Lehi and Saratoga Springs home loans are governed by a county line most buyers drive across without noticing. The Point of the Mountain separates Salt Lake County from Utah County, and on the Utah County side the 2026 FHA loan ceiling is 35,650 dollars lower than it is on the Salt Lake County side. Same program, same lender, same buyer, same week. Only the county changed.
That is the single most useful thing to know before you widen a Draper or Bluffdale search south into Lehi, and it is the reason we treat these two cities as their own conversation rather than folding them into a Salt Lake County guide. There is a second change coming as well. On July 1, 2027 the school district that both cities currently share is dissolving into three new districts, and Lehi and Saratoga Springs are not landing in the same one.
Our office sits at 2150 South 1300 East in Salt Lake City, and the Sharla Ellis Team writes loans across the Wasatch Front, Utah County included. Below we cover the 2026 limits that actually apply here, why the FHA ceiling drops at the Point of the Mountain while the conforming limit does not, what the school district split means for the escrow line of your payment, how Utah's residential property tax exemption fits in, and how the two cities differ in ways a budget can feel.
Lehi sits at the north end of Utah County, directly against the Point of the Mountain, and it has become the anchor of the tech corridor that runs along that stretch of Interstate 15. The federal government's own geography reflects it. The metropolitan statistical area these homes sit in is formally named Provo-Orem-Lehi, Utah, and that naming is not decoration. It is the label attached to the area median figures that set the loan limits we discuss below. Lehi City offices are at 131 North 100 East.
Saratoga Springs sits west of Lehi along the northwest shore of Utah Lake, on the far side of Lake Mountain from the freeway. It is a newer city, built out quickly, and it is oriented toward Eagle Mountain and the western valley rather than toward the I-15 corridor. City offices are at 319 South Saratoga Road. The two cities are close enough that buyers routinely shop both in the same weekend, which is exactly why the differences between them are worth naming rather than glossing.
One of those differences is rail. The Utah Transit Authority operates a FrontRunner commuter rail station in Lehi at 3101 North Ashton Boulevard, with further stations south at American Fork, Vineyard, Orem Central and Provo Central. Saratoga Springs has no FrontRunner station. If one household member commutes north into Salt Lake County and you are pricing two cars against one car plus a rail pass, that distinction belongs in the affordability math before you choose a city, not after.
Both cities are in Utah County, so both take the Utah County figures, and the two figures are not the same number.
The 2026 conforming loan limit for a one unit home in Utah County is 832,750 dollars, published by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The 2026 FHA limit for a one unit home in Utah County is 601,450 dollars, published separately by HUD. Different agencies, different methods, roughly 231,300 dollars apart, and not interchangeable. For a duplex, triplex or fourplex the 2026 Utah County FHA figures rise to 769,950 dollars, 930,700 dollars and 1,156,650 dollars respectively.
Those limits apply to the loan amount rather than to the purchase price, which is a distinction worth holding onto. A larger down payment can pull a file back under a ceiling that the sale price alone would clear. It is the number you are financing that has to fit.
This is the part of a north Utah County purchase we most want you to read twice, because it catches people who did their homework on the wrong side of a hill.
Salt Lake County and Utah County are in two different metropolitan statistical areas. Utah County belongs to Provo-Orem-Lehi. Salt Lake County belongs to the Salt Lake City area. FHA sets its ceilings from area median price data at that metropolitan level, so the two counties get two different FHA numbers even though they share a border you can walk across.
The practical effect looks like this. In Salt Lake County the 2026 FHA ceiling for a one unit home is 637,100 dollars. In Utah County it is 601,450 dollars. That is 35,650 dollars of FHA borrowing capacity that disappears when your search crosses the Point of the Mountain southbound, on the same program, in the same market, in the same month.
The conforming limit, by contrast, does not move at all. It is 832,750 dollars in both counties, because that is the national baseline figure and neither county is designated high cost. So the threshold where a loan becomes a jumbo is identical on both sides of the line. Only the FHA ceiling shifts. If you have been comparing homes in Draper against homes in Lehi and you are counting on FHA financing, that gap is the thing to price first.
One caution on research you may do yourself. HUD's lookup tool displays a median sale price column alongside the Utah County limit, and that displayed figure carries a revision date from January 2023. It does not reconcile to the published 2026 ceiling and it should not be treated as current market data. Use the published limit. It is the number underwriting uses.
Not sure which side of the county line your search actually lives on, or which program clears it? Send us the addresses you are watching and we will tell you which ceiling applies to each one before you write an offer. Start at sharlaellis.com or call us at (801) 580-1861.
Lehi and Saratoga Springs are both served today by Alpine School District. That ends on July 1, 2027, and the two cities do not end up together.
Utah County voters approved the division of Alpine School District in November 2024. Three new districts result. Aspen Peaks School District, created by the passage of Proposition 11, will serve Alpine, American Fork, Cedar Hills, the Utah County portion of Draper, Highland and Lehi, a combined population the district puts at 178,600 residents and roughly 35,000 K through 12 students. Lake Mountain School District, created by the passage of Proposition 14, will serve Cedar Fort, Eagle Mountain, Fairfield and Saratoga Springs, along with unincorporated Utah County west of Lehi, a combined population the district puts at 118,600 residents and roughly 25,870 students. A third district, Timpanogos, covers Orem, Lindon, Pleasant Grove and Vineyard. All three open on July 1, 2027, and Alpine School District dissolves.
Two things follow from that for a buyer shopping right now. The first is straightforward. A listing that describes a home as being in Alpine School District is describing a district that will not exist by the 2027 to 2028 school year, and a Lehi home and a Saratoga Springs home ten minutes apart are heading into two different districts under two different boards. If schools are driving your search, verify the assignment with the district directly rather than relying on a listing field.
The second is the one that touches your loan, and we take it up next.
School districts in Utah levy property tax, and property tax is generally collected through your escrow account as part of the monthly payment. So when the district changes, the entity setting part of that number changes with it.
The state legislature set the framework for the division in Senate Bill 188 of the 2025 session, and it is worth knowing what that law actually says on the tax question, because it is more specific than the speculation around it.
We are not going to tell you your taxes are going up, and we are not going to tell you they are going down. Nobody honestly can, because the boards that will set those rates have not set them yet. What we will tell you is the part that affects a decision you are making this month. Any escrow estimate you are handed today for a Lehi or Saratoga Springs home is built on Alpine School District's current rate, and the district collecting that portion of your bill is scheduled to be a different one, with its own board, by the summer of 2027. Treat the school portion of a long term payment projection as an estimate rather than a fixed input, and build a little room into what you are comfortable spending. That is the same discipline we apply to insurance renewals and to any tax figure that can be reassessed.
There is a second property tax rule that matters more to a monthly payment than most buyers expect, and it applies statewide rather than by county.
Utah exempts 45 percent of the fair market value of a primary residence, plus up to one acre of land, from property tax. The practical result is that a qualifying primary residence is taxed on 55 percent of its value rather than on all of it. The exemption is for primary residences, it requires the qualifying occupancy period the state sets out, and it does not extend to vacation homes, to nightly or short term rentals, or to units used in a rental pool.
Where this bites is on a second home or an investment purchase. The same house, at the same value, under the same rate, carries a materially larger annual tax bill when it is not your primary residence, and that number goes straight into the escrow portion of the payment your debt to income ratio is measured against. If you are buying in Saratoga Springs or Lehi as anything other than a primary residence, tell us at the start so the tax figure in your pre approval reflects it. A pre approval built on a primary residence tax assumption for a property that will not qualify is a pre approval that will move when it is tested. Our pre approval checklist walks through the rest of what we verify up front.
Both cities still carry a meaningful share of new construction, and northwest Utah County is one of the areas where a zero down USDA loan can still be in play, depending on the specific address. USDA eligibility is drawn by mapped area rather than by city name, and the boundaries in this part of the valley have tightened as the population has grown, so an address a mile apart from another can land differently. Never assume from the city name in either direction.
If you are financing a home that is not finished yet, the sequence differs from a resale in ways that are worth reading before you sign a builder contract rather than after. Our guide to buying a new build with little down covers the down payment side, and our guide to USDA eligible towns near Salt Lake City covers how the zero down maps work. For a sense of how pricing on the Salt Lake County side compares, our Salt Lake County home values guide is the companion piece.
The order of operations here matters more than it does in a single county search, because two of the variables move on you at the county line.
None of this makes north Utah County harder to buy in. It makes it a market where the quotes you gathered for a Salt Lake County search do not transfer cleanly, and the buyers who get caught out are the ones who assumed they would.
Both cities are in Utah County. The 2026 conforming limit for a one unit home is 832,750 dollars, published by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The 2026 FHA limit for a one unit home is 601,450 dollars, published by HUD. Those are two separate figures set by two separate agencies and they are not interchangeable. For two, three and four unit properties the 2026 Utah County FHA limits are 769,950 dollars, 930,700 dollars and 1,156,650 dollars.
Yes, and it goes down. Salt Lake County's 2026 FHA ceiling for a one unit home is 637,100 dollars and Utah County's is 601,450 dollars, a difference of 35,650 dollars on the same program. FHA ceilings are set from area median data at the metropolitan level, and the two counties sit in different metropolitan areas. The conforming limit does not move, though. It is 832,750 dollars in both counties, so the point at which a loan becomes a jumbo is the same on either side of the Point of the Mountain.
Different ones. Alpine School District is dividing, and on July 1, 2027 Lehi joins the new Aspen Peaks School District together with Alpine, American Fork, Cedar Hills, Highland and the Utah County portion of Draper. Saratoga Springs joins the new Lake Mountain School District together with Cedar Fort, Eagle Mountain, Fairfield and unincorporated Utah County west of Lehi. Voters approved the division in November 2024 and all three successor districts open for the 2027 to 2028 school year.
It may, and the honest answer is that no one can tell you the direction yet because the new boards have not set their rates. What the law does say is specific. Utah Code Section 53G-3-303, as amended by Senate Bill 188 in 2025, provides that a new district may not impose a property tax before the fiscal year in which it assumes responsibility for student instruction. After that, the new board may discontinue an existing voted levy, impose a levy under Section 53F-8-301, or carry the existing levy forward, and a carried levy may not exceed the maximum duration or rate the voters of the divided district already authorized. Plan the school portion of your payment as an estimate rather than a fixed figure.
Possibly, but it depends entirely on the specific address rather than on the city. USDA eligibility follows mapped areas that are redrawn as population grows, and this corridor has grown a great deal, so two addresses a short distance apart can land on opposite sides of a boundary. Send us the address before you get attached to the program and we will check the map for that parcel. VA is the other zero down path and it is not geographically restricted at all.
The underwriting differences are the usual ones for occupancy, but the property tax difference in Utah is larger than most buyers expect. Utah exempts 45 percent of the fair market value of a qualifying primary residence, plus up to one acre, so a primary residence is taxed on 55 percent of value. A second home does not qualify for that exemption, which means a materially higher annual tax bill on the same house at the same value, and that figure lands inside the escrow payment your debt to income ratio is measured against. Tell us the intended occupancy up front so the pre approval reflects it.
Every dream deserves a dream team. If you are weighing Lehi and Saratoga Springs home loans against a Salt Lake County search, we will start from a payment you are comfortable with, tell you which loan ceiling applies to each address you are watching, set the program before the county line can surprise you, get the occupancy right so the tax figure is honest, and build the escrow line with room for a school district that is still being reconstituted. Then you buy in north Utah County with the actual numbers in front of you.
Sharla Ellis, Producing Branch Manager · NMLS #209040
2150 South 1300 East, Suite 150, Salt Lake City, UT 84106
Phone: (801) 580-1861
Email: [email protected]
Visit sharlaellis.com to start a conversation.
This article is for educational purposes and does not constitute a commitment to lend. Loan approval is subject to underwriting and to a full review of credit, income, assets, and property eligibility. Program guidelines, down payment minimums, income limits, purchase price limits, geographic eligibility for USDA financing, reserve requirements, occupancy requirements, condominium and project eligibility, appraisal outcomes, and rate lock availability and extension pricing vary by program, are administered by third parties, and are subject to change without notice. Loan limit figures reflect published 2026 amounts for Utah County and Salt Lake County, Utah, and differ by county and by program. Property tax rates and assessment practice, residential exemption eligibility, escrow analysis outcomes, homeowners insurance pricing and availability, school district boundaries and the outcome of the Alpine School District division, future school district tax levies, association and project status, and transit service and schedules are determined by third parties or by local and state government and should be confirmed for any specific property. Nothing here is legal or tax advice. Sharla Ellis, NMLS #209040, Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation, Company NMLS #2289. Equal Housing Opportunity.