. Veterans receiving compensation for a service connected disability, certain surviving spouses and Purple Heart recipients on active duty are exempt.
If you are a veteran, our VA loan page goes deeper on entitlement, the funding fee and how the appraisal differs.
“Half the calls I get from Montgomery County start with a quote that used the national loan limit instead of the county one. Send me the number you were given and I will tell you which limit it was priced against.”
Arslan Jamil, Broker Associate
Loans originated by Ken Byrne, NMLS ID# 187129 · ALCOVA Mortgage LLC, NMLS ID# 40508. Equal Housing Lender.
Assistance programs that are actually open in 2026
Montgomery County has more layered assistance than almost any jurisdiction in the region, and also more stale information floating around about it. Here is what is live. Many buyers here work for NIH, FDA or NIST, and our guide for federal employees covers how that income is underwritten.
Montgomery Homeownership Program
Run through the Maryland Mortgage Program, this pairs an MMP first mortgage with a second mortgage of up to $50,000 for down payment and closing costs, capped at forty percent of household income. The second carries a zero percent interest rate and repayment is deferred until sale, refinance, transfer, or thirty years, whichever comes first. Unused funds go to principal reduction rather than back to you as cash. It is open to any MMP eligible borrower buying in Montgomery County.
MEDPAL, for county employees
The Montgomery Employee Down Payment Assistance Loan is the same $50,000 second mortgage at zero percent, restricted to approved Montgomery County employees buying in the county. Borrowers must meet both the MMP household income limits and the county workforce housing income limits, and must put in at least one percent of the purchase price from their own funds. It is forgiven after thirty years if not repaid earlier.
Maryland SmartBuy 3.0
If student debt is what is keeping you from buying, this pays off up to fifteen percent of the purchase price, capped at $25,000, as a zero percent loan that is fully forgiven after five years in the home. You need at least $1,000 in student loan debt, a minimum 720 credit score, and either first time buyer status or a purchase in a targeted area.
The MMP limits you have to fit inside
| MMP limit, Montgomery County | Amount |
|---|---|
| Household income, 1 or 2 people | $199,320 |
| Household income, 3 or more | $232,540 |
| Maximum acquisition cost, non targeted | $1,306,974 |
| Maximum acquisition cost, targeted | $1,597,413 |
| CDA maximum mortgage | $832,750 |
Source: Maryland Mortgage Program 2026 income and purchase price limits, effective June 24, 2026.
One correction worth making. Maryland HomeCredit, the state mortgage credit certificate that gave buyers a federal tax credit of twenty five percent of mortgage interest up to $2,000 a year, has been closed to new reservations since June 19, 2020, and DHCD states it does not plan to reopen it in the immediate future. If a lender or a blog is still offering it to you as a live option, that page has not been updated in six years.
MPDU, the program most people have heard of and few finish
Montgomery County requires new residential developments to include Moderately Priced Dwelling Units, and the purchase side of that program is genuinely the cheapest way into the county for households that qualify. It is also a process, not a discount you ask for at settlement.
| Household size | Maximum household income |
|---|---|
| 1 person | $81,500 |
| 2 people | $93,000 |
| 3 people | $104,500 |
| 4 people | $116,500 |
| 5 people | $125,500 |
| 6 people | $135,000 |
Source: Montgomery County Department of Housing and Community Affairs, MPDU purchase applicant income limits effective May 1, 2026.
Beyond income, three requirements catch people out.
- Nobody in the household may have owned a home anywhere in the past five years. Not just the applicant. The whole household.
- Three separate courses, in order. An MPDU orientation seminar, then an eight hour first time homebuyer class held on the second Saturday of the month, then an online application tutorial. You cannot register for the class unless you attended the orientation within the past two years.
- Certificates expire. Two years. One that has been expired more than ninety days sends you back to the beginning of the process.
If MPDU is in your plan, start the orientation before you start looking at houses, not after. The timeline is the binding constraint, not the money, and starting in the wrong order can cost you a year.
