Today’s Logan Mortgage Rates
Mortgage rates as of 8/31/2026
Mortgage rates as of 8/31/2026
Cache County has the lowest property tax rate of Utah’s major counties, the lowest FHA loan limit in the state, and the lowest Utah Housing caps. Logan is cheap to own and comparatively constrained to finance, and those two facts pull in opposite directions on the same pre-approval. On top of that sits the best zero-down story in Utah: USDA financing is unavailable in Logan itself but available in towns fifteen minutes away.
USDA Rural Development guaranteed loans are the only widely available zero down payment mortgage that does not require military service. Eligibility is not decided by county or by whether a place feels rural. It is decided by a map USDA maintains against Census urbanized-area boundaries, and that map cuts straight through Cache Valley. Queried against USDA’s live eligibility service in August 2026:
| Community | USDA status | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Logan | Ineligible | Core of the Logan urbanized area |
| North Logan | Ineligible | Inside the Logan urbanized area |
| Providence | Ineligible | Inside the Logan urbanized area |
| Smithfield | Eligible | Outside the urbanized boundary |
| Hyrum | Eligible | Outside the urbanized boundary |
| Wellsville | Eligible | Outside the urbanized boundary |
| Nibley | Eligible | Outside the urbanized boundary |
USDA eligibility as returned by the Rural Development mapping service, checked August 2026. USDA revises these boundaries, and it does so without a press release.
A household scraping together 3.5% for an FHA loan can put nothing down by buying in Smithfield instead of North Logan, or Nibley instead of Providence: on a $450,000 purchase, $15,750 that stays in the bank, for a commute most Cache Valley residents already make.
USDA eligibility is drawn to street-and-parcel precision. The table describes towns, not every address inside them. The boundary runs down the middle of streets in places, and two houses facing each other can land on opposite sides of it.
Treat the list as a place to start shopping, never as an answer. Before you write an offer, send us the exact street address and we will run it against USDA’s current map while you are on the phone. Buyers who write on the strength of a town name and learn in underwriting that the parcel fell on the wrong side face a program change and sometimes a dead contract. Equally, a lender who tells you flatly there is no USDA in Cache County is wrong. Our USDA rural housing page covers the program statewide.
USDA finances up to 100% of appraised value with no conventional monthly mortgage insurance. Instead it charges two fees: an upfront guarantee fee of 1.00% for FY2026, which can be financed into the loan rather than paid at closing, and an annual fee of 0.35% of the average scheduled balance, collected monthly, roughly $117 a month in year one on a $400,000 loan.
Both are set per federal fiscal year, and the FY2026 structure runs through September 30, 2026. As of this writing, FY2027 fees had not been published, so ask what the published fee is on the day you lock. For a borrower who qualifies for both, USDA usually beats FHA monthly as well as at closing, because FHA’s annual premium at minimum down runs for the life of the loan.
The national baseline is $122,800 for a one-to-four-person household. Metro-adjusted limits run higher in some areas; the figure reported for the Logan MSA is around $128,950, but that is single-sourced and should be confirmed against USDA’s current table. USDA counts household income, including adult members not on the loan, a working adult child can push a file over the line: but allows deductions for dependents, childcare and certain medical expenses, so households that look over the cap sometimes land under it.
No second homes, no rentals, no buying a duplex to live in one side. The home must be structurally sound, safe and sanitary: working mechanical systems, sound roof, safe water and sewer, no obvious hazards. Working farms are excluded, which matters in this valley, and on an older Wellsville or Richmond farmhouse appraiser condition calls must be cleared before closing.
For 2026, Cache County uses the national baseline conforming limit of $832,750, like twenty-five of Utah’s twenty-nine counties; only Summit and Wasatch ($1,150,000), Wayne ($997,050) and Grand ($839,500) sit above it. FHA is a different story: HUD sets those limits by metropolitan area, and Cache County sits at the national floor of $541,287, the lowest FHA one-unit limit anywhere in the country.
| Area | 2026 FHA limit, one unit | Difference vs. Cache County |
|---|---|---|
| Summit / Wasatch | $1,163,800 | +$622,513 |
| Ogden MSA (Davis, Weber, Morgan) | $744,050 | +$202,763 |
| Salt Lake City MSA (Salt Lake, Tooele) | $637,100 | +$95,813 |
| Washington County (St. George) | $607,200 | +$65,913 |
| Utah County (Provo-Orem-Lehi) | $601,450 | +$60,163 |
| Cache County (Logan) | $541,287 | n/a |
2026 FHA forward limits, HUD Mortgagee Letter 2025-23, effective for case numbers assigned on or after January 1, 2026. Box Elder County is also at the floor.
FHA’s limit applies to the base loan amount, before the upfront premium. At the minimum 3.5% down, a $541,287 base loan corresponds to a purchase price of roughly $561,000. Above that, FHA is unavailable here at minimum down payment, no matter how strong your file is.
Take an identical $600,000 home. Utah exempts 45% of a primary residence’s fair market value, so both are taxed on $330,000.
| Cache County | Salt Lake County | Cache difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 average total tax rate | 0.6986% | 1.0504% | n/a |
| Annual tax, $600,000 primary residence | ≈$2,305 | ≈$3,466 | ≈$1,161/yr cheaper |
| Monthly escrow for taxes | ≈$192 | ≈$289 | ≈$97/mo cheaper |
| FHA one-unit limit | $541,287 | $637,100 | −$95,813 |
| Utah Housing income cap, 1-2 person | $118,000 | $126,100 | −$8,100 |
| Utah Housing max purchase price | $566,300 | $666,600 | −$100,300 |
Calculated on 55% of market value using 2025 county average total rates from the Utah State Tax Commission. Individual tax areas within a county vary.
Cache County hands you roughly $97 a month in the escrow line, on the order of $20,000 of additional loan at current rates. Then it takes away the two programs a stretched buyer leans on: FHA runs out $95,813 sooner than in Salt Lake County, and Utah Housing $100,300 sooner on price.
The break point is near $561,000, and above it conventional is usually the answer. Conventional goes to $832,750, so 3% down reaches a purchase price near $858,000, more than $290,000 above the FHA ceiling, and conventional mortgage insurance cancels at the required equity, while FHA’s runs for the life of the loan at minimum down.
Credit score is the pivot: conventional pricing improves sharply from roughly 680 up and usually beats FHA outright by 740, while below about 660 FHA’s tolerance for lower scores still wins, which here means a $561,000 ceiling. A score improvement is worth more in Cache County than elsewhere, because it buys not just a better rate but a price range FHA cannot reach. Call 801-576-9336 and we will price FHA, conventional and, where the address qualifies, USDA on the same file.
Utah Housing Corporation is the state’s down payment assistance engine, and Cache County sits in its lowest limit tier alongside Box Elder and several rural counties:
| County group | Income cap, 1-2 person | Income cap, 3+ person | Max purchase price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Juab, Utah | $143,000 | $166,800 | $769,100 |
| Davis, Morgan, Summit, Wasatch, Weber | $141,400 | $164,600 | $778,500 |
| Salt Lake | $126,100 | $145,000 | $666,600 |
| Tooele | $121,300 | $139,400 | $666,600 |
| Cache, Box Elder and rural counties | $118,000 | $135,700 | $566,300 |
Utah Housing Corporation FirstHome limits as currently published. Verify at application, UHC updates these without advance notice.
Notice how closely the $566,300 purchase cap tracks the roughly $561,000 practical FHA ceiling: in Cache County both walls arrive at the same moment rather than one at a time.
Three programs are active: FirstHome (660 score, first-time buyers, exceptions for single parents and veterans), FHA/VA (620 score, repeat buyers allowed, $165,200 income cap statewide), and Freddie Mac HFA Advantage (680 score, reduced mortgage insurance). Assistance is a 30-year fixed second mortgage: the traditional option lends up to 6% of the first mortgage, capped at $27,500, at your first-mortgage rate plus one percent with an 8% hard cap; the deferred option lends up to 3.5%, same cap, at 3.5% deferred simple interest, due at sale, refinance or maturity. UHC currently lists HomeAgain, NoMI and Score as suspended, see our Utah Housing programs page. In an eligible town, USDA often beats Utah Housing outright: zero down with no second lien is cheaper than 3.5% down covered by a second mortgage.
Cache County’s 2025 average total rate of 0.6986% is the lowest among Utah’s major counties: below Washington County (0.7584%), well below the 0.9025% statewide average, and about a third lower than Salt Lake County. Against 55% taxable value, the effective rate on market value is roughly 0.384%.
Two cautions. The 45% exemption covers the dwelling plus up to one acre, so on a five-acre parcel in Mendon or Paradise the tax picture is not simply the county rate times 55% of the sale price. And if the home was a rental or second home, the listing figure may reflect the unexempted amount; it should drop once your exemption applies, but the timing follows the county’s cycle. Tax areas vary enough to move a qualification, so we pull the rate for the actual address.
Utah State gives Logan a rental market unlike anything else in northern Utah: demand concentrated near campus, seasonal, and a housing stock in the Island and Adams neighborhoods substantially converted to student occupancy.
An investment property loan is not a primary residence loan with a small markup. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac apply loan-level price adjustments to non-owner-occupied financing that are among the largest in the pricing grid, and they stack with credit score and loan-to-value adjustments. Expect a meaningfully higher rate than the advertised owner-occupied number, a down payment usually starting around 15% for one unit, and reserves measured in months of payments on every property you own.
Duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes near campus finance as residential rather than commercial property: 30-year fixed money, agency underwriting, and conforming limits that scale up by unit count. If you intend to live in one unit, the deal changes decisively in your favor: owner-occupied pricing, far lower down payment options, and in some programs the ability to use projected rent from the other units to qualify. Otherwise it is straight investment financing on all of it.
Lenders do not simply add rent to your income. With ownership history reported on Schedule E, underwriting works from the tax returns with depreciation added back; on a newly acquired property it relies on the appraiser’s market rent analysis and executed leases. Then comes the vacancy factor: agency guidelines reduce gross rents, commonly by 25%, so you are credited with roughly 75%. On a Logan student rental, where summers are genuinely softer, that haircut is a fair description of reality. One local wrinkle: many Logan properties are leased by the bedroom, while an appraiser’s rent opinion is written on a whole-house basis. Get us the lease structure early.
A debt service coverage ratio loan qualifies the property rather than the borrower: the underwriter compares rental income to the proposed payment including taxes, insurance and HOA dues, and if the ratio clears the threshold the loan proceeds without tax returns, W-2s or a personal debt-to-income calculation. That solves the self-employed investor with aggressive depreciation and the investor out of conventional financed-property slots. Trade-offs: higher rate, larger down payment, often a prepayment penalty on exit. See low-doc investment financing and our alternative loan programs.
Every August a parent does the math on four years of dorm and apartment costs and concludes that buying in Logan makes more sense. Usually it does. But how the loan is classified moves the rate more than almost anything else in the file.
Investment property is the default when a parent buys a home their child lives in and other students rent rooms in: highest rate, largest down payment, reserve requirements. If you plan to rent the extra bedrooms, this is very likely where you land. The rent may well support it, so price it correctly from day one.
Second home carries better pricing, but the occupancy rules are strict: suitable for year-round use, available for the borrower’s own use, not subject to a rental agreement, not managed by a rental company. A house occupied full-time by your student with roommates paying rent does not fit that description, and calling it a second home anyway is occupancy misrepresentation: mortgage fraud, not a technicality, and not something we will paper over.
Owner-occupied surprises people, because there is a genuine path: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both recognize a parent purchasing for a dependent child who cannot qualify alone, treated as owner-occupied for pricing. It is not automatic and lender appetite varies, but when it applies it is the difference between an owner-occupied rate with 5% down and an investment rate with 20% down. The alternative is putting the student on the loan as co-borrower. Tell us honestly how the property will be used and we will shop the right guideline.
A real share of Cache Valley’s residential listings sit on more land than a suburban lot, often with outbuildings. Buyers fall in love with these properties and then discover that residential mortgage guidelines were written for subdivisions.
There is no hard acreage cap in agency guidelines. That is a persistent myth. What guidelines require is that the property be residential in character and that the appraiser find comparable sales supporting the value. Friction begins above a few acres, for two reasons. Comparables: an appraiser valuing a house on twelve acres outside Mendon needs recent sales on similar acreage nearby, and in a thin market those may be months old and miles away, which makes the appraisal slower and likelier to come in under contract price. Land-to-value: when the land is worth substantially more than the improvements, the collateral looks less like a house than a land purchase, and lender tolerance varies widely.
This is the most common disappointment on a Cache Valley acreage purchase. A seller prices the property with a large shop, a barn and corrals included; the appraiser assigns those structures minimal or no contributory value, because residential appraisal credits what comparable buyers actually pay for, and outbuildings rarely command a measurable premium. The result is an appraisal below contract price and a buyer who must cover the gap in cash, renegotiate or walk. Plan for that before you remove the appraisal contingency.
A property tips out of residential financing when it is income-producing agricultural land. The signals: agricultural zoning plus active commercial farming, substantial livestock operations, commercial-scale outbuildings, water shares with material independent value, or enrollment in a greenbelt or farmland assessment program. USDA excludes working farms, and conventional guidelines exclude properties whose primary use is agricultural. The right lender then is a Farm Credit institution or an agricultural bank, different terms, often adjustable pricing rather than a 30-year fixed. Not a failed deal, a different market, and we will say so before running you through three weeks of underwriting. Bare ground and building lots go through lot and land loans, followed by a construction loan when you build.
Utah has no real estate transfer tax: no documentary stamp tax, no deed tax, nothing tied to sale price. Recording is a flat per-document fee, identical whether the home sold for $250,000 or $1.5 million. H.B. 38 from the 2026 legislative session raised recorder fees effective May 6, 2026, taking Cache County to $45 per document, plus $2 per legal description beyond ten, the entire government cost of transferring title here.
What moves a Cache County closing statement is lender fees, title insurance and prepaid escrows, and prepaids are smaller here than almost anywhere in the state, because the tax rate is the lowest of Utah’s major counties. Our fees run about 25% below many competitors with no processing or junk fees. We have worked in Utah since 2002, we can close in three weeks on a clean file, and you can start a no-obligation loan inquiry or call 801-576-9336.
Within Logan we finance the Island, Adams, Ellis, Woodruff, Bridger and Hillcrest neighborhoods; across the valley, North Logan, Providence, River Heights, Smithfield, Hyrum, Nibley, Wellsville, Millville, Richmond, Mendon and Paradise.
Each raises different questions. The Island and Adams bring student rentals, investor financing and older housing stock. North Logan and Providence bring the frustration of being ineligible for USDA while their neighbors are not. Smithfield, Hyrum, Nibley and Wellsville bring the zero-down conversation, address by address. Mendon, Paradise, Richmond and Millville bring acreage and outbuildings.
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Not in Logan itself. As of August 2026, Logan, North Logan and Providence sit inside the Logan urbanized area and are ineligible. Smithfield, Hyrum, Wellsville and Nibley are eligible, so a Cache Valley buyer can often get a genuine zero down payment USDA loan by shopping fifteen minutes up or down the valley. Eligibility is drawn to street and parcel precision, so a town being eligible does not mean every address qualifies. Send us the exact address before you write an offer and we will check USDA’s current map.
For 2026 the FHA limit on a one-unit property in Cache County is $541,287, the national floor and the lowest in Utah: $95,813 below Salt Lake County and $202,763 below the Ogden metro limit that applies in Davis and Weber counties. At the minimum 3.5% down payment it corresponds to a purchase price of roughly $561,000. Above that, conventional financing is normally the answer, and conventional goes to $832,750.
Cache County sits in Utah Housing’s lowest limit tier: a FirstHome income cap of $118,000 for a one-to-two-person household and $135,700 for three or more, with a maximum purchase price of $566,300. Assistance comes as a second mortgage, up to 6% of the first mortgage amortizing or up to 3.5% deferred, both capped at $27,500. HomeAgain, NoMI and Score are currently suspended. In an eligible Cache Valley town, USDA often beats Utah Housing outright, because zero down with no second lien is cheaper.
Utah exempts 45% of a primary residence’s market value, so tax applies to 55%. At Cache County’s 2025 average total rate of 0.6986%, a $600,000 primary residence runs roughly $2,305 a year, about $192 a month in escrow, the lowest of Utah’s major counties, and roughly $97 a month less than the same home in Salt Lake County. The exemption covers the dwelling plus only one acre, so an acreage parcel is calculated differently.
Yes, and the classification matters enormously to the rate. If your student lives there and roommates pay rent, it is normally an investment property: higher rate, larger down payment, reserve requirements. A second home carries better pricing but strict occupancy rules that a rented student house does not meet. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also recognize a parent purchasing for a dependent child who cannot qualify alone, which can be treated as owner-occupied for pricing. Lender appetite varies, so shopping it matters.
Not at 100%. Agency guidelines apply a vacancy and maintenance factor, commonly 25%, so you are typically credited with about 75% of gross rents. If you have owned the property and reported it on Schedule E, underwriting works from the tax returns with depreciation added back; on a newly acquired property it relies on the appraiser’s market rent analysis and executed leases. Properties leased by the bedroom need the lease structure documented early, because an appraiser’s whole-house rent opinion may not match how the property operates.
Usually yes. There is no hard acreage cap in agency guidelines, despite the myth. What matters is that the property is residential in character and that the appraiser can find comparable sales on similar acreage. Two things cause trouble: barns, shops and other outbuildings often receive little or no contributory value in a residential appraisal, which can leave the appraised value below contract price; and genuinely income-producing agricultural land falls outside both USDA and conventional guidelines, belonging with a Farm Credit institution instead.
Axent Funding can close in three weeks or less on a clean file. The things that extend a Cache Valley closing are USDA address verification and USDA’s property condition standards on older homes, appraisals on acreage parcels where comparable sales are thin, and rental documentation on student properties. All three are predictable, which is why we raise them before you are under contract rather than after.
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Loan limits, Utah Housing caps, property tax and USDA coverage, county by county.
Axent Funding is licensed statewide and closes loans in every Utah county. We publish in-depth local guides for the markets we work in most: loan limits, Utah Housing eligibility, property tax and USDA coverage all change at the county line.