The Quick Read: A lender runs two separate tests on this kind of file. The first test asks whether your vested, documented stock pay counts as income. The second asks whether the condo building itself is acceptable. Either test can fail on its own, so a strong paycheck does not rescue a problem building, and a clean building does not rescue thin income paperwork.
Key Takeaways
- Stock that has vested and been delivered to you can count as income. Stock that has not vested mostly serves as evidence that the income will continue.
- Lenders want a paper trail: pay records, a vesting schedule, and brokerage statements showing past deliveries.
- Condo dues go into your monthly obligations, so they shrink the income cushion your stock pay creates.
- The building gets its own review. Even a “waived” review still checks several items.
- Rules differ from lender to lender, because jumbo loans are not bought by the big mortgage-backing agencies. Everything here is subject to lender guidelines and full file review.
What Makes a Loan “Jumbo” for a Condo Buyer?
A jumbo loan is any loan above the conforming limit for the county where the condo sits. That limit is set county by county and changes each year, so there is no single national number where “jumbo starts.” The Federal Housing Finance Agency publishes the limits and the formula behind them on its conforming loan limit announcement. Your county’s figure decides whether your loan is jumbo.
Jumbo payment estimate
The starting figures are an example price in the jumbo range with ten percent down on a thirty-year fixed. Replace them with yours.
Editable benchmark: 7.40% as of October 15, 2026 · Freddie Mac 30-year average via FRED®. A conventional market reference, not a jumbo loan quote.
Illustrative starting assumptions: a $1,000,000 price in the jumbo range, ten percent down on the top-leverage lane, a thirty-year fixed structure at the current Freddie Mac conforming benchmark, and property taxes and insurance estimated at typical national rates. 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 conforming benchmark, a market reference and not a jumbo loan quote; jumbo rates are set by the lender and the lane at lock and differ from the conforming benchmark. An adjustable-rate scenario is shown at the benchmark for the whole term; the rate after the initial period is unknown. Reserve months and appraisal counts follow the lane sheet for the amount band; the automated finding may require more. Taxes, insurance and dues are editable estimates; closing costs are not included. On most lanes the conforming limit for the county decides whether a loan is jumbo at all; two lanes start at a stated dollar floor instead. Licensed in sixteen states for consumer mortgages.
Why does that matter for stock pay? Conforming loans follow a published rulebook. Jumbo loans do not have one national rulebook. Each lender sets its own standards, often borrowing the agency method for RSUs and then adding its own conditions.
Across the wholesale lenders Lendmire works with, the headline jumbo lane sets a 660 decision score. Leverage reaches 90% on that lane, and several lanes stop at 89.99% combined loan-to-value. The rest stop at 80%. Loans on the largest lanes go up to $5,000,000. The fixed-rate lanes cap the debt-to-income ratio at 50%, and the adjustable and interest-only lanes cap it at 45% and 43%. Those are guideline figures for a purchase, subject to lender guidelines. They are not a commitment to lend. You can see the program family on Lendmire’s jumbo loan programs page.
Debt-to-income, or DTI, is the share of your gross monthly income that goes to your housing payment and other monthly debts. RSU income matters because it can be the piece that gets that ratio under the cap.
How Does a Lender Turn RSUs Into Income?
A lender sorts your pay first, then proves the history, then converts it to a monthly figure, then tests whether it will continue. Four steps, in that order.
Step 1: Sort the pay. A restricted stock unit (RSU) is a promise of company stock that you receive as it vests. Vested and delivered RSUs are treated as employment income. Unvested grants are not income yet. Shares sitting in your brokerage account are assets, not income. Stock options and employee stock purchase plans generally do not count as income.
Step 2: Prove the history. The agency benchmark is the Fannie Mae Selling Guide section on restricted stock units as employment income. It says stock must have vested and been distributed to you without restrictions to count. It asks for either a completed employment verification form or your latest paystub plus two years of W-2s. It also asks for:
- Evidence the stock is publicly traded.
- The current vesting schedule, showing past and future vesting.
- A brokerage or bank statement showing receipt of prior distributions.
- A verbal check with your employer.
Fannie Mae added RSUs as an eligible income source in Announcement SEL-2023-11. It also made lenders re-underwrite when documents add new information. Fannie has since reorganized its income chapter, so older guides cite superseded section numbers.
How many months or years of history your lender wants is a lender-level choice, and the answer on your file depends on the loan program and the lender. Ask your loan officer early, before you pick a condo.
Step 3: Calculate a monthly figure. For cash-paid RSUs, a common method takes the pre-tax cash distributed over the past year and divides by 12. For stock paid in shares, the agency method uses a 200-day moving average of the stock price as a documentation item. Some jumbo lenders average over a longer stretch. Some also discount the stock price to account for swings. Those choices differ by lender.
Step 4: Test continuance. The underwriter wants the future vesting schedule to show the income lasting. Here is a common trap. An underwriter multiplies the future share count by today’s price and concludes your income will fall. If your employer sets refresh grants in dollar value rather than share count, the share numbers can look smaller while the income stays level. A letter from your employer and the grant documents fix that misread.
Stock Pay Types and How Underwriters Treat Them
| Type of stock pay | Usual treatment |
|---|---|
| Vested RSUs, publicly traded employer | Can count as income with history |
| Unvested RSUs | Evidence of continuance, not income |
| Stock options and ESPP | Generally not counted as income |
| Sign-on RSUs that vest over time | Excluded under the agency standard |
| Private-company stock | Fails the publicly traded requirement |
One more caution on that table. A new employer resets the clock, because the agency standard looks at stock distributed from your current employer. If you changed jobs recently, tell your loan officer first.
The Second Gate: The Condo Building Gets Its Own Review
The building is underwritten alongside you. A lender wants to know whether the condo project is stable, insured and financially healthy. That review is separate from your income review, and the two fail independently.
Here is how the two tests compare.
| Item | Gate 1: Your income | Gate 2: The building |
|---|---|---|
| What it checks | Vested history, continuance, DTI | Project health, insurance, repairs |
| Who supplies documents | You and your employer | HOA or management company |
| Typical papers | Paystub, W-2s, vesting schedule | Budget, insurance proof, project questionnaire |
| What can sink it | Short history, falling stock price | Ineligible project type, unaddressed critical repairs |
Jumbo loans are not sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, but many lenders still apply agency project standards or stricter ones of their own. Fannie Mae’s Condo Project Manager assigns project statuses. Under its full review process, an “Unavailable” status means the project is ineligible for Fannie Mae. A jumbo lender may or may not follow that status, and some turn down projects an agency would accept.
What a “Waived” Review Still Checks
A waived review is not no review. Under Fannie Mae’s waiver of project review rules, the project still cannot be Unavailable. It cannot be a condo hotel, houseboat project, timeshare or segmented-ownership project. Insurance rules still apply. There must be no unaddressed critical repairs or evacuation orders. Detached condos and very small projects are common candidates for a waiver, but a waiver does not clear a project that fails those checks.
Common reasons projects get flagged are inadequate master insurance and serious deferred repairs. Delinquent dues across many owners also draw scrutiny.
Warrantable and Non-Warrantable Condos
A warrantable condo meets the standard project rules a lender can rely on. A non-warrantable condo trips one or more of them. Examples include heavy investor ownership, pending litigation or a commercial-use share that is too large. Two of the wholesale jumbo lanes Lendmire places files with accept non-warrantable condominiums. Those lanes carry lane-specific terms, so the leverage and reserves can differ from the standard lane. Whether your building fits depends on lender guidelines and the review.
Worked Example: HOA Dues Inside the DTI
Run the numbers on an assumed borrower. These are modeled figures in abstract “units,” not market data and not a quote.
- Base pay: 70 units a month.
- Vested RSU income, averaged to a monthly figure: 30 units.
- Total qualifying income: 100 units.
- Proposed housing payment: 40 units.
- Condo dues: 5 units.
- Other monthly debts: 3 units.
Total obligations come to 48 units. Divide 48 by 100 and the DTI is 48%. That sits under the 50% ceiling on the fixed lanes, and it clears the 45% adjustable lane’s ceiling only if you land at 45% or below, so it would miss there.
Now remove the RSU income. The same 48 units against base pay of 70 gives a DTI near 69%. The stock pay is what makes the file work.
Next, raise the dues. If the condo dues rise from 5 units to 8, total obligations climb to 51. Against 100 units of income, that is 51%, over the fixed-lane ceiling. Same borrower, same stock pay, different building. Dues count in the ratio the same way as any other monthly housing cost.
Now stress the stock side. Suppose the share price drops and your averaged RSU figure falls from 30 units to 24. Income becomes 94 units. At 48 units of obligations, DTI is about 51%. A smaller stock price can tip a file that looked safe.
The strongest files carry cushion on both sides. Keep the DTI comfortably under the lane’s ceiling, and pick a building with moderate dues and clean project paperwork.
Reserves: Income and Assets Are Separate Tests
Reserves are the months of full housing payments you hold in liquid assets after closing. Jumbo lenders look hard at them, and the required months rise with the loan amount. Vested shares held in a brokerage account may count toward reserves as assets, subject to lender guidelines. The same shares can show up in two places: the income test through their deliveries, and the asset test through their current balance. Unvested shares usually do not count for reserves.
Above a lane’s threshold amount, two appraisals are required. On a high-priced condo, that adds a step you should plan for.
Where the General Rule Breaks
These are the edge cases that change the answer.
- Job change mid-process. A new employer can reset your history. A lender must verify employment and re-underwrite if documents add new information.
- Vesting cliff or schedule change. A shifted schedule changes the continuance picture.
- Sign-on grants. Sign-on stock that vests over time is excluded under the agency standard, however many vests you have behind you.
- Private-company stock. It fails the publicly traded evidence requirement.
- Falling stock price. It drags down any averaged figure.
- Dual-income households. Only the earner with RSUs needs the stock documentation. The other income documents normally.
- Jumbo refinance of a condo. The agency waivers for certain refinances apply to Fannie-owned loans and high-LTV refinances. They do not cover a jumbo refinance.
Rules around RSUs also move over time, so older articles can be stale. If a page cites an old section number, treat it with caution.
If the RSU Income Does Not Fit
Some borrowers lose the stock income under one lender’s rules and keep it under another’s. A different lane, a longer history, or a lower amount of reliance on the stock may change the picture. Some borrowers also use an asset-based or alternative-documentation route. Those are lender-specific, with their own trade-offs, and your loan officer should lay them out for your file rather than a generic article.
A bigger down payment, stronger reserves or a smaller loan amount can also steady a borderline file.
Pre-Offer Checklist for a Stock-Paid Condo Buyer
Documents for the lender:
- Latest paystub showing stock delivery, and your W-2s.
- The full vesting schedule, past and future.
- Brokerage statements showing prior deliveries.
- A letter from your employer if refresh grants are set in dollar value.
- Proof the company is publicly traded.
Questions for the condo association or agent:
- What are the current monthly dues, and are increases planned?
- Is there a special assessment, pending litigation or deferred critical repair?
- What share of units are owner-occupied?
- Does the master insurance policy meet lender requirements?
- Is the project on any ineligible list, and has it been reviewed before?
Ask your lender how its lane treats your stock history before you write an offer. Ask the building for its documents at the same time. Condo paperwork comes from the HOA or its management company, so it lands on its own schedule.
Key Terms Defined
RSU (restricted stock unit): A promise of company stock or cash value that you receive as the award vests.
Vested: Earned and released to you, no longer subject to forfeiture.
Jumbo loan: A mortgage above the conforming limit for the county where the home sits.
Warrantable condo: A condo project that meets the standard rules lenders use for project eligibility.
Non-warrantable condo: A condo project that fails one or more of those standard rules and needs a lender that accepts it.
DTI (debt-to-income ratio): Your monthly debts, including the new housing payment and condo dues, divided by your gross monthly income.
Reserves: Liquid assets, measured in months of the full housing payment, that remain after closing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do unvested RSUs count toward qualifying for a jumbo loan?
Not as income under the agency standard. Only stock that has vested and been delivered without restrictions counts. Your unvested schedule still matters, because it shows the underwriter that the income will likely continue.
Does the size of my grant decide whether the income counts?
No. History, continuance and documentation decide it. A large grant with a short record can count for less than a smaller grant with a clear, documented delivery history.
Can a condo block my loan even if my income is strong?
Yes. The building is reviewed separately from you. A project with inadequate master insurance, unaddressed critical repairs or an ineligible project type can stop the loan, or push you toward a lender or lane that accepts it.
Do condo dues really change how much I can borrow?
Yes. Condo dues count as part of your monthly housing cost in the DTI. Higher dues use up more of your income capacity, which can lower the loan amount your income supports.
What if I just changed employers?
Tell your loan officer at the start. A new employer can reset the history the lender counts, and a sign-on grant that vests over time is excluded under the agency standard. Some lenders treat that differently, so the lane you choose matters.
Next Step
If you are buying a home and want to see whether a jumbo loan fits your file, Lendmire can help you compare the options and what each one asks of the file. Bring your vesting schedule and the condo’s documents, and the comparison gets more specific.
For your own numbers, request a scenario review with Lendmire.
About Lendmire
As a mortgage broker (NMLS# 2371349), Lendmire helps homeowners and home buyers in 16 states with FHA, VA, conventional and jumbo purchase and refinance loans arranged through wholesale lenders. Lendmire is never the lender; program terms are set by the lender and the agency guidelines. Scotsman Guide named Lendmire a Top Mortgage Workplace in both 2025 and 2026.
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References
1. FHFA — Conforming Loan Limit Values announcement
2. Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-3.3-07 — Restricted Stock Units and Restricted Stock Employment Income
3. Fannie Mae Announcement SEL-2023-11
4. Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-2.2-02 — Full Review Process
5. Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-2.1-02 — Waiver of Project Review
This article is part of Lendmire’s jumbo loan program — full qualification details, guidelines, and scenarios live on the program page.
Related reading: How Jumbo Loan Condo Rules Work for a Tech Employee With RSU Income · How Jumbo Loan Down Payment Rules Work for a 2-4 Unit Property · How Jumbo Loan Refinance Two-Appraisal Rules Work for a High-Value Home
Brandon Miller
Founder & CEO, Mortgage Loan Originator, Lendmire LLC
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Important disclosures. Lendmire (NMLS# 2371349) is a licensed mortgage brokerage. Lendmire is not a direct lender, depository institution, or financial advisor. All loan inquiries are subject to lender underwriting; this article does not constitute a commitment to lend. Rates, terms, and program guidelines are subject to change without notice and vary by borrower profile, property type, and state. Information in this article is general in nature and is not financial, legal, or tax advice. Equal Housing Opportunity. NMLS Consumer Access: nmlsconsumeraccess.org.