Santa Monica jumbo loans and 2026 loan limits.

Santa Monica sits on Santa Monica Bay, with Pacific Palisades and Brentwood to the north, West Los Angeles and Mar Vista to the east and Venice to the south. The Santa Monica Pier stands at the foot of Colorado Avenue, Palisades Park runs along the bluff above the beach, and the Santa Monica Freeway ends here at Pacific Coast Highway. Wilshire, Santa Monica, Pico and Ocean Park boulevards cross the city toward the ocean.

The housing is more mixed than in most beach cities. There are streets of single-family houses, above all north of Montana Avenue and south of Pico Boulevard, and there are a great many condominiums and apartment buildings, from two-unit and four-unit buildings to large towers on Ocean Avenue. So the first question on a Santa Monica purchase is often what kind of property it is.

The type of property first: a house, a condominium, or a building with two to four units. Each is reviewed differently.

With a condominium, the lender reviews the homeowners association as well as the buyer: its budget, its reserves, its insurance and any lawsuits. The dues are added to the monthly housing cost. The city requires earthquake retrofits of certain older kinds of building, and a pending special assessment for that or any other work is something a lender will ask about.

With a two- to four-unit building, the conforming limit is higher, and rent from the other units can often be counted. Santa Monica has had a rent control law since 1979, so a lender uses the rents the tenants actually pay, not what a vacant unit might bring. Read the city’s rules, or ask an attorney, before you plan on moving into a rented unit. The blocks nearest the beach are in the state’s coastal zone, where building work can need a coastal permit.

North of Montana is the part of Santa Monica between Montana Avenue and the city’s northern edge just past San Vicente Boulevard, from Ocean Avenue at the bluff east to 26th Street, where the city ends and Brentwood begins. The numbered streets run north and south, crossed by Alta, Marguerita, Georgina and Carlyle avenues. San Vicente Boulevard, with its line of coral trees, runs along the northern side, and just past it La Mesa Drive, shaded by large fig trees, curves along the rim of Santa Monica Canyon.

Nearly all the homes are single-family houses on deep, regular lots. Older Spanish and traditional houses stand beside much larger new ones, so the appraiser has to match size and age, not just the street. Lots on the canyon rim are irregular and can bring questions about slopes. Most streets have no association and the ground is level, but check the state’s fire hazard map near San Vicente Boulevard. Along Montana Avenue and near Ocean Avenue are condominiums, where the lender also reviews the association. The one-unit limit is the county’s. Above it, the loan is a jumbo loan, and the lender’s own rules on savings and credit apply.

Sunset Park is the southeastern part of Santa Monica, south of Pico Boulevard and east of Lincoln Boulevard, reaching to the city’s southern and eastern edges. Ocean Park Boulevard runs through the middle of it. Santa Monica College is on its northern side, on Pico Boulevard, and Santa Monica Airport and Clover Park are at its southeastern corner.

Most of the neighborhood is single-family houses on modest lots, many of them built in the 1940s, along with duplexes and small apartment buildings on some streets. A good number of the older houses have been enlarged or replaced. For a lender, check three things. First, the unit count: a legal duplex has a higher conforming limit, and its rents fall under the city’s rent control law. Second, additions: an appraiser notes rooms or a converted garage built without permits, and they may not count toward value. Third, an accessory dwelling unit: one built with permits is valued, and some loan programs count its rent while others do not. Homes close to the airport are compared with others near it.

Ocean Park is the southwestern corner of Santa Monica, south of Pico Boulevard and west of Lincoln Boulevard, running down to the beach and to the Venice line. Main Street, with its shops, runs through it a few blocks from the sand, and the streets between rise over a low hill with views of the bay.

This is one of the oldest parts of the city, and its housing is the most mixed: small beach cottages and Craftsman houses, duplexes and fourplexes, older apartment buildings, and condominiums, including large towers near the beach. So the type of property decides the review. A condominium means the lender studies the association, and in a large or older building that can take time, so ask for the association’s documents early. A two- to four-unit building has a higher limit and rent-controlled rents. A small house on a small lot is compared with others like it, and they can be few. Ocean Park lies in the state’s coastal zone, where building work can need a coastal permit as well as a city one.