FHA Loans in Woodbury, MN: Washington County's Limit, the Registry Tax on a Financed Premium and the Westwind Villas

Woodbury added 4,271 homes between 2020 and 2025, second only to Lakeville among Twin Cities suburbs by CBS Minnesota's count. A home in a new community such as Westwind comes with FHA paperwork that an older resale never needs. The builder has to certify the plans and the site, and a townhome-style home may be a condominium unit in the eyes of FHA.

You can buy a home in Woodbury with an FHA loan, and the 2026 FHA limit for a one-unit home in Washington County, $552,000, is $67,231 above the city's three-month median sale price of $484,769. I'm Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, a mortgage broker licensed in Minnesota through C2 Financial Corporation, and I have been in the mortgage business since 1996. I work out of Bluffton, South Carolina, and I wrote this page for you if you're thinking about an FHA loan on a Woodbury home.

My page on Woodbury itself covers Red Rock Township, the Gold Line's three stations, the water plant and the three school districts, and the Twin Cities area page covers the region. The FHA rules below come from HUD's Handbook 4000.1, and I checked the local facts on November 4, 2026. The FHA explainer has the program basics, and the Minnesota FHA page has the limits for all 87 counties.

The Washington County FHA limit against Woodbury prices

HUD draws the Twin Cities metro across thirteen Minnesota counties, Washington County among them, and gives every one of them the same 2026 limit: $552,000 for a one-unit home, according to HUD's county limit file. The other 74 Minnesota counties are at the floor, $541,287, so a Woodbury home gets about $10,700 more room than one in Rochester or Duluth. The limit applies to the base loan, before the upfront mortgage insurance premium is added, and at the 3.5% minimum down payment a base loan of $552,000 means a price of about $572,000. A larger down payment raises the price you can reach.

Redfin's Woodbury page put the city's median sale price at $484,769 for the three months ending September 2026, across every home type. That leaves $67,231 between the typical sale and the limit. A single home can be well above the median, so I look at each one on its own, and a home priced above the limit still works on FHA when the base loan stays at or under $552,000.

At Westwind, Lennar's community in Woodbury, the builder's page listed four collections on November 4, 2026: Colonial Manor from $315,990, Lifestyle Villa from $444,990, Discovery from $494,990 and Landmark from $576,990, with the whole community running from $315,990 to $712,660. Two of the four starting prices are under the median, and three are within reach of FHA at 3.5% down. The Landmark starting price is above the roughly $572,000 that a $552,000 base loan reaches at 3.5% down. The top of the community's range is higher still. Those homes would take a larger down payment to keep the base loan at the limit.

FHA payment on a Woodbury median-priced home

The Handbook sets the minimum down payment at 3.5% of the adjusted value, which is the lower of the price and the appraised value, with a credit score of 580 or higher. Appendix 1.0 of the Handbook sets the upfront premium at 1.75% of the base loan, which you can finance. The annual premium is 0.55% of the base loan, paid in monthly installments for the life of the loan. That rate applies when the loan runs longer than 15 years, the down payment is under 5% and the base loan is $726,200 or less. Both columns below meet those conditions. The registry tax line is explained in the next section.

Estimate: FHA purchase at 3.5% down	Woodbury median	Westwind Colonial Manor from-price
Home price	$484,769	$315,990
Down payment (3.5%)	$16,967	$11,060
Base loan	$467,802	$304,930
Upfront premium (1.75%), financed	$8,187	$5,336
Total mortgage	$475,989	$310,266
Annual premium (0.55%), first year	about $2,573, or $214 a month	about $1,677, or $140 a month
Minnesota registry tax (0.23% of the total mortgage)	about $1,095	about $714

None of that includes principal and interest, property tax, homeowners insurance or association dues, and I quote no rate on this page. Your own rate option comes from the pricing tool described at the bottom.

Minnesota's registry tax on a financed upfront premium

Minnesota Statutes 287.035 taxes a recorded mortgage at 0.23% of the debt it secures and makes the person taking out the mortgage liable for it. On an FHA loan the debt the mortgage secures is the base loan plus the financed upfront premium, so the tax is figured on the larger amount: $1,095 on the median above instead of $1,076. If you pay the premium in cash at closing, the mortgage and the tax are both figured on the base loan alone.

