Why Your County Matters on a Utah Mortgage
Most mortgage sites treat “local” as a home-price number and nothing else. In Utah that misses the part that actually changes your loan. Five things are set at the county line, and each one can move your approval or your payment:
Loan limits. The 2026 baseline conforming limit is $832,750 in twenty-five of Utah’s twenty-nine counties. Four sit above it: Summit and Wasatch at $1,150,000, Wayne at $997,050, and Grand at $839,500. FHA limits move even more sharply — the Ogden MSA, which covers Davis and Weber counties, allows $744,050 on a one-unit home, while Salt Lake County allows $637,100. A Layton buyer has roughly $107,000 more FHA room than a Salt Lake City buyer for the same kind of house.
Utah Housing income caps. Utah Housing Corporation sets FirstHome income limits by county, and the ranking is not what people expect. Salt Lake County caps a one-to-two-person household at $126,100. Davis and Weber allow $141,400. Utah County allows $143,000. The same household can be over-income in Salt Lake City and comfortably eligible in Layton.
Property tax. Utah exempts 45% of a primary residence’s fair market value, so you are taxed on 55%. Applied to the 2025 county average rates, an identical $600,000 home runs roughly $3,470 a year in Salt Lake County and roughly $2,304 in Cache County. That is about $97 a month in escrow, which is real qualifying power.
USDA eligibility. Zero-down USDA financing is drawn by urbanized area, not by county, and Utah is full of split counties. Logan is ineligible while Smithfield, Hyrum, Wellsville and Nibley are eligible. Tooele City is out while Grantsville and Stansbury Park are in. Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs, eligible not long ago, have been absorbed into the Wasatch Front and no longer qualify.
Recording fees. H.B. 38 raised county recorder fees effective May 6, 2026, taking most Utah counties to $45 per document. Utah County publicly declined to increase and remains at $40. It is a small number, but it is one your closing statement will show.
Utah Mortgage Rules at a Glance, by County
| County | Conforming limit | FHA limit | UHC FirstHome income cap | Avg property tax rate | USDA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salt Lake County | $832,750 | $637,100 | $126,100 | 1.0504% | Not eligible |
| Utah County | $832,750 | $601,450 | $143,000 | 0.9621% | South county only |
| Davis County | $832,750 | $744,050 | $141,400 | 1.0108% | Not eligible |
| Weber County | $832,750 | $744,050 | $141,400 | 1.0371% | Not eligible |
| Cache County | $832,750 | $541,287 | $118,000 | 0.6986% | Outside Logan |
| Washington County | $832,750 | $607,200 | $118,000 | 0.7584% | Hurricane and outlying |
Conforming and FHA limits are 2026 one-unit figures. Utah Housing income caps are for a one-to-two-person household under FirstHome; three-or-more-person limits run higher. Property tax is the 2025 county average total rate, applied to 55% of market value for a primary residence. Individual tax areas within a county vary. Call 801-576-9336 for the figure that applies to a specific address.
Utah Mortgage Guides by City
Each page below is written for that specific market — the loan programs that actually get used there, the county rules that apply, and the property types local buyers run into.
Salt Lake County — 9 guides
Salt Lake City
Downtown and Sugar House condos, non-warrantable projects, and the county’s lower Utah Housing income ceiling.
West Valley City
The county’s most attainable large market, where FHA and multigenerational households do the heavy lifting.
West Jordan
Mid-market conventional territory and the 3%-down programs that fit it best.
South Jordan
Daybreak and master-planned construction, HOA budget review, and builder-incentive math.
Sandy
East-bench move-up buyers running into the $832,750 conforming ceiling.
Draper
Point of the Mountain tech income, RSU and bonus documentation, and jumbo pricing.
Riverton
New construction, lot loans, and financing that has to survive a build timeline.
Herriman
One of Utah’s fastest-growing cities, and the one-time-close construction loan built for it.
Millcreek
Older housing stock where renovation and 203(k) financing beats buying turnkey.
Utah County — 5 guides
Provo
Student-rental and investor financing, non-owner-occupied pricing, and DSCR options.
Orem
The county’s highest Utah Housing income limits and who they actually reach.
Lehi
Silicon Slopes compensation — RSUs, bonus, and equity income — documented for underwriting.
American Fork
Mid-market north county, where conventional 3%-down and FHA overlap.
Spanish Fork
South county, minutes from the Santaquin and Payson zero-down USDA footprint.
Davis County — 3 guides
Layton
Hill Air Force Base VA lending and an FHA limit $106,950 above Salt Lake City’s.
Bountiful
Established equity-rich neighborhoods: HELOCs, fixed seconds, and reverse mortgages.
Syracuse
Hill AFB commuters buying new construction on the west side of the county.
Weber County — 1 guide
Ogden
Historic housing stock, renovation lending, and the Ogden MSA’s elevated FHA limit.
Cache County — 1 guide
Logan
Utah’s clearest USDA split — Logan is out, but four towns up the valley are in.
Washington County — 1 guide
St. George
Retirement and resort market: reverse mortgages, second homes, and Utah’s lowest property tax rates.
Don’t See Your City? We Still Lend There.
Axent Funding is licensed across Utah and closes loans in every county in the state. The 20 cities above are simply where we have written a full local guide — they are not the boundary of where we work. We regularly finance homes in Tooele, Grantsville, Heber City, Park City, Cedar City, Eagle Mountain, Saratoga Springs, Kaysville, Clearfield, Roy, Brigham City, Tremonton, Vernal, Price, Moab, Nephi, Payson, Santaquin, Hurricane, Washington City, Cedar Hills, Pleasant Grove, Springville, Tooele Valley and everywhere between.
If your city is not listed, nothing about your loan changes. Call 801-576-9336 and we will pull the county-specific limits, tax rate and program eligibility for your exact address before you write an offer.
What Doesn’t Change Anywhere in Utah
There is no real estate transfer tax. Utah charges no documentary stamp tax and no deed tax. Recording is a flat per-document fee that is identical whether the home sold for $250,000 or $2 million. Buyers moving from Florida, Nevada or Colorado are often surprised by this — it removes a closing cost they were budgeting for.
The 45% primary residential exemption applies statewide. Only the rate changes by county, not the exemption itself. It also reaches long-term rentals: a home occupied by a tenant as their primary residence for 183 or more consecutive days generally qualifies, though most counties require an application.
VA loans have no limit with full entitlement. County loan limits only constrain veterans with partial or reduced entitlement. With full entitlement there is no VA ceiling on the loan amount, anywhere in Utah — the constraint is the appraisal and your qualifying, not a published cap.
Our pricing and our fees. We shop the same lender panel for a borrower in Logan as for one in Draper, and our fees run about 25% below many competitors with no processing or junk fees, in every county.
Find Out What You Qualify For
Free pre-approval, usually back within 24 hours, from a Utah broker who has been doing this since 2002.
Start Your Loan InquiryOr call 801.576.9336