FHA Loans in Hialeah: The Condo List Is the Real Problem

On September 14, 2026 we pulled every Hialeah record out of HUD's condominium approval system. There were 235 of them. Not a single one was approved. The list came back 165 expired, 65 rejected, 5 withdrawn, and that is the whole city.

Meanwhile the FHA loan limit for Miami-Dade County sits at $667,000 for a one-family property in 2026, per HUD's own mortgage limit system, effective January 1. The median owner-occupied home in Hialeah is worth $359,200 (U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, 2019 to 2023). The ceiling is nearly double the typical house.

Hialeah has 235 condo projects on HUD's list and zero FHA approvals. The loan limit was never the problem.

Every article about FHA loans in Miami leads with the loan limit. In Hialeah the loan limit is the least interesting number on the page.

The Limit Nobody in Hialeah Actually Hits

Here is what HUD published for Miami-Dade County in calendar year 2026, which is the number that applies to Hialeah, Hialeah Gardens and every other address in the county.

The mechanism behind that $667,000 is worth knowing, because almost nobody explains it. HUD uses an area median sale price and sets the high-cost limit at 115 percent of it. HUD's recorded median sale price for this area is $580,000. Multiply by 1.15 and you land exactly on $667,000. Miami-Dade is a high-cost county, but it is nowhere near the national ceiling of $1,249,125, which is where the most expensive counties in the country sit.

Now put the Hialeah numbers next to it. Median owner-occupied value $359,200. Median household income $53,079. Total housing units 79,700, of which 38.4 percent are single-family detached and 9.7 percent single-family attached. Owner-occupied households: 47.1 percent, which means Hialeah is a majority-renter city. All of that is Census ACS 5-Year data for 2019 to 2023.

What We Found on HUD's List

HUD keeps a public database of condominium project approvals. A unit only qualifies for FHA financing if it sits in an approved project, or if it meets the separate rules for a Site Condominium or a Single-Unit Approval. That is 24 CFR 203.43b(c), and it is not negotiable.

So we queried it. Every Hialeah project record, current approval method, September 14, 2026.

A zero that clean makes a person suspicious, and it should. So we checked it two more ways before publishing it.

First, we re-ran the search by ZIP instead of city name, across 33010, 33012, 33013, 33014, 33015, 33016 and 33018. That returned 252 records, a slightly wider net because a few of those ZIPs reach into neighboring addresses. Zero approved again. Whatever is going on, it is not a spelling problem in HUD's city field.

Second, we ran the identical query against cities where approvals should show up. Orlando returned 205 records with 30 approved. Miami Beach returned 48 records with one approved. The query finds approvals when approvals exist. In Hialeah, Hialeah Gardens and Doral, it finds none at all.

Orlando has 30 FHA-approved condo projects. Hialeah, a city of 221,901 people, has none.

Single-Unit Approval Is the Door That's Still Open

None of this means a Hialeah condo is unfinanceable with FHA. It means the project route is closed and the unit route is what's left.

Single-Unit Approval lives at 24 CFR 203.43b(i). It lets a single unit qualify inside a project that is not on HUD's approved list, as long as the project isn't under an adverse determination, is complete, isn't manufactured housing, and has at least five dwelling units. That last condition matters more in Hialeah than people expect, because the city is full of small buildings. A four-unit building cannot use this route at all.

Then there's the cap, and the cap is the thing that bites. Under 24 CFR 203.43b(i)(2), HUD can suspend new case numbers once FHA-insured mortgages in a project exceed the concentration it sets by notice. The regulation allows a range of zero to twenty percent for projects of ten or more units, and no more than two FHA-insured mortgages in projects under ten units. HUD's own notes attached to the Hialeah records say it plainly: concentration restricted to ten percent.

Ten percent of a 60-unit building is six loans. Once six FHA buyers are in, the seventh gets turned away, and there is no appeal and no waiting list. This is a race, and most buyers don't know they're in one.

Why the Projects Fell Off, and Why They Aren't Coming Back Soon

165 expired. That's the number that explains the whole picture. These projects were approved at some point and nobody renewed. Approval isn't permanent, and recertification takes a board that wants to do it: financials, insurance certificates, reserve documentation, budget, delinquency schedule. It's real work with no deadline attached.

Florida then changed what those same boards have to do with their time. Fla. Stat. 553.899(3)(a) requires a milestone structural inspection for any condo or co-op building three habitable stories or taller by December 31 of the year it turns 30, and every ten years after that. Local enforcement agencies can pull it in to 25 years under 553.899(3)(b) when conditions like salt-water proximity justify it. Hialeah's low-rise stock is exactly the age where this lands.

The money side hit harder. Under Fla. Stat. 718.112(2)(f)2.b, for budgets adopted on or after December 31, 2024, a unit-owner-controlled association that must obtain a structural integrity reserve study can no longer vote to provide no reserves or reduced reserves for the items that study covers. Waiving reserves used to be an annual ritual in Florida condo buildings. It kept assessments low and it is now off the table for the buildings that need a study. Boards can fund the gap with a special assessment, a line of credit or a loan under 718.112(2)(f)2.c(II), and any of those has to be disclosed to you as a prospective purchaser.

Here is where it loops back to FHA. One of HUD's project approval conditions, at 24 CFR 203.43b(d)(3)(x), is a reserve account funded with at least ten percent of monthly unit assessments unless a recent reserve study supports less. The direction of travel should have pushed Florida associations toward FHA eligibility, since they're now being forced to fund reserves anyway. It hasn't, because funding reserves and filing a recertification package are different jobs, and only one of them carries a state penalty.

My honest read: this doesn't fix itself in 2026. A board that just absorbed a milestone inspection and a reserve study is not going to volunteer for a HUD submission in the same year.

Where Hialeah FHA Money Actually Goes

Single-family. About 48 percent of Hialeah's housing units are one-unit detached or attached, and that stock has no project approval problem at all. A house is a house. FHA looks at you, the appraisal and the property condition, and the condominium chapter never opens.

The minimum investment is 3.5 percent of appraised value under 12 U.S.C. 1709(b)(9)(A). On Hialeah's $359,200 median that's roughly $12,600 before closing costs. FHA charges mortgage insurance both upfront and annually, and on most low-down-payment FHA loans that annual premium stays for the life of the loan, which is the single biggest argument for refinancing out later once you have equity. Our FHA versus conventional comparison works through when that trade is worth making.

One rule we end up explaining almost every month: 12 U.S.C. 1709(b)(9)(C) prohibits the down payment from coming, in whole or in part, from the seller or anyone else who benefits financially from the sale, before, during or after closing. Gift money from a family member is explicitly allowed under subparagraph (B). Seller money laundered through a third party is not allowed, and putting an extra name on it doesn't change that. People still try.

Then there's the duplex play, which is underrated here. FHA will insure two to four units if you live in one of them, and the Miami-Dade two-unit limit is $853,900. Small multifamily in Hialeah trades far below that. You put 3.5 percent down on a building, live on one side, and the other side pays a chunk of your note. It's a genuinely good deal and it also makes you a landlord, which not everyone should be.

The Number That Should Worry You More Than the Condo List

Median household income in Hialeah is $53,079. Median owner-occupied home value is $359,200. That's a price-to-income ratio near seven, in a county where insurance and property taxes are both aggressive.

Debt-to-income is what kills Hialeah files, not the county loan limit and not, for most buyers, credit. FHA is relatively forgiving on ratios compared with conventional, which is exactly why it's the right program for a lot of this market. But forgiving isn't unlimited, and a car note plus a credit card balance moves a Hialeah pre-qualification more than most people expect. Our credit guide covers the score side, though frankly the payment side is usually the binding one here.

Hialeah's price-to-income ratio is near seven. Debt-to-income decides these files, not the $667,000 ceiling.

Do This Before You Write an Offer

1. Find out whether the property is a condo, a townhouse under condominium ownership, or fee-simple. In Hialeah the answer is not obvious from looking at the building, and it changes everything that follows.
2. If it's a condo, have your lender check HUD's condominium list for the project by name and by address. Right now the expected answer in Hialeah is "not approved," so the next question is whether Single-Unit Approval is possible.
3. Confirm the project has at least five dwelling units. Under 24 CFR 203.43b(i)(1)(v) a smaller project is not eligible for Single-Unit Approval, full stop.
4. Ask how many FHA-insured mortgages are already in the building, and what concentration HUD applied. Ten percent goes fast in a small project.
5. Read the association's most recent financial statement for a special assessment, line of credit or loan tied to a milestone inspection or reserve study. Florida requires that disclosure to prospective purchasers, and it tells you what your assessments will look like in two years.
6. Run your debt-to-income with the real numbers, including Miami-Dade taxes after reassessment and a current insurance quote. Our escrow guide explains why the tax figure on the current bill is close to meaningless for you.
7. If the condo route closes, look at single-family and at two to four unit properties before you give up on FHA. Roughly half of Hialeah's housing stock never touches the condo rules.

None of this requires a specialist. It requires someone to check the list before the inspection period runs, which is a five-minute task that regularly doesn't happen. If you want the Hialeah market conditions in one place, our Hialeah mortgage page has them, and the Miami-Dade FHA overview covers the program mechanics county-wide. If a condo you love turns out to be unfinanceable through FHA, non-warrantable condo financing is usually the next conversation, and ITIN lending matters to a meaningful slice of this city.

Hialeah is 95.2 percent Hispanic and 91.9 percent of residents speak Spanish at home. Nearly 59 percent of the population over five speaks Spanish and reports speaking English less than very well. If that describes your household, read this in Spanish, and know that every step of the file can be handled in Spanish too.

The condo list will eventually get better. Some board in some building will decide the recertification is worth filing, and that building will suddenly be the easiest FHA purchase in Hialeah. Until then, check before you offer.