Hennepin and Ramsey counties add another 0.01% for their environmental cleanup funds, and the Minnesota Department of Revenue lists no other county with that extra tax, so a Woodbury closing in Washington County skips that line. The Minnesota FHA page shows the same arithmetic on a made-up example, and the Minnesota page explains the deed tax, which the seller customarily pays and the purchase agreement can move.

The homestead filing, the November notice and your escrow

FHA is an owner-occupied loan. The Handbook requires at least one person on the loan to move in within 60 days of signing and to intend to stay at least a year. That fits with Minnesota's homestead classification, which Washington County grants to a home the owner or a qualifying relative lives in as a primary residence. The county's application deadline is December 31 for taxes payable the following year, you can apply online or by mail, and it may ask for a driver's license or voter registration as proof you live there.

A homestead gets the Homestead Market Value Exclusion, which takes part of the home's value out of the taxable base. The League of Minnesota Cities' explainer puts the largest exclusion at 40% of value, up to $38,000, for a home valued at $95,000 or less, shrinking as value rises until it reaches zero at $517,200. Woodbury's median residential value for taxes payable in 2026 is $451,500. The city's 2026 adopted budget puts the homestead exclusion on that home at about $5,900, so a median-value home here still gets a small exclusion once the homestead is filed. The city's total levy, what it collects in property tax, went up 9.7% for 2026.

Washington County mails the proposed tax notice in mid-November and the statement by March 31, and the tax is due in two equal halves on May 15 and October 15. The lender sets your escrow, the part of the monthly payment that saves up for the tax bill, from the current statement on the home, and the seller's bill may carry a different classification than yours will. I run the payment on the bill as it stands and tell you what the homestead filing changes.

City water, PFAS treatment and the FHA appraisal

The Handbook asks the appraiser to confirm that a home has a continuing supply of safe drinking water, and it wants a home connected to a public water system whenever one is available at a reasonable cost. Woodbury runs its own water utility, billed every quarter with sewer and storm water. The city council moved in January 2020 to fast-track a temporary plant to treat city wells for PFAS, a family of manufactured chemicals. The city's water treatment page says interim treatment began at three more well sites in February 2024, and the permanent plant near Hargis Parkway is expected to run in 2028.

For a home on the city system, the Handbook treats the water as safe unless the appraiser reports a problem or the health authority issues a public notice that it is unsafe. The appraisal notes the connection, and a separate water test is not ordered in the usual case. The city does the testing and the Minnesota Department of Health sets the health standards, and the city's page called Addressing PFAS in Drinking Water is where I'd send you for the current results. A home that has its own well is a different file. The Handbook requires a water test when the home is new or when the water is reported unsafe. It also requires one when the appraiser reports a problem with the well or the water, or when the well is near a dump, a landfill, an industrial site or a farm. An independent party such as the local health authority or a commercial lab collects and tests the sample, and on a newly built home the report can be no more than 180 days old at closing. Please tell me before the appraisal is ordered whether the home is on city water or a well, and I will order the right report.

Westwind villas, townhome-style homes and the declaration

Lennar labels its Colonial Manor homes at Westwind "Multi-Family," and it sells a Lifestyle Villa collection in the same community. The recorded declaration, the document filed with Washington County that says how the community is owned, decides whether FHA treats one of those homes as a condominium unit, so I read it first.

If the declaration makes it a condominium, I look for the project on HUD's approved list. FHA wants at least 35% of the units lived in by their owners and no more than 15% of the units more than 60 days behind on association dues, and I check both. A project that is not on the list can still work for a single unit through what the Handbook calls Single-Unit Approval. The community needs at least five units, and at least half of them must be owner-occupied. A certificate of occupancy is the local building authority's sign-off that a home is finished and ready to live in. Your unit's certificate has to be at least a year old, or someone has to have lived in the unit. For a file an underwriter reviews by hand, FHA limits the loan to 90% of the value, which means a down payment of at least 10%.

If the declaration makes it a site condominium, where your unit is the dwelling plus the land under it and you carry the insurance and upkeep on the dwelling, FHA needs no project approval at all. A townhome that is fee simple, meaning you own the home and the lot outright, is not a condominium and gets the ordinary FHA appraisal. I have not checked any Westwind product against HUD's list, so I check the one you choose by name. My article on condo financing explains what gets checked.

