Denver FHA Loans: Which Neighborhoods Actually Fit Under the $1,149,825 Ceiling (And Why Cannabis-Industry Income Gets Rejected)

What Are Real Denver FHA Monthly Payments in 2026?

On a $525,000 Westwood three-bedroom with FHA 3.5% down plus CHFA Preferred assistance, monthly PITI runs about $3,850. On a $475,000 Sunnyside bungalow using the same stacking, PITI drops to roughly $3,486. A $1,050,000 Highlands remodel near the ceiling prices out near $7,611 a month once mortgage insurance and Denver's climbing hail-insurance premiums are built in.

Denver leads the country in hail insurance claims according to insurer claims data, and May through July hailstorms routinely total roofs across the metro, so we build a higher wind and hail deductible into every Denver FHA file and flag roof age at the appraisal stage rather than after. Files west toward Golden, Morrison, or the foothills-adjacent edge of Lakewood also carry higher wildfire escrow reserves since the December 2021 Marshall Fire in neighboring Boulder County reset how carriers price the entire Front Range, even for homes that never faced direct fire risk. At 5,280 feet the dry air keeps year-round HVAC costs modest, but two or three wildfire-smoke weeks each summer push filter-replacement costs into the housing-expense conversation on nearly every file we run.

Estimates. Actual numbers depend on credit score, escrow, and CHFA Preferred eligibility by county income limit. Rate reference: freddiemac.com/pmms (July 2026).

Does Cannabis-Industry Income Count Toward a Denver FHA Loan?

No FHA lender can count dispensary, cultivation, or delivery-driver income toward Denver mortgