Buying a home in Phoenix, Arizona

As of January 1, 2026, the FHA limit for a one-unit home in Maricopa County is $557,750 and the conforming limit for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans is $832,750, per HUD’s FHA Mortgage Limits lookup. HUD lists the median sale price for the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler area at $485,000 on the same record.

Those two limits decide which loan a purchase fits. Above the FHA limit, an FHA loan is off the table for that home. Above the conforming limit, the loan is a jumbo. Buying two to four units and living in one raises both limits, as the table shows.

In Arizona the lender’s security on the home is usually a deed of trust, the instrument defined in Arizona Revised Statutes 33-801, rather than a traditional mortgage. For a buyer the paperwork reads differently but the obligation to repay is the same.

Arizona is also a community property state under A.R.S. 25-211. If you are married and buying alone, your spouse can still matter to how title is held and to which debts a lender counts. Raise it at the start rather than in underwriting.

Luke Air Force Base sits in the West Valley. For an eligible veteran or service member, a VA loan is often the strongest option on a home they will live in, and it is often the one nobody has mentioned. I am an Army veteran myself, so this is a file I am glad to look at.

Investing in Phoenix instead? That is a different kind of loan, covered on the Phoenix investment property page.