Most of what separates mortgage lenders in Maryland has nothing to do with the rate on the billboard. State law, the transfer and recordation structure above, and the Maryland Mortgage Program approvals a lender does or does not hold are what change the number you sign at the table. The check below works anywhere in the state. It matters most in Montgomery County because the dollar amounts here are larger, so every point of difference costs more.
How to check mortgage lenders in Maryland in four minutes
When you are comparing mortgage lenders in Maryland, whether the branch is in Rockville, Silver Spring or Bethesda, ask these five questions. The answers tell you more than any review page.
| Ask this | What a Montgomery County lender says | What a call center says |
|---|---|---|
| What is my conforming limit here? | $1,249,125 | $832,750, or they look it up while you wait |
| What will my transfer and recordation taxes be? | Names all three taxes and the tiered structure | Quotes a flat percentage, or says the title company handles it |
| What property tax rate are you using in my payment? | 1.1521 per $100, or the municipal rate if I am in a town | One percent of purchase price |
| Am I eligible for the Montgomery Homeownership Program? | Knows the $50,000 second and the MMP income limits | Has not heard of it |
| Are you licensed in Maryland? | Yes, and gives the NMLS number | Yes, but licensed in a state does not mean experienced in the county |
Licensing is a floor, not a qualification. Any lender operating in Maryland is registered with the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System and you can verify an individual originator and a company by NMLS number in about thirty seconds. What licensing does not tell you is whether they have closed a file in Chevy Chase this year.
The other thing worth asking about is timing. Contracts in this county are usually written for thirty days, and a file that has been fully underwritten before you shop can close faster than one that starts at ratification. We wrote a whole piece on that: the week by week closing timeline.
Questions Montgomery County buyers actually ask
Is a $900,000 house in Bethesda a jumbo loan?
No. The 2026 conforming limit for Montgomery County is $1,249,125, so $900,000 is a conventional conforming loan amount. You would only be in jumbo territory above that limit.
Who pays the transfer taxes here?
It is negotiated in the contract, with one exception. If you are a first time Maryland homebuyer buying a principal residence, state law reduces the state transfer tax to 0.25 percent and requires the seller to pay all of it. The county one percent is still open to negotiation.
Do I need to be a first time buyer for the Montgomery Homeownership Program?
You need to be MMP eligible, and MMP first mortgage products generally target first time buyers, though repeat buyers purchasing in targeted areas can qualify for some products. Ask your lender to check your specific address against the targeted area map before you assume either way.
Should I use a national lender for a better rate?
Compare the closing disclosure, not the advertised rate. A rate that is an eighth lower on a file that is priced against the wrong loan limit, the wrong property tax rate and the wrong recordation tier is not actually lower. Ask both lenders, the national one and one of the local mortgage lenders in Maryland, for a written estimate on the same property and the same price, then compare the bottom line.
How much do I need to put down?
Zero on a VA loan with full entitlement, three and a half percent on FHA, three percent on some conventional first time buyer products, and potentially far less than any of those out of pocket if you qualify for the Montgomery Homeownership Program second mortgage. The right question is not the percentage, it is how much cash you need at the table after every program you qualify for is stacked.
How do I choose between mortgage lenders in Maryland?
Start with the Loan Estimate, not the quoted rate. Compare page two, section A, across every lender you are talking to, because origination and underwriting fees sit there and that is the line that actually varies. Then confirm the lender is approved to originate Maryland Mortgage Program loans if you want down payment assistance, and confirm they have closed in your county recently. Recordation and transfer tax handling in Montgomery County catches lenders who work mostly outside Maryland, and the correction usually surfaces two days before settlement.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax or legal advice. Rates, loan limits, tax rates and program terms change and are current as of publication. Property tax figures are illustrative and depend on the assessed value set by the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation, not the purchase price. Program eligibility is determined by the administering agency. Contact a licensed mortgage professional for guidance specific to your situation. Ken Byrne, NMLS #187129 · ALCOVA Mortgage LLC, NMLS #40508 · Licensed in VA, MD, DC, WV. Equal Housing Lender.
Categories
Recent Posts
GET MORE INFORMATION
Broker Associate