A brand-new Westwind home and the builder's lender

FHA counts a home as new construction from the plans stage until a year after its certificate of occupancy, as long as nobody has lived in it. On any of those, the Handbook has the lender collect the builder's certification of the plans, specifications and site and the builder's warranty of completion of construction. The file also needs either the building permit and the certificate of occupancy or a set of inspections during the build, so you will see a builder document set and a permit or inspection trail. On the day I read it, Lennar's Westwind page pointed clients to Lennar Mortgage for "special promotions" and showed estimated payments that assume you finance there. The page does not give the terms of any promotion, so I can't price one yet.

A builder's credit and the FHA rules work together. The Handbook calls a seller, builder or agent an interested party, and together they can pay up to 6% of the sales price toward your closing costs, prepaid items and points. Anything above 6% is an inducement to purchase and comes off the price before the loan amount is figured, and none of it can go toward your 3.5%. My article on seller extras walks through that line, and my article on the builder's lender covers how a long build changes the rate lock. Please send me the builder's complete written offer, every page, and I will price the same FHA loan with the credit and without it.

Things to look up before you make an offer

• The parcel on Washington County's property records, which shows the taxable value, the current classification and the city the home is in, since many Woodbury addresses carry the mailing city Saint Paul.
• The current property tax statement and, in November, the proposed tax notice for next year.
• City water and sewer, or its own well or septic system, for the home you are considering.
• For a villa or townhome-style home, the recorded declaration (condominium unit, site condominium or fee simple) and the association's current dues statement, because the dues are part of the monthly payment I qualify you on.
• The builder's written offer: the lender it requires, the contract and closing dates, and any cost stated as a percentage of the loan amount.
• Getting pre-approved in Minnesota lists the documents I will ask you for, and please send each one complete, all pages.

Once you have an address or a Westwind lot in mind, I can run the FHA payment with that parcel's tax statement, the registry tax on the financed premium and the community's dues in it. You'll see pricing for your scenario, choose a rate option, which you can change later, and the application opens from there. You are also welcome to call me and talk it through first.

Nothing on this page is a loan approval, a denial or a commitment to lend, and it is not tax advice. Washington County decides the homestead classification, and the recorded declaration says how a Westwind home is owned. The city and the Minnesota Department of Health handle the water, and the builder's current written offer is the one that counts for any incentive. Please confirm each before you rely on a figure here.

Common questions

What is the FHA loan limit in Woodbury, MN for 2026?

It is HUD's one-unit limit for Washington County, the same figure as the other twelve Twin Cities metro counties and higher than the floor that applies to the other 74 Minnesota counties. The limit section above gives the figure, and Woodbury's three-month median sale price is under it.

How much is the down payment on an FHA loan in Woodbury?

The minimum is 3.5 percent of the adjusted value, which is the lower of the price and the appraised value, with a credit score of 580 or higher. The table above shows the base loan that leaves at Woodbury's median, and the down payment has to be your own money or a gift, never the builder's credit.

Does Minnesota's mortgage registry tax apply to an FHA loan in Woodbury?

Yes. The tax is 0.23 percent of the debt the mortgage secures, the person taking out the mortgage is liable for it, and a financed upfront premium makes that debt a little larger. Washington County does not add the extra 0.01 percent that Hennepin and Ramsey counties charge.

Can I buy a Westwind villa or townhome with an FHA loan?

It depends on the recorded declaration. A unit in a project on FHA's approved list works, and a single unit can be approved on its own when the project meets the Handbook's tests. A site condominium needs no project approval, and a fee simple townhome is not a condominium at all.

Does an FHA loan in Woodbury require a water test?

Not for a home on the city's water system; the appraisal notes the connection, and the city and the Minnesota Department of Health handle the testing and treatment. A home with its own well needs a test from an independent lab or the local health authority. The test is required when the home is new, the appraiser notes a problem, the water is reported unsafe or the well is near a possible source of contamination.

When do I file for homestead on a Woodbury home bought with an FHA loan?

With Washington County by December 31 for taxes payable the following year, once you own the home and live in it as your primary residence. FHA requires you to move in within 60 days of signing, so the two fit together.