By Jessica Martinez · Contributing Writer, Business & Finance · June 21, 2026By Jessica Martinez · Contributing Writer, Business & Finance · June 21, 2026Enter your numbers to see the estimate.
An approximation interpolated from a published HUD-based factor table, not HUD's own case-by-case lookup. Origination and closing costs are not subtracted here; see the note below the results.
This calculator runs on the same three levers HUD controls directly: the federal FHA loan limit applied to your home value, an age-and-rate principal limit factor that sets your share of that value, and the mortgage insurance premium that funds the program's non-recourse guarantee. Enter your age, home value and an expected rate, and it estimates where you land on all three, plus a reminder of the counseling step every HECM borrower has to clear first.
HUD assigns a principal limit factor for every combination of borrower age and expected interest rate, and the table runs in fine increments, not the handful of numbers most calculators show you. This tool works from a published lender reference built on that same structure, with values at ages 62, 72, 82 and 92 across expected rates from 3% to 8%, and estimates everything in between by interpolating across both dimensions at once.
| Expected rate | Age 62 | Age 72 | Age 82 | Age 92 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3% | 52.4% | 58.8% | 65.8% | 75.0% |
| 5% | 41.0% | 46.7% | 55.6% | 68.2% |
| 7% | 31.2% | 37.2% | 47.1% | 62.0% |
Anchor values from Land Home Financial Services' Principal Limit Factor Table, built on the HUD table structure in force since October 2, 2017. Nothing in this row is interpolated; the calculator's estimate for ages and rates between these points is.
We checked the interpolation against a separate, age-only HUD-based table published by All Reverse Mortgage at a fixed 5.875% expected rate, and it landed within roughly 0.2 to 1.6 percentage points at every age we tested. That is why the calculator labels its output as a range rather than a single hard number: treat the estimate as accurate to within about 2 percentage points, not as HUD's exact per-case factor.
Say the youngest borrower is 68, the home appraises at $350,000, and the lender's expected rate comes back at 6.25%.
The home value sits well under the 2026 cap, so the full $350,000 counts as the maximum claim amount. Interpolating between the age-62 and age-72 anchors at a rate between 6% and 7% produces an estimated factor around 38.1%, with a plus-or-minus-2-point range of roughly 36% to 40%. Multiply the midpoint by the maximum claim amount: $350,000 times 0.381 comes out to about $133,455 as the principal limit.
From there, the upfront mortgage insurance premium, 2% of the $350,000 maximum claim amount, runs $7,000, and the first year's annual premium, 0.5% of the principal limit, adds roughly $667 more to the balance rather than coming out of pocket. Origination fees and third-party closing costs sit on top of that and are not part of this page's math; the site's lending limit and cost reference breaks those out separately with the same HUD-based formulas.
Every HECM borrower has to sit down with a HUD-approved housing counselor before a lender is allowed to process an application. The certificate that session produces stays valid for 180 days from the date counseling was completed, according to HUD's own HECM Overview document within its FHA Single Family Housing Policy Handbook. Sessions usually take 60 to 90 minutes, can happen in person, by phone or by video, and typically cost somewhere between $125 and $175, per a 2026 counseling-requirements breakdown from mortgage broker Mo Abdel, though HUD does not fix that fee and it is commonly rolled into loan proceeds at closing rather than paid up front. The counselor works for you, not the lender, and walks through the loan's costs, alternatives and long-term obligations before you commit to anything.
The interpolation smooths over the exact per-year, per-eighth-of-a-point table HUD actually uses, so treat the PLF range above as a planning figure, not a quote. It also does not subtract origination fees, third-party closing costs, or an existing mortgage payoff, all of which reduce what actually reaches you; those live on the site's other calculators. And it assumes a single expected rate holds through underwriting, when in practice the rate that sets your factor is locked at the time your case number is assigned, which can shift between when you first run a number and when you actually apply.
$1,249,125. That is the 2026 HECM maximum claim amount, the ceiling HUD puts on the home value used in the payout formula, set by HUD Mortgagee Letter 2025-22 (December 11, 2025) and effective for case numbers assigned January 1 through December 31, 2026. A home worth more than that still gets calculated on the capped figure.
Typically somewhere in the 30s to 60s percent range of the capped home value, depending heavily on your age and the expected rate at closing. HUD's principal limit factor table sets the exact share; the calculator above interpolates an estimate from a published version of that table so you can see roughly where your own numbers land.
Yes. Federal HECM rules require a session with a HUD-approved housing counselor before a lender can take your application, and the resulting certificate is valid for 180 days from the date counseling was completed, per HUD's HECM program handbook. Sessions typically run 60 to 90 minutes and cost roughly $125 to $175, according to a 2026 counseling-requirements overview published by mortgage broker Mo Abdel, though the fee can usually be paid from loan proceeds at closing.
Because HUD's principal limit factor table is built around it. A higher expected rate assumes the loan will accrue interest faster over its life, so HUD assigns a smaller share of home value to protect the FHA insurance fund; a lower expected rate does the opposite. The same age can produce a meaningfully different factor depending only on where rates sit the day your case number is assigned.
Want to see how a principal limit like this one plays out with no monthly payments? Run it through the year-by-year balance schedule to watch it grow, or get a faster read on the same no-payment math from the balance growth and doubling-time tool. For a quicker three-input version of this page's math, try the calculator that skips the contact form entirely. And for the full mechanics of the loan this page estimates, the HECM program explainer covers eligibility, payout types and what happens when the loan comes due.
Jessica keeps this page's factor table tied to HUD's own program rules and flags it plainly whenever a number is an estimate rather than an official lookup.