In Sarasota County, any single-family loan amount over $832,750 in 2026 is jumbo, not conforming. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will not buy it, so it either gets held by a lender as a portfolio loan or sold through a private jumbo program, each with its own rules on down payment, reserves, and documentation. On Bird Key, Longboat Key, and Siesta Key waterfront, that is most of the market. I shop 160+ wholesale lenders to find the program that actually fits your file.
Jumbo is not a price point, it is a line drawn by the county you are buying in. Here is how that line gets set, and what changes once you are over it.
Every year, the Federal Housing Finance Agency sets a conforming loan limit for every county in the country. Stay under it and your loan can be sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, which is what keeps conventional financing standardized and widely available. Go over it and the loan is jumbo, meaning it has to be sold through a private jumbo program or held by the lender itself.
For a one-unit home, Sarasota County's conforming loan limit for 2026 is $832,750, up from $806,500 in 2025. Sarasota sits at the standard baseline limit rather than a high-cost designation, but on the barrier islands and in downtown towers, sale prices routinely run well past that figure, which is exactly why jumbo and portfolio financing dominates that market rather than being the exception.
Jumbo programs generally expect more down than the minimum a conforming buyer puts in, and the exact number moves with the loan amount, the property, and the lender's own appetite. Some portfolio lenders will flex on that for a very strong borrower with deep assets. I will not quote you a percentage here, because on jumbo files it genuinely depends on the specific program.
Reserves are liquid funds left over after closing, in checking, savings, brokerage, or retirement accounts, that prove you could keep paying if your income stopped tomorrow. Jumbo lenders commonly want somewhere between 6 and 12 months of reserves, sometimes more on the largest loan amounts or on a second home or investment property. Documentation gets fuller too, full income verification for W-2 and self-employed borrowers, or an alternative-documentation route if you qualify on assets instead.
A standard jumbo loan still gets sold on to private investors on the secondary market, so it follows a fairly consistent set of guidelines from lender to lender. A portfolio loan is different. The lender keeps that loan on its own books permanently instead of selling it, which means that lender can say yes to a property, an income type, or a building that a standard jumbo program would turn down. That flexibility matters a lot on waterfront estates, new construction, and condo buildings with their own quirks.
Retirees, business owners with lumpy income, and high-net-worth buyers often have the net worth to easily support a jumbo payment but a tax return that does not show much taxable income. Asset depletion loans take your qualifying accounts and convert them into a monthly income figure a lender can use, so the loan gets decided on what you actually have, not just what you report to the IRS. It is one of the paths I check first on jumbo files where the income story looks thin on paper.
“Your bank has one jumbo box. I have 160 lenders with 160 different jumbo boxes, and I only need one of them to say yes.”Tony Fitzgerald · The Mortgage Jedi
Three different lanes, three different rulebooks. Here is roughly where each one sits.
| Loan type | Loan amount | Who holds it | Reserves & documentation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conforming | Up to $832,750 for a one-unit home in Sarasota County in 2026 | Sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, standardized nationwide guidelines | Typically the lightest reserve requirement of the three, standard income documentation |
| Jumbo | Above the conforming limit, sold through a private jumbo investor | Sold on the secondary market outside the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac system | Fuller documentation, commonly 6 to 12 months of reserves, more on larger loan amounts |
| Portfolio | Any amount the lender decides to keep, often above jumbo or on a unique property | Held permanently by the originating lender, never sold | Custom to that lender, can flex on documentation for a strong borrower or unusual property |
Buying a second home or an investment property above the limit? See how second-home financing works →
Every product gets more standardized the closer it is to the conforming limit. Jumbo is the opposite. Pricing, guidelines, and appetite swing wildly from one lender to the next, which is exactly where a broker earns their keep.
Walk into a bank branch and you get that bank's one jumbo program, with one set of reserve rules and one appetite for your income type and your property. If your file does not fit that exact box, the answer is no, and there is nowhere else to go inside that building.
Once you cross the conforming line, lenders stop following one shared rulebook and start writing their own. Down payment expectations, reserve months, and pricing can vary meaningfully between two lenders looking at the exact same file, in a way that almost never happens on a conforming loan.
A lender that is aggressively pursuing waterfront jumbo business this quarter might tighten up next quarter, and a lender that turned down condo-hotels last year might have loosened up since. I track which of my 160+ partners actually wants your kind of file right now, not which one wanted it two years ago.
