The Quick Read: No. Unvested RSUs generally do not count as qualifying income, and they do not count as assets or reserves either. Only shares that have vested, been delivered to you without restrictions, and shown up in a documented history are used. Buying a condo or co-op does not change that test, because your income is underwritten separately from the property. Jumbo lenders set their own guidelines, and they may be stricter than the agency benchmark.
What Does “Unvested” Mean to an Underwriter?
An unvested RSU is a promise of future shares. You do not own it yet, and the vesting is not guaranteed. An underwriter treats it as a possibility, not a resource.
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.
Here is the ladder a file moves through:
1. Granted. The employer awards the units. Nothing is yours yet.
2. Vested. You have met the time or performance condition.
3. Delivered. Shares land in your brokerage account without restrictions, or you receive cash.
4. Net of withholding. Taxes are withheld, so what you actually hold is less than the gross shares.
Income credit starts at step three, and only with a track record behind it. The Fannie Mae Selling Guide section on restricted stock units says restricted stock must have vested and been distributed to the borrower without restrictions. It also says sign-on bonuses paid as restricted stock that vests over any length of time are not eligible as qualifying income.
Freddie Mac’s guide bulletin describes the same thing from the other side. Both restricted stock and RSUs carry a restriction period during which you cannot access the shares until the vesting requirements are met. Shares you can’t touch can’t carry a loan.
How Are Unvested and Vested RSUs Treated? (Side by Side)
| Use of the stock | Unvested RSUs | Vested, delivered RSUs |
|---|---|---|
| Qualifying income | Not counted | Counted with a documented history |
| Down payment and closing funds | Not counted | Counted if value is verifiable |
| Reserves | Not counted | Counted if value is verifiable |
| What proves it | Nothing a lender can use | Brokerage statements, vesting schedule, paystub |
The pattern is simple. Vesting is the line. Everything on the left side of that line is invisible to the file, and everything on the right needs paper.
Why Doesn’t the Answer Change for a Jumbo?
It doesn’t change in direction. A jumbo loan sits above the county conforming limit, so Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do not buy it. Each jumbo investor writes its own guidelines. There is no single published jumbo-specific RSU standard, so the agency rules are the common benchmark that most files are measured against.
Here is the practical point from placing jumbo files through wholesale lenders. A jumbo investor can be stricter than the agencies. It may ask for a longer delivered-share history, discount the stock price, or look harder at a large single-stock position. Nothing in the program world makes jumbo documentation looser. Treat the agency test as the floor, not the ceiling.
The verification principle sits underneath all of it. The CFPB’s Ability-to-Repay compliance guide says a lender must make a reasonable and good-faith determination of your ability to repay, and must verify the amounts it relies on. A grant you merely expect to receive can’t be verified as income. That rule does not write RSU guidelines, though; investors set those.
Jumbo is also a different box on size. Across the wholesale jumbo programs Lendmire works with, the headline lane uses a 660 decision score, leverage up to 90%, and loans up to $5,000,000. The ratio ceiling is 50% on the fixed lanes. Reserves and appraisals scale with the loan amount. All of this is subject to lender guidelines and full file review, and none of it is a commitment to lend. Lendmire’s jumbo loan programs page lays out the lanes.
Your qualifying ratio is calculated on the lower, documented income. That means unvested grants can raise your total compensation without raising what a lender will use, which can reduce the loan size you qualify for.
What Does Count, and What Does the File Need?
Vested, delivered, documented shares count. On the agency benchmark, the file looks like this.
- Time-based awards. A minimum 12-month history of receiving the shares from your current employer.
- Performance-based awards. A two-year history is recommended. A shorter history, but no less than 12 months, can be accepted with offsetting positive factors.
- Public company stock. The lender wants evidence the stock is publicly traded.
- Paper. A recent paystub showing the RSU income plus two years of W-2s, the current vesting schedule showing past and future vesting, a brokerage or bank statement showing prior distributions, and a verbal verification of employment.
- Stock price. Share-based income is converted using a 200-day moving average price, not one day’s price.
Time-based and performance-based awards are tested differently, so confirm which kind your plan uses. The plain-language version of the math: the lender takes the vested shares delivered in the past year, applies the averaged price, and divides by 12. Cash vesting is divided by 12 too. Big vesting years don’t create a spike in qualifying income, because the figure is averaged.
Freddie Mac also looks forward. A correspondent lender’s summary of its update says recurring awards must be likely to continue for about three years. That is a continuance test, and a jumbo lender may apply its own version.
Does a Condo or Co-Op Change the RSU Question?
No. The income rules are the same for a condo, a co-op or a house. What changes is whether the property itself can be financed on the terms you need. That is a separate track.
Condos. The project has to meet the investor’s project standards. Fannie Mae’s general property eligibility rule says a unit in a condo, co-op or planned unit development project must meet its project standards. Some projects fall outside the standard box. Two of the wholesale jumbo lanes accept non-warrantable condominiums, which gives some buyers an option, subject to lane guidelines.
Co-ops. You buy shares in a corporation, not real property. On the agency side, a co-op share loan requires that the project qualify as a cooperative housing corporation under IRS Code Section 216, per Fannie Mae’s co-op project eligibility rule. If it doesn’t, Fannie Mae will not purchase a co-op share loan from within the project. The appraiser has to develop an opinion of the market value of the co-op interest, and may use condo sales as comparables when co-op sales are scarce, with explanation and adjustment. That appraisal guidance is older, so treat it as background.
Many co-op loans are held by portfolio lenders, and many co-op boards run their own financial tests on top of lender rules. Plan for a board package and extra review time.
Dues and maintenance. Monthly condo dues, assessments and co-op maintenance charges are part of your housing obligation. Reserves on jumbo files are measured in months of the full payment, so a high monthly carrying cost raises the reserve target.
Neither property review nor appraisal ever decides whether RSUs count. They only decide whether the property works.
A Tech Buyer With Mostly Unvested Grants: Three Paths
Picture a buyer whose offer letter lists a large RSU grant. Her base pay is modest compared with her total compensation, and she hired in recently. She is looking at a condo. No dollar figures are needed to see the options.
| Path | What the lender uses | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Base pay only | Salary and any cash bonus with history | Smaller loan size |
| Wait for vests | Delivered shares after a 12-month history | Delay, stock price risk |
| Sell vested shares | Cash for down payment and reserves | Needs a paper trail |
On the first path, her unvested grant is ignored. Base salary and cash bonus may still qualify, so the file is not dead. It is smaller.
On the second path, time does the work. Once a full year of delivered shares sits in the brokerage statement, the income can enter the calculation, subject to the lender’s own rules.
On the third path, vested shares count as assets when their value can be verified. The agency asset rule says vested stocks, bonds and mutual funds are acceptable sources of funds for the down payment, closing costs and reserves, and that non-vested stock options are not. Value is figured net of any margin accounts. Shares used for closing funds may need proof of liquidation unless their value comfortably exceeds what is needed.
What If Most of Your Wealth Is Unvested?
You have real options. None of them rely on the unvested grant.
- Apply on base pay. Let the grant be upside, not the foundation.
- Time the application around a vest. Applying after shares are delivered and sitting in your account puts them in a usable form.
- Use other liquid assets. Cash or already-vested holdings can cover reserves.
- Add a co-borrower whose income stands on its own.
- Size the loan to your base, not your best case. Approval is a ceiling, not a target. If the stock drops, the loan payment does not.
- Mind concentration. A large single-stock position may draw closer review, and stress-testing your own plan is sensible.
Life events matter. A job change resets the history clock for time-based awards. A sign-on grant is excluded regardless of its vesting schedule. A private or pre-IPO company is a common failure point on the agency benchmark, because it asks for evidence the stock is publicly traded. Jumbo investors may differ here, so ask before you count on it.
Common Mistakes
- Listing the offer-letter grant as income. It isn’t. Only vested, delivered shares count.
- Calling unvested units “reserves.” They are not a verified, accessible asset.
- Assuming day-one credit at a new job. Time-based awards need history from the current employer.
- Moving shares without a paper trail. Shares sold and transferred leave a trail the lender will want to see.
- Counting the same dollars twice. Cash can’t be both closing funds and reserves, and sold shares can’t also be treated as ongoing income.
- Expecting jumbo to be looser. It isn’t. Jumbo lenders set their own standards, and those may be tighter.
Key Terms Defined
RSU (restricted stock unit): A grant of company shares you receive only after meeting a time or performance condition.
Vested: The condition has been met and the shares are yours.
Delivered: The shares or cash have actually reached your account without restrictions.
200-day moving average: The averaged stock price a lender uses to turn delivered shares into monthly income.
Non-warrantable condo: A condominium project that falls outside standard agency project rules and needs a lender that accepts it.
Co-op share loan: A loan secured by shares in a cooperative housing corporation, not by real property.
Tax treatment can depend on your situation; borrowers should speak with a qualified tax professional before relying on any deduction or credit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can unvested RSUs count as income on a jumbo loan?
No. Lenders use vested, delivered shares with a documented history. Jumbo investors set their own guidelines, so the history they ask for may be longer than the agency benchmark.
Can unvested RSUs count as reserves or a down payment?
No. Unvested equity isn’t a verified, accessible asset. The agency asset rule credits vested stock whose value can be verified, so shares must vest before they can fund anything.
Do I need two years of history?
It depends on the award type. On the agency benchmark, time-based awards need at least 12 months from your current employer. Performance-based awards call for two years, with a shorter history acceptable when offsetting factors exist. A jumbo lender may set its own requirement.
Does a co-op treat RSUs differently from a condo?
No. Your income is judged the same way on either. The difference is the property: condos face project review, while co-ops involve share-loan structure, an appraisal of the co-op interest and often a board package.
What if I just joined and have a sign-on grant?
Sign-on RSUs that vest over time are excluded as qualifying income on the agency benchmark. Your base salary and any cash bonus can still be used. Delivered shares from later awards may count once you build a history.
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. Program details vary by lender and are subject to full file review.
For your own numbers, request a scenario review with Lendmire.
About Lendmire
Lendmire is a mortgage brokerage (NMLS# 2371349) licensed for consumer mortgage lending in 16 states, arranging FHA, VA, conventional and jumbo purchase and refinance loans through a wholesale lending network. Eligibility is determined by the lender on each file. Scotsman Guide named Lendmire a Top Mortgage Workplace in both 2025 and 2026.
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References
1. Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-3.3-07, Restricted Stock Units and Restricted Stock Employment Income
2. Freddie Mac Guide Bulletin on Restricted Stock and RSUs
3. CFPB Ability-to-Repay and Qualified Mortgage Small Entity Compliance Guide
4. Fannie Mae’s general property eligibility rule
5. Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-2.3-02, Co-op Project Eligibility
6. Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-4.3-01, Stocks, Stock Options, Bonds and Mutual Funds
This article is part of Lendmire’s jumbo loan program — full qualification details, guidelines, and scenarios live on the program page.
Related reading: How to Get a Condo Jumbo Loan as a Tech Employee With RSUs · How Jumbo Loan Condo Rules Work for a Tech Employee With RSU Income · How to Lower Cash to Close on a Jumbo Loan as a W-2 Buyer
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.