FHA Loans in Hardeeville, SC: New Homes, the Builder's Lender and the 2026 Limit

D.R. Horton's page for Cypress Landing in Hardeeville names DHI Mortgage right beside an FHA special-rate offer that runs to December 31, 2026. Ryan Homes' page for Royal Oaks carries an FHA offer of its own.

The Census Bureau's permit count shows 897 single-family building permits in Hardeeville in the first eight months of 2026. That is why a builder's website is often the first place a mortgage offer shows up for a Hardeeville home.

You can buy a home in Hardeeville with an FHA loan, including a brand-new one from a builder. The typical sale price here is well under FHA's 2026 limit in both Jasper and Beaufort counties. I'm Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, a mortgage broker licensed in South Carolina through C2 Financial Corporation, and I have been in the mortgage business since 1996. I work from Bluffton, east of Hardeeville on US-278.

My page on Hardeeville itself covers the city's history and what is being built at Exit 8, and the Hilton Head-Bluffton area page covers the region. The FHA rules below come from HUD's Handbook 4000.1, and I checked every local fact on October 7, 2026. The FHA explainer covers the basics and the mortgage insurance.

The 2026 FHA loan limit in Hardeeville and what homes cost here

Most of Hardeeville is in Jasper County, with a small part of the city in Beaufort County. For 2026, HUD's mortgage limit lookup puts the FHA limit for a one-unit home at $638,250 in Jasper County, and Beaufort County has the same figure. The box below this article shows the current figure for each county.

The Hilton Head Area REALTORS report for Hardeeville puts the median sale price at $445,000 in August 2026 and $444,000 for the year to date. That median comes from the MLS, the local listing service, and it likely leaves out many new homes that close directly with a builder and are never listed.

FHA's one-time upfront mortgage insurance premium can be financed on top of the base loan or paid in cash, and Handbook 4000.1 says it does not count against the limit.

Can I use an FHA loan on a new construction home in Hardeeville?

Yes. FHA treats a home as new construction whether it is still a plan, partly built, or finished within the past year and never lived in. On any of those, the lender collects the builder's certification of the plans and the site and the builder's one-year warranty of completion.

The file also needs either the building permit and the certificate of occupancy (the county's sign-off that the home can be lived in) or a set of inspections during the build, according to the Handbook. Get me the builder's certification early, because it has to be signed within 30 days before the appraisal is ordered.

A Special Flood Hazard Area is FEMA's high-risk zone, one beginning with A or V. If any part of a newly built home is in one, FHA needs one of two documents. One is a FEMA letter removing the home from the zone. The other is an elevation certificate on the finished construction showing the lowest floor is above the 100-year flood elevation. If the certificate shows the home is still in the zone, flood insurance is required.

Builder offers and the builder's own lender

I read the builders' own pages on October 7, 2026, and the offers change often, so treat these as the shape of what you will see rather than today's terms. D.R. Horton at Cypress Landing offered up to $10,000 toward closing costs, and its fine print says the client "must use DHIM to receive the up to $10,000 incentive." DHI Mortgage is an affiliate of D.R. Horton.

The same page's FHA special-rate offer is for clients who contract on or after August 25, 2026 and close by December 31, 2026. It may require points, which is money paid at closing to lower the rate, and D.R. Horton says it is good "until pool of funds is depleted or rate expires." Ryan Homes at Royal Oaks advertised a rate that is an FHA 3/1 adjustable-rate mortgage, "which comes at a cost of 3.25% of the loan amount."

An adjustable-rate mortgage like Ryan's holds its starting rate for three years, and then the rate can change every year after that. The advertised rate is only the rate for the first three years. A "pool of funds" offer ends when the builder's money is spent. A cost stated as a percentage of the loan amount is paid at closing, by you or out of the builder's credit. On the median price, here is an illustration:

Illustration: Ryan's 3.25% cost on a median-priced home
Home price (HHAR, August 2026 median)	$445,000
FHA base loan with the minimum 3.5% down, before the financed upfront premium	$429,425
3.25% of the loan amount	about $13,956

FHA also caps what a builder can pay on your behalf. The Handbook calls a seller, builder or agent an interested party. Together they can contribute up to 6% of the sales price. That can go toward your closing costs, prepaid items, points, money paid to lower your rate for the first years, and the upfront mortgage insurance premium, which is $26,700 on the $445,000 median.

Anything over 6% is an inducement to purchase, meaning it comes off the purchase price dollar for dollar before the loan amount is figured. Handbook 4000.1 also says none of it can go toward your 3.5% down payment.

D.R. Horton's fine print does not require you to finance with its lender to buy the home. You do have to use D.R. Horton's lender to get its incentive. K. Hovnanian, at its 55+ community Four Seasons at Hilton Head Lakes, writes it differently. Incentives other than a price cut shrink by 5% of the purchase price if its lender or cash is not used, which is $22,250 on the median.

So the fair comparison is the builder's FHA loan with the credit, against the same FHA loan priced elsewhere without it, both written out line by line on the same loan amount and closing date. I am glad to run that for you, and if the builder's offer comes out ahead on the whole payment and the whole closing statement, I will tell you so. My article on whether to use the builder's lender walks through how a long build timeline changes the rate lock.

Property tax at the 4% owner-occupied rate

FHA is an owner-occupied program. Handbook 4000.1 says at least one person on the loan has to move in within 60 days of signing and intend to live there for at least a year.

South Carolina assesses a home you own and live in at 4% of its value, and other homes and commercial property at 6%. In Jasper County the 4% rate is not automatic. The Jasper County Assessor says you file a legal residence application after your deed is recorded and you have moved in, any time before taxes come due on January 15.

The application takes South Carolina vehicle registration, voter registration, a driver's license or ID and your most recent South Carolina return, for you and your spouse, if you are married. Military clients add their PCS orders, the permanent change of station orders that brought them to the Lowcountry, as the Assessor's FAQ explains.

Your status on December 31 sets the classification for the following tax year, according to Jasper County. A 4% home also skips the school district's day-to-day operating tax under South Carolina law, though it still pays its share of the school bonds.

A mill is one dollar of tax for every $1,000 of assessed value. The City of Hardeeville charges a different number of mills on each side of the county line. The City's own budget charges 74.6 on the Jasper County part of the city and 100.2 on the Beaufort County part for tax year 2026.

On a home valued at the August median, using Jasper County's 2026 levy ordinance, the estimate looks like this:

Estimate: Jasper-side Hardeeville home, owner-occupied at 4%
Home value used (HHAR, August 2026 median)	$445,000
Assessed at 4%	$17,800
County operating 115.0 + county debt 5.0 + school debt 25.0 + City 74.6	219.6 mills
Assessed value × mills, before credits and fees	about $3,909 a year

The same home on the Beaufort County side, tax district 650, would run about $3,489 a year at 196 mills on the 4% assessment, going by the Beaufort County Auditor's 2026 millage card. Both figures leave out the local sales tax credit on each county's bill. They also leave out the Jasper County Rural Fire District's 28.9 mills, because no source I read says whether that district reaches inside the city limits. The actual tax bill on the specific property is the one I use.

On a new home, Jasper County's Assessor values the improvements at full market value in their first taxed year, with no cap, and a sale resets the value for any home. That is why a neighbor's bill, or the seller's, will not tell you what yours will be. I run the payment on the new value at 4%, with the full bill in it.

Flood zones, flood insurance and your FHA payment

If any part of the home is in a Special Flood Hazard Area, the home has to be in a community that participates in the National Flood Insurance Program. Handbook 4000.1 then requires the lender to make sure you buy and keep flood insurance for the life of the loan. The premium is collected with your monthly payment.

Nearly three in four flood policies in ZIP 29927 are in zone X, which is outside FEMA's high-risk area. Among one-year single-family policies that took effect in 2025, the median cost was about $1,030 a year, and only 45 of those 536 policies were marked as lender-required. That is my own count from FEMA's public flood-policy data.

In an A or AE zone that premium is part of the payment I qualify you on, so I want the zone on the specific lot before you write the offer. My article on buying in a flood zone covers who makes the determination and how to get the premium first.

Townhomes and FHA project approval

Lennar's The Preserve lists townhomes beside its single-family plans. A townhome can be set up legally as fee simple, meaning you own the home and the lot outright, or as a condominium unit, and that difference decides what FHA asks for.

FHA insures a condominium unit in a project on its approved list, or a unit that qualifies under its single-unit approval process. The Handbook also says FHA insures a unit in a site condominium, where the unit includes the dwelling and the land, and no project approval is needed.

If a townhome or villa is on your list, I check two things first: the recorded declaration, which is the document filed with the county that says how the community is owned, and the HUD list. Why condos are harder to finance explains what gets checked.

What to look up before you make an offer

• The parcel record on the Jasper County or Beaufort County property search, which shows the county, the tax district and whether the City's levy is on the bill.
• The FEMA flood zone for the specific lot, and on a new home, an elevation certificate on the finished construction from the builder.
• The builder's incentive fine print: the lender it requires, the close-by date, fixed or adjustable, and any cost stated as a percentage of the loan amount.
• The one-time water and sewer capacity fees on a new home, which can already be inside the builder's price. The utility's fee page lists them.
• For a townhome or villa, the recorded declaration: fee simple or condominium unit.
• Your complete income and asset documents for the pre-approval. Getting pre-approved in South Carolina lists what I will ask you for and what the letter should say.

Once you have an address or a community in mind, I can run the FHA payment with that parcel's tax bill, the flood premium if the zone requires one, and the community's dues in it. Then I set it beside the builder's offer. 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 county Assessor decides whether a home gets the 4% rate, FEMA's map decides the flood zone, and the builder's current written offer governs any incentive. Please confirm all three before you rely on a figure here.

Common questions

What is the FHA loan limit in Hardeeville, SC for 2026?

It is the same number for a one-unit home on the Jasper County and Beaufort County sides of the city, and the loan limit section above gives it. Hardeeville's August 2026 median sale leaves plenty of room under it.

Can I use an FHA loan to buy a new construction home in Hardeeville?

Yes. FHA counts a home as new construction from the plans stage through the first year after it is finished, as long as nobody has lived in it. The builder gives the lender a certification and a one-year warranty, and the file carries either the county's permit and certificate of occupancy or inspections made during the build.

Do I have to use the builder's lender to get the FHA incentive in Hardeeville?

Each builder writes its own rule, so the answer is in the fine print of the offer in front of you. I price the same FHA loan beside the builder's, with the incentive counted, so you can see which one costs less over the whole closing statement and the whole payment.

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

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

Will an FHA loan in Hardeeville require flood insurance?

Only when part of the home is in a zone beginning with A or V on FEMA's map, and then the policy stays for the life of the loan with the premium collected in your payment. Most of the flood policies written in ZIP 29927 are in zone X, where the lender does not require one.

Can I get the 4% property tax rate on an FHA-financed home in Hardeeville?

Yes, because FHA requires you to live in the home and South Carolina's owner-occupied rate is for exactly that. In Jasper County you apply with the Assessor once the deed is recorded and you have moved in, and the deadline is the January 15 tax due date.