Loan limits are indexed to home prices by federal law, so they rise when prices rise. HERA requires FHFA to adjust the baseline conforming loan limit each year by the third-quarter-over-third-quarter change in its house price index, and FHA's floor and ceiling are set at 65 percent and 150 percent of that conforming limit, so they move together. When prices fall, the limits hold at the prior level rather than dropping, until prices climb back past the old peak. High-cost counties get a higher ceiling, which is why an expensive metro carries a much larger maximum loan than a lower-cost county. Confirm the current limit for any specific county, since these reset annually. One quirk we see: some inland areas with genuinely high prices don't get the high-cost boost, which pushes those buyers into jumbo financing even when their price point looks like a neighboring county that does get it. On the affordability question, rising limits do feed the pressure to a degree, since letting people qualify for larger loans can support higher prices at the margin. Our honest read cuts both ways: in genuinely expensive markets, the limits also have to keep pace for ordinary buyers to have any financed path to ownership at all. The limits are a symptom of rising prices as much as a contributor to them.