Current conventional guidelines, updated from one source.
Treat these as the program’s fixed points rather than an offer: the minimum down payment for a first-time buyer and for everyone else, the credit floor behind these pages, the leverage at which mortgage insurance begins and the points at which it ends, and the ratio an automated approval allows.
First-time buyer; 5% standard; 97% loan-to-value at the top
The agencies set the floor at 3% down for a first-time buyer and 5% for a repeat buyer, on a principal residence; the whole down payment may be a gift from a relative on a one-unit home, and twenty percent down removes mortgage insurance from the payment entirely.
Priced on the score; no agency minimum with an automated approval
The wholesale programs behind these pages start at a 620 decision score. The agencies themselves set no minimum for an automated approval and ask for 620 on a manually underwritten fixed-rate loan and 640 on an adjustable; the score prices the loan and the insurance more than it gates them.
Required above 80% LTV; removed at 80% by request, 78% automatically
The insurance line in a conventional payment is a bridge, not a fixture: required above 80% loan-to-value, cancellable at 80% on request and 78% by law, and priced by the insurer on the score inside Fannie Mae’s published 0.58%–1.86% range. Twenty percent down skips it entirely.
With an automated approval; 36% to 45% on a manual file
An automated approval allows a total debt-to-income ratio up to 50%; a manually underwritten file is held to 36%, or 45% when credit score and reserves meet the agencies’ matrix. The ratio divides total housing payment plus other monthly obligations by gross income.
| Purpose | Occupancy and program | Maximum LTV |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase | One-unit principal residence, first-time buyer (fixed rate) | 97% |
| Purchase | One-unit principal residence, standard | 95% |
| Purchase | HomeReady / Home Possible (income limits apply) | 97% |
| Purchase | Two- to four-unit principal residence | 95% |
| Purchase | Second home | 90% |
| Purchase | Investment property, one unit | 85% |
| Purchase | Investment property, two to four units | 75% |
| Refinance | Limited cash-out (rate-and-term), one-unit principal residence | 95% |
| Refinance | Cash-out, one-unit principal residence | 80% |
| Refinance | Cash-out, two to four units, second home or investment | 75% |
| Combined LTV | Maximum contribution |
|---|---|
| above 90 percent | 3% of the sales price |
| 75.01 to 90 percent | 6% of the sales price |
| 75 percent or less | 9% of the sales price |
| investment property (any) | 2% of the sales price |
| Event | Waiting period |
|---|---|
| Chapter 7 or 11 bankruptcy | four years from discharge or dismissal (two years with documented extenuating circumstances) |
| Chapter 13 bankruptcy | two years from discharge; four years from dismissal (two with extenuating circumstances) |
| Multiple bankruptcy filings | five years when more than one filing within the past seven years |
| Foreclosure | seven years (three with extenuating circumstances, then limited to a principal residence or second home at 90 percent LTV, purchase or limited cash-out) |
| Deed-in-lieu, short sale or mortgage charge-off | four years (two with extenuating circumstances) |
Mortgage insurance: Fannie Mae reports that private mortgage insurance typically ranged from 0.58%–1.86% of the loan amount a year; the premium on a specific loan is priced by the insurer on the score, the leverage, and the coverage, and is never quoted here. Gifts from relatives may fund the entire down payment on a one-unit principal residence. HomeReady and Home Possible lend to 97% with income at or below 80% of the area median; HomeOne lends to the same leverage with a first-time buyer and no income limit.
Current conventional snapshot · updated October 3, 2026 · principal residences occupied within sixty days, second homes, and one- to four-unit investment properties · conforming limits apply by county and are confirmed by a Lendmire loan officer · above the limit, see the jumbo program · no prepayment penalty · Lendmire is a broker, never the lender.
Program guidelines only, not an offer of credit. The leverage, credit floor, mortgage insurance thresholds, ratio maximums, contribution caps, and waiting periods on this page are agency parameters and lender overlays subject to change without notice and to full underwriting of the borrower and the property. Mortgage insurance premiums are priced by the insurer and are not quoted here. Lendmire is a broker, not a lender. Licensed in sixteen states for consumer mortgages. NMLS #2371349.
What a conventional loan is — and how the file is qualified.
Nearly every Marathon conventional file is read by an automated underwriting system against the agencies’ guides, and the few written by hand follow the manual columns of the same rules. The system does not change the rules below; it applies them: the leverage the occupancy allows, how the score is read, when mortgage insurance attaches and ends, and what the ratios and reserves must show.
For the program overview, see Lendmire’s conventional loan program, or the statewide guide at Conventional Loans in Florida; for the mortgage insurance cancellation rules, see the CFPB.
Leverage by occupancy and buyer
Leverage on a Marathon conventional loan is a table rather than a single number: purchase against refinance, principal residence against second home against rental, one unit against several. Each cell has its own maximum, a cash-out refinance sits below the purchase ceiling for the same occupancy, and the snapshot shows the whole table.
Credit scores and automated underwriting
What the score does on a Marathon conventional file is set the cost. A lower score raises the loan-level adjustments and the insurance premium; a higher score lowers both. Manual underwriting, used when the automated system cannot approve the file, carries its own minimum score and tighter ratios.
Mortgage insurance that cancels
The federal cancellation rules are the quiet advantage of a conventional loan. The borrower can ask to drop the insurance when the balance reaches the request threshold, the servicer must drop it at the automatic threshold, and it cannot outlast the midpoint of the term. On an FHA loan at full leverage the premium stays for the life of the loan.
Ratios, reserves, and the DU finding
Three things decide what payment a Marathon income carries: the ratio ceiling for the underwriting path, the reserves the finding requires, and the stability of the income over two years. Enter income in the calculator to see the ratio on a local price before asking for a quote.
A lender runs the same math on a Marathon file with one difference: the insurer’s actual premium replaces the estimate. The estimate here starts at the low end of the published range and is editable, because the real figure depends on the score and the leverage.
Where Marathon buyers borrow — and how a conforming loan fits.
These numbers are Marathon’s, not any one borrower’s: owner households, median home value, and household income from the U.S. Census Bureau. They give the scale of a typical purchase here; the score, the appraisal, and the household’s own income give the loan.
These are context figures, not underwriting inputs. Read the figures as ranges, not predictions. The lender appraises one home, documents one income, and lets the automated system read one credit file.
Data sources: U.S. Census Bureau — ACS 5-Year (2024) housing and population estimates, including tenure, home values, gross rents, and household income.
Distinct Marathon neighborhoods, distinct conventional files.
One program, several Marathon submarkets: the cards below describe the housing stock, the price range, and the conventional question that comes up most often in each.
Year-round primary residences
In a resort market the principal-residence file is the one with the most room: the top leverage, reserves set by the finding alone, and the cost tier the score earns. A Marathon buyer who lives there full time uses it like any other buyer. Median household income in Marathon sits near $89,355 on the latest Census estimate.
Workforce neighborhoods
Away from the resort core, Marathon’s workforce neighborhoods are where the conventional structure fits a local income: modestly priced homes, first-time buyers at the program minimum, and loans well inside the ratio and the limit. About 40% of Marathon’s households rent — roughly 1,600 renter households on the latest Census estimate.
Higher-value homes
On Marathon’s higher-value homes the conventional loan meets the conforming limit before anything else; above it, the buyer adds down payment or moves to the jumbo program, and a loan officer confirms the current figure first. On a one-unit principal residence at Marathon’s median value, the first-time buyer’s minimum down payment comes to about $21,800 and the standard minimum to about $36,300 — before closing costs, and before the mortgage insurance that comes with either; a second home, a multi-unit home, or a rental starts higher, as the leverage table shows.
Condominium projects
Resort condominium projects in Marathon are the hardest agency reviews: investor-owned and rented units, short-term rental programs, hotel-style operations, and commercial space all weigh against warrantability. A buyer should have the lender review the project before the offer. Marathon is home to about 9.9K people.
Homes bought for their setting
On a Marathon home that trades on its setting the appraisal carries more weight: the value must be supported on comparable sales, and the loan amount is checked against the conforming limit, which higher-priced homes approach quickly. The median owner-occupied home value in Marathon runs near $725,800 on the latest Census estimate.
Second homes and vacation condominiums
The second-home purchase is the resort market’s conventional specialty: more down than a principal residence, part of it from the buyer’s own funds, reserves for both properties, and an occupancy the buyer must actually keep. Roughly 2,418 Marathon households own their homes on the latest Census estimate — 60% of all households, the pool a conventional purchase joins.
Neighborhood sets the price, the property type, and often the occupancy; the agencies set the rest. The leverage table, the insurance thresholds, the ratio ceiling, and the waiting periods apply identically on every Marathon file.
Four ways Marathon buyers put a conforming loan to work.
Marathon borrowers use conforming loans for reasons that repeat, from the first purchase at the first-time-buyer minimum to the refinance on a home with equity, and the cards below take up the ones that come up most often.
Buy an investment property
Investment property on a conforming loan is a common entry point for Marathon landlords: one to four units, a down payment set by the leverage table, rental income counted under the agencies’ rules, and a cap on how many financed properties one borrower may hold.
Buy a second home
For the Marathon vacation or weekend home, the conforming loan is usually the only consumer route: FHA and VA finance principal residences only. The down payment is larger, the reserves are deeper, and the score prices the loan the same way it does on any conventional purchase.
Buy a condominium in a warrantable project
Condominiums are a common first purchase in Marathon, and a warrantable project is financed like a house with the dues in the ratio; a project that fails the review is outside the conforming program and goes to a portfolio lender instead.
Buy a first home at the first-time-buyer minimum
A Marathon buyer who has not owned a home in three years qualifies for the program’s smallest down payment on a one-unit principal residence with a fixed rate; the down payment can be a gift from a relative, the seller can pay closing costs within the cap, and the insurance cancels as equity grows.
Estimate the payment on a Marathon price before requesting a quote.
The program’s own math on your Marathon inputs: price less the down payment, amortized at the benchmark, with the insurance estimate added while the leverage is above the threshold and the escrows added throughout. The actual rate, premium, payment, and costs come in writing from a licensed loan officer.
Marathon conventional payment estimate
The starting figures are a Marathon price at the first-time buyer’s minimum down payment. Replace them with yours.
Editable benchmark: 7.28% as of October 1, 2026 · Freddie Mac 30-year average via FRED®. A conventional market reference, not a conventional loan quote.
Estimate seeded at the low end of Fannie Mae’s published range (0.58%–1.86% a year); the insurer prices the actual premium on the score and the leverage. Applies only above 80% loan-to-value.
Illustrative starting assumptions: a $725,000 price near Marathon’s median owner-occupied home value, the first-time buyer’s minimum down payment, a thirty-year term at the current Freddie Mac benchmark, mortgage insurance at the low end of Fannie Mae’s published range, property taxes and insurance estimated for Florida (U.S. Census Bureau). Every field is editable.
Illustrative estimate only — not a Loan Estimate, approval, quote, or commitment to lend. The rate field carries the weekly Freddie Mac thirty-year conventional benchmark, a market reference and not a conventional loan quote; your rate is set by the lender at lock. The mortgage insurance figure is an editable estimate seeded from Fannie Mae’s published typical range, not a premium quote; the insurer prices the actual premium, and the cancellation month assumes scheduled payments with no extra principal and no change in value. Taxes, insurance and dues are editable estimates; closing costs are not included. Conforming loan limits apply by county. Licensed in sixteen states for consumer mortgages.
Same buyer, three very different closings.
The score, the down payment available, VA eligibility, and the expected length of the loan decide which program wins. Here are the three, one next to the other.
Conventional, FHA, or VA.
Conventional fits the Marathon buyer with a solid score: the premium is smaller than FHA’s for strong credit and it ends, the monthly structure carries no upfront premium, and twenty percent down removes insurance altogether. A modest score or a thin file is where FHA competes.
Where conventional prices the score, FHA prices by schedule. FHA fits the buyer whose score would be priced heavily on a conventional loan, or who needs the room FHA’s ratio tiers allow; it rarely wins for a Marathon buyer with strong credit and a down payment above the minimum. See Lendmire’s FHA loan program.
A Marathon buyer with VA eligibility and full entitlement rarely needs a conventional loan for a principal residence: nothing down, no insurance, and residual-income underwriting. Conventional is the route for that same veteran’s second home or investment property, which VA does not finance. See Lendmire’s VA loan program.
Conventional for the solid score, the move-up buyer, the second home, and the rental; FHA for the modest score and the small investment; VA for the eligible borrower buying a principal residence. The Marathon file is priced on all three before one is recommended. Above the conforming limit, see the jumbo loan program.
What to prepare for a Marathon scenario review.
What a lender reads on a Marathon conventional loan, and what you can have ready before anyone asks.
This is a general preparation guide, not a universal checklist. The selected lender may request additional information based on the transaction, the property, the automated underwriting finding, and the income picture. Nothing here is legal or tax advice.
Local details that can change the loan.
Check these before leaning on any number for Marathon: the mortgage insurance structure and when it ends, the score and what it costs, the appraisal, the condominium review, the conforming limit, the ratio and reserves, and the occupancy.
Use these checks to keep the Marathon file clean and fundable.
The list is short because the program is simple at its core: the insurance, the score, and the property decide most Marathon files before income is even opened.
- Plan the insurance: the premium is priced on the score and the leverage inside the published range.
- Confirm the score: a self-pulled score can differ from the decision score.
- Structure the contract: contributions are capped by the combined loan-to-value, as the snapshot shows.
Mortgage insurance: how much, and until when
The premium on a Marathon loan can be paid monthly, paid by the lender in exchange for a different price, paid as a single premium at closing, or split. The monthly structure cancels under the federal rules, and the others are set by the lender. The calculator shows the monthly structure and the month the thresholds arrive on scheduled payments.
The score sets the cost
The score does two jobs on a Marathon file: it feeds the automated assessment alongside the rest of the credit file, and it sets the cost of the loan and the insurance. A buyer close to a cost tier sometimes gains more from a short wait and a paid-down balance than from any other change.
Seller contributions and the down payment
Sellers and other interested parties may pay closing costs, prepaids, and other concessions up to a cap set by the combined loan-to-value, as the snapshot table shows; above the cap the excess reduces the price for sizing the loan. The down payment cannot come from the seller, but a relative’s gift can fund it on a one-unit principal residence.
Ratios, reserves, and the finding
The total ratio counts the full housing payment, insurance included, plus every other obligation, against gross income, up to the automated ceiling in the snapshot; a manual file is held to the lower pair. The finding also sets the reserves, and a Marathon buyer with other financed properties carries more of them.
Waiting periods after a credit event
A documented hardship beyond the borrower’s control, such as a job loss or a medical event, can shorten several of the waiting periods, and the shortened foreclosure period limits the leverage and the occupancy. A Marathon file inside a waiting period is written later, not now.
From a Marathon pre-approval to keys in hand.
From the first conversation to the closing table, a Marathon conventional purchase takes four steps, and each one carries an agency rule inside it.
Pre-approval
A Marathon pre-approval is a sizing exercise run through the automated system: the score, the income, the assets, the occupancy, and the price. The finding sets the ratio room and the reserves, and the loan officer puts the pre-approval in writing for the offer.
Contract and appraisal
The appraisal is a valuation first and a condition report second on a conventional file; a short value re-sizes the loan, and the Marathon contract is adjusted or released under its contingency. Where the system offers value acceptance, the step collapses to the system’s figure.
Underwriting
The underwriter verifies what the automated finding assumed: income, assets and reserves, credit and any seasoning, occupancy, and the property. A manual file follows the lower ratio pair instead. Conditions are issued, documented, and cleared before final approval.
Closing
Closing is where the structure becomes a payment: principal and interest, the insurance while the loan is above the threshold, taxes and insurance. The Marathon buyer takes the keys, and the lender delivers the loan to the agency it was written for.
A brokerage that prices the whole market.
Lendmire is a mortgage brokerage licensed for consumer lending in sixteen states, and on a conventional loan that buys three things: the file priced across several wholesale programs rather than one, the insurance structure and its exit explained before an offer is written, and the terms in writing from a licensed loan officer.
Several programs, one set of numbers
Before any recommendation, the Marathon file is priced across the wholesale programs Lendmire works with and run against FHA and VA on the same price, score, and down payment. The buyer sees the payment, the insurance line, and the cash to close for each, and the choice follows the figures.
The insurance explained before the offer
The insurance is the program’s cost and the cancellation rules are its advantage, and Lendmire explains both first rather than last: how much the premium is, which structure fits, and when it ends for a Marathon buyer at the price in hand.
Licensed, consumer-purpose, in writing
What this page shows are the agencies’ parameters and the wholesale overlays; what a specific Marathon loan gets is a written set of terms from a licensed loan officer after the review. Lendmire is a broker, never the lender.
Trusted by buyers & families alike.
Marathon conventional loan FAQs
The questions below come up on nearly every Marathon conventional conversation. The answers are general; the figures in the snapshot above are the program’s current parameters.
What is a conventional loan, and who is it for?
Think of it as the mortgage without a federal guaranty or insurance: the agencies set the rules, a private insurer covers the high-leverage slice, and the score sets the price. Principal residences, second homes, and one- to four-unit rentals are all inside it.
How much do I need to put down on a conventional loan in Marathon?
A small share of the price for a first-time buyer, a little more for a repeat buyer, and twenty percent to skip the insurance. A loan officer turns the percentages into dollars on the price you choose.
What credit score do I need for a conventional loan?
The snapshot shows the floor. More useful than the number is what sits around it: a seasoned derogatory event is inside the rules after its waiting period, a thin file may need manual underwriting with tighter ratios, and the score drives the insurance premium on a Marathon loan.
How does private mortgage insurance work, and when does it end?
The premium is a percentage of the loan a year, divided into the monthly payment, and it is set by the insurer on the score and the leverage rather than by a government schedule. It cancels: by request at the request threshold, automatically at the termination threshold, and no later than the midpoint of the term.
What is the conforming loan limit in Marathon?
Ask a loan officer for the county’s current limit; it changes yearly and by unit count. Above it, a Marathon purchase is still possible with a larger down payment on a conforming loan or on a jumbo loan.
Can I use a conventional loan to buy a condominium?
A conventional condominium file adds the project question to the house file. Confirm the review before paying for the appraisal; the leverage and the insurance follow the occupancy as they would on a house.
Can I buy a rental property with a conventional loan?
Rentals of one to four units are eligible. The down payment is larger than on a home the buyer lives in, the finding sets the reserves, and the rental income enters the ratio under the agencies’ rules rather than in full.
Can the down payment be a gift?
The whole down payment can be a family gift on a one-unit principal residence, with the letter and the transfer documented. A Marathon first-time buyer with family help and a solid score is a routine conventional file.
Can I take cash out with a conventional refinance?
Yes, up to the cash-out leverage in the snapshot on a one-unit principal residence, and to the lower figure on two- to four-unit homes, second homes, and investment property, generally once the mortgage being paid off is twelve months old and the title six months. The new loan is priced for cash-out, and a home equity line that leaves the first mortgage alone is the comparison worth running.
How does a conventional refinance work?
A conventional refinance has its own rows in the leverage table, below the purchase rows. The limited cash-out version changes the loan’s terms; the cash-out version borrows against equity and generally needs the mortgage it pays off to be twelve months old and six months on title first.
A Marathon conventional loan sized to the price, the score, and the leverage.
Ask for a Marathon scenario review to confirm the leverage, the insurance and its exit, and the loan the program supports. Lendmire is a broker licensed in sixteen states for consumer mortgages and is never the lender.
This guide covers Marathon — for the statewide guidelines, markets, and scenarios, see Conventional Loans in Florida, part of Lendmire’s conventional loan program.
Nearby markets in Florida: Islamorada · Key West · Homestead · Kendall · Doral · Miami · Hialeah · Miami Beach
Related programs: FHA Loans · Jumbo Loans · Refinance Loans