Conventional Loans in Mount Pleasant, SC: Down Payments, Condos and the 2026 Conforming Limit

Liberty Hill Farm, off Rifle Range Road, is one of the two Mount Pleasant communities the Town exempted from its building permit cap, and K. Hovnanian's own page for it now reads "Liberty Hill Farm is sold out!" I read it on November 2, 2026.

A conventional loan can finance a Mount Pleasant home with 3% down for a first-time home buyer, and Charleston County's 2026 conforming limit of $832,750 covers a home priced up to about $858,500 at that down payment. I'm Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, a mortgage broker licensed in South Carolina through C2 Financial Corporation, NMLS #135622, and I have been in the mortgage business since 1996. The loan rules below come from Fannie Mae's Selling Guide and Eligibility Matrix and from Freddie Mac's Guide, and I checked the local facts on November 2, 2026. My Mount Pleasant page covers the town itself, and the Charleston area page covers the region.

The $832,750 limit in Mount Pleasant

Mount Pleasant is entirely in Charleston County, so one limit applies to every address in town. FHFA's 2026 conforming loan limit for a one-unit home there is $832,750. That number caps the loan, and the price of the home can be higher. Your down payment decides how much higher.

I could not get a Mount Pleasant median from the local REALTOR association's public reports, and the marketing sites that quote one disagree with each other, so I am not using any of them. The Charleston Trident Association of REALTORS reports a 2026 year-to-date median of $728,800 for detached homes in Charleston County. That is a county figure, and I use it below only to show the arithmetic.

Illustration: loan on a $728,800 home	Down payment	Loan amount	Room under $832,750	Highest price the limit covers
3% down	$21,864	$706,936	$125,814	about $858,500
5% down	$36,440	$692,360	$140,390	about $876,600
10% down	$72,880	$655,920	$176,830	about $925,300
20% down	$145,760	$583,040	$249,710	about $1,040,900

A loan above the limit is a jumbo loan, and the conforming versus jumbo explainer shows where the line falls. Your loan is measured against the lower of the contract price and the appraised value, as Fannie Mae's Selling Guide describes. So if a home appraises under the contract price, your down payment has to cover the gap.

How little you can put down

On a home you will live in, Fannie Mae's Eligibility Matrix lets the loan be up to 97% of the home's value when it is fixed-rate, and up to 95% when it is adjustable-rate. That means 3% or 5% down. For a two- to four-unit home, the loan can be up to 95%. A second home allows 90%, and a one-unit investment property allows 85%.

The 3% tier comes with a few conditions. Fannie Mae's Selling Guide says the loan has to be fixed-rate, up to 30 years, on a one-unit home you will live in. At least one person on the loan has to be a first-time home buyer, meaning someone who has not owned a property in the last three years. The same section also points to Fannie Mae's homeownership education requirements. HomeReady is a second way to 3% down, and who qualifies for 3% down on a conventional loan covers both.

Mortgage insurance below 20% down

In the table above, the 20% row is the only one with no mortgage insurance. Freddie Mac's Guide requires it on a conventional loan that is more than 80% of the home's value, which means the 3%, 5% and 10% rows all carry it. On the $728,800 example, 10% down leaves a 90% loan, so it has mortgage insurance, and 20% down leaves an 80% loan, so it does not.

That same guide says the insurance stays until it is canceled under the rules for the loan or under the law, and that your lender has to give you the Homeowners Protection Act disclosures when the loan is made. Those disclosures describe how you can cancel it. Fannie Mae's Selling Guide also has the lender collect the insurance premium with your taxes and homeowners insurance each month. When mortgage insurance goes away explains how a conventional loan differs from FHA, and a payment estimate lists the insurance as its own line.

Buying a condo in Mount Pleasant

When the home is a condominium unit, the lender looks at the whole building or community as well as at you. Freddie Mac's Guide calls that a project review. The lender has to complete one, and on an established project, which is one that is already finished, the review has to be dated within one year before the loan closes. Freddie Mac also wants the project to carry its own insurance.

Freddie Mac's rules for established projects say the units, common areas and amenities all have to be finished. They also say the association's current budget has to collect enough in assessments to run the place. Fannie Mae's matrix says a lender may need a bigger down payment on a condo unit, depending on the type of project review it performs.

For you, that means the condo's association matters about as much as the unit. I have not confirmed dues, or which projects have been reviewed, for any community in town, so the association's budget and resale package are the documents to ask the listing agent for. Mount Pleasant's permit cap covers multifamily homes too. Live 5 News reported the 2024 to 2029 extension at 500 multifamily units over five years. Why condos are harder to finance explains what gets checked.

A condo unit, a townhome on its own lot and a home in a neighborhood association are three different setups. The listing and the recorded documents show which one an address is.

A new home and what the builder can pay

K. Hovnanian's fine print on that Liberty Hill Farm page lists incentives "including but not limited to rate buy downs, builder forward commitments (BFCs)," and says its special fixed interest rates and flex cash offerings are limited and may be discontinued without prior notice. Money a builder pays toward your closing costs has a ceiling on a conventional loan. Fannie Mae's Selling Guide sets it as a share of the price or the appraised value, whichever is lower, based on how much you put down: 3% when you put down less than 10%, 6% when you put down 10% to just under 25%, and 9% when you put down 25% or more.

Builder money can pay closing costs and prepaid items. It cannot go toward your down payment or your cash reserves, and anything over the ceiling is subtracted from the price before your loan amount is figured. Whether to use the builder's lender walks through the comparison.

Flood insurance, taxes and association dues

Fannie Mae counts your principal and interest, homeowners, flood and mortgage insurance, property taxes, special assessments and association dues together as your monthly housing expense. The conventional loan on a Mount Pleasant home is sized on that whole payment. The town's tax lines are on my Mount Pleasant page, and FEMA's Flood Map Service Center shows the flood zone for a specific address.

What to look up before you make an offer

• The county parcel record, which shows whether the home is inside the town limits and which tax district it is in.
• The FEMA flood zone for the address, and a flood insurance quote early in the contract.
• For a condo, the association's budget, its insurance and its resale package.
• For a new home, the builder's incentive in writing, with the lender it requires and its close-by date.
• For your pre-approval, please provide all pages of your last two months of bank statements, even if the last page is intentionally left blank, your last two years of W-2s, and your most recent pay stubs. Getting pre-approved in South Carolina lists the rest.

Once you have an address in mind, I can run the conventional payment with that address's taxes, the insurance and the association 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. The lender's underwriting decides what a client is approved for, the appraisal sets the value, and the Charleston County Assessor decides the tax classification. Please confirm each before you rely on a figure here.

Common questions

What is the conforming loan limit in Mount Pleasant, SC?

Mount Pleasant is entirely in Charleston County, so one 2026 limit applies to every address in town, and the box below this article shows the current figure. A loan above it is a jumbo loan.

How much do I need to put down for a conventional loan in Mount Pleasant?

As little as 3% on a home you will live in when someone on the loan is a first-time home buyer or the loan is a HomeReady loan. Otherwise the minimum is higher, and 20% down avoids mortgage insurance.

Does a conventional loan on a Mount Pleasant home require mortgage insurance?

Freddie Mac requires it when the loan is more than 80% of the home's value. A conventional loan is designed so the insurance can end, and the lender gives you the cancellation disclosures when the loan is made.

Can I use a conventional loan to buy a Mount Pleasant condo?

Yes, when the condo project passes the lender's project review, which covers the project's insurance, budget and completion. A lender may also need a bigger down payment on a condo unit than on a detached home.

Can a builder pay my closing costs with a conventional loan in Mount Pleasant?

Yes, up to a percentage of the price that depends on how much you put down, and never toward your down payment. Whatever exceeds the limit lowers the price the loan is based on.

Does a Mount Pleasant mailing address change my loan?

The loan limit is the same, because the whole town is in Charleston County. The tax line can differ, since a Mount Pleasant mailing address does not by itself show whether a home is inside the town limits, and the payment I run includes it.