Self-employed income, asset depletion, multiple properties, a building with its own quirks, these are exactly the files where one lender's underwriter reads it differently than another's. One credit pull, shopped across the market, means a strict no from one shop does not end the conversation.
Want the full picture on how a broker's access compares to a single bank? Broker vs. bank, explained →
Sometimes the smarter move is a bigger down payment that keeps you under the conforming line entirely. I will tell you which one it is before you commit to anything.
These questions tell me within minutes which jumbo or portfolio lenders are worth calling first.
The questions I get asked most, answered first.
A jumbo loan is any mortgage larger than the conforming loan limit set for the county the home sits in. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will not buy a loan above that limit, so it gets sold through a private jumbo program or held by the lender as a portfolio loan instead, each with its own rules on down payment, reserves, and documentation.
For 2026, the standard conforming loan limit for a one-unit home in Sarasota County is $832,750, up from $806,500 in 2025. Any single-family loan amount above that figure in Sarasota County is jumbo, regardless of the purchase price or your down payment.
It depends on the lender, the loan amount, and your file, but jumbo programs generally ask for more down than the minimum a conforming buyer puts down, often somewhere in the 10 to 20 percent range and higher on the largest loan amounts. Some portfolio lenders will go lower for a very strong borrower. I will not quote you a number here because it truly depends on the specific program.
Reserves are liquid funds left over after closing, in checking, savings, brokerage, or retirement accounts, that prove you could keep making payments if something interrupted your income. Jumbo lenders commonly want somewhere between 6 and 12 months of reserves, and sometimes more on larger loan amounts or investment properties, compared to far less on a typical conforming loan.
A jumbo loan is still sold on to private investors on the secondary market, just outside the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac system, so it follows a fairly standardized set of guidelines. A portfolio loan is one the lender keeps on its own books permanently, so that lender sets its own rules and can say yes to a property, an income type, or a building that a standard jumbo program would turn down.
Often, yes. Asset depletion programs take your qualifying assets, retirement accounts, brokerage accounts, and other liquid holdings, and convert them into a monthly income figure a lender can use to qualify you, even if your tax returns show very little. It is one of the most common paths I use for retirees and high-net-worth buyers on jumbo purchases.
Your bank has one jumbo box and one set of reserve and documentation rules. If your file does not fit that exact box, the answer is no, full stop. As a broker I shop your file across 160+ wholesale lenders with different jumbo and portfolio appetites, so a no from one lender is often a yes from another, on pricing, reserves, or the property itself.
A Sarasota-area note. This is not a niche corner of the market here, it is most of it. Bird Key and Longboat Key waterfront estates, Siesta Key beachfront, and the newer downtown Sarasota towers routinely sell well past the $832,750 conforming line, which makes jumbo and portfolio financing the default rather than the exception in those neighborhoods. Head south toward Naples-adjacent Lee County and the same story holds. I work these files constantly, including on the barrier islands, so if you are shopping Longboat Key or Siesta Key, I already know which of my 160+ lenders are actively pursuing waterfront jumbo business right now versus which ones have pulled back.
So humans, search engines, and AI assistants all get it right.
Tell me the loan amount, the property, and where your down payment and reserves stand. I will tell you which of my 160+ lenders actually wants that file, and which route makes the most sense.
For education and illustration only. This page describes general jumbo and portfolio loan guidelines, including the 2026 Sarasota County conforming loan limit, which change over time and are not a quote, rate, offer, or commitment to lend. Down payment, reserve, and documentation requirements vary by lender and are not stated as fixed figures here. Your actual terms depend on your complete application, the specific lender, the property, and credit approval. Tony Fitzgerald NMLS #1284924 · 1st Response Mortgage is a registered DBA of Barrett Financial Group, L.L.C., NMLS #181106 · FL License #MLD1880 · Equal Housing Lender · This is not a commitment to lend. All loans subject to credit approval.
Tony Fitzgerald · NMLS #1284924 · 1st Response Mortgage is a registered DBA of Barrett Financial Group, L.L.C. · NMLS #181106 · Florida License #MLD1880 · 2701 East Insight Way, Suite 150, Chandler, AZ 85286 · Licensed in Florida · Equal Housing Opportunity Lender