If you are buying in Westwood, on the Wilshire Corridor, or anywhere on the Westside of Los Angeles, you have probably been told that government-backed loans are not really an option at these prices. That is half right, and the half that is wrong costs buyers money.
FHA and VA financing are not automatically out of reach here. Los Angeles County sits at the highest loan limit the federal government publishes, which puts a meaningful slice of the Westside market inside the government-backed range. What actually stops most of these loans on the Westside is not the price. It is the building.
Here is how the 2026 numbers work, what they cover in this market, and where the real obstacle sits.
What counts as a jumbo loan in Los Angeles County
Most buyers assume that anything much above $800,000 is a jumbo loan. In Los Angeles County that is not true, and believing it can push you into a more expensive product than you need.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency sets a national baseline conforming limit and a higher ceiling for expensive counties. For 2026 the baseline for a single-unit property is $832,750, and the high-cost ceiling is $1,249,125. Los Angeles County is at that ceiling.
That creates three bands rather than two. Up to $832,750 is standard conforming. From $832,751 to $1,249,125 is conforming high balance — still eligible for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, usually priced a little above standard conforming, and nothing like a jumbo underwrite. Only above $1,249,125 does a single-unit loan in this county become genuinely non-conforming, which is what jumbo actually means.
The practical consequence: a buyer putting 20% down on a $1.5 million Westwood condo is borrowing $1.2 million, which is still inside agency territory here. That is a different loan, with different documentation and different pricing, than the jumbo most people assume they are facing.
Jumbo terms above that line are set by each lender rather than by an agency, so they vary. Down payments commonly run 10% to 20%, reserves six to twelve months of payments, credit scores from about 700 up with the best pricing well north of that, and debt-to-income generally capped around 43%. Treat every one of those as a range to confirm with your loan officer, not a rule.
Source: FHFA conforming loan limit values for 2026, announced November 25, 2025.
FHA loans on the Westside: the limit is not the problem
FHA loan limits track the same structure. For 2026 the FHA ceiling for a one-unit property is $1,249,125, and Los Angeles County is at the ceiling. That applies to FHA case numbers assigned on or after January 1, 2026.
So on paper, an FHA buyer can finance a great deal of the Westside single-family and condo market. In practice, most of what is for sale in Westwood and on the Wilshire Corridor is a condominium, and that is where FHA gets complicated.
FHA will only insure a condo unit under one of two paths. The first is project approval, where the entire condominium project is FHA-approved, either through HUD review or through a lender delegated review. Existing projects generally need at least 50% owner-occupancy to qualify. The second is single-unit approval, which allows an individual unit inside a project that is not FHA-approved — but it is capped. No more than 10% of the units in a project can be FHA-insured this way, and in a project with fewer than ten units the cap is two.
That cap is the real gate. In a building where a handful of units have already used single-unit approval, the next FHA buyer simply cannot get in, regardless of their qualifications or the purchase price.
Before you write an offer on a Westside condo with FHA financing, check the project status. HUD publishes a free lookup at the FHA Condominiums search tool. It takes a minute and it can save you from a dead escrow.
Sources: HUD Mortgagee Letter 2025-23 and Mortgagee Letter 2019-13.
VA loans: no price ceiling, but the building still has to qualify
VA financing is the most misunderstood option in this market, and it is often the strongest one.
Since the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act took effect, there is no VA county loan limit at all for a borrower with full entitlement on loans closed on or after January 1, 2020. No cap. A qualified veteran with full entitlement can buy a $2 million Westwood home with no down payment, provided they can carry the payment and the appraisal supports the price. County limits still apply to borrowers using partial or reduced entitlement, and for those the reference figure in Los Angeles County is the same $1,249,125.
The VA funding fee on a purchase runs 2.15% of the loan amount for a first-time use with less than 5% down, 1.5% with 5% to 9.99% down, and 1.25% with 10% or more down. Subsequent use with less than 5% down is 3.3%. Veterans receiving VA compensation for a service-connected disability are exempt from the fee entirely, as are several other categories including surviving spouses receiving dependency and indemnity compensation.
The catch mirrors FHA. VA loans can absolutely be used on condominiums, but federal regulation requires that the condominium project itself be VA-approved before the VA will guarantee a loan on a unit in it. There is no single-unit workaround comparable to the FHA one. If the project is not approved, the loan does not happen.
Check the project before you fall in love with the unit. Your lender can pull VA condo status, and it is a five-minute question that changes which buildings are actually available to you.
Sources: VA loan limits, VA funding fee, and 38 CFR 36.4360.
USDA loans: not available here, and it is worth saying plainly
USDA loans come up in enough buyer conversations that it is worth closing the door clearly. No part of Westwood, the Wilshire Corridor, Brentwood, Century City, or anywhere else on the Westside of Los Angeles is USDA-eligible.
The program requires the property to sit in an eligible rural area as defined by federal statute, which caps eligibility by population and excludes urbanized areas outright. Every neighborhood named above is inside the City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles and Long Beach urbanized area, far past any threshold in the rule.
If you are relocating to the Westside from somewhere a USDA loan worked, plan on a different structure from the start.
What this actually means if you are buying here
Three things are worth carrying into your search.
First, find out which band your loan falls in before you assume you need a jumbo. The gap between $832,750 and $1,249,125 catches a lot of Westside buyers who never realized they were still agency-eligible.
Second, if you are using FHA or VA, screen buildings before you screen units. On the Westside the constraint is almost never the purchase price and almost always the condominium project approval status. A buyer who checks that first sees a smaller but real list of buildings. A buyer who checks it after going into escrow loses weeks and sometimes a deposit.
Third, get the loan question settled before you write. In a market where a good Westwood listing can draw competing offers, the buyer whose financing is already matched to the building is the one who gets the home.
One honest note: I am a real estate agent, not a mortgage lender, and none of this is a loan approval or financial advice. Limits and rules change annually, individual circumstances vary enormously, and every figure above should be confirmed with a licensed loan officer before you rely on it. What I can do is tell you which Westwood and Wilshire Corridor buildings tend to work with which financing, and steer you away from the ones that will not.
Buying on the Westside with FHA or VA financing?
I have spent fourteen years working Westwood and the Wilshire Corridor building by building, and I know which projects clear financing review and which ones quietly do not. Let us figure out your real list before you spend a Sunday at open houses.
Buying a home in Westwood · Wilshire Corridor buildings guide
Payman Shilian
About the Author
Payman Shilian
Compass Real Estate Agent · Wilshire Corridor & Westwood Specialist · CA DRE 01913874
Payman Shilian has worked the Wilshire Corridor and Westwood markets for 14 years, closing 203 local transactions totaling over $210 million in career sales. Building-by-building expertise across The Carlyle, The Remington, The Wilshire, Beverly West, and the 40+ buildings of the Millionaires’ Mile. Persian and Farsi speaking. Doctorate of Pharmacy from UC San Diego. Designated Realtor for the City of Beverly Hills. Member, National Association of Realtors and California Association of Realtors. Philanthropic involvement with Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.
Reach Payman directly: (310) 299-7655 · pshilian@compass.com · paymanshilian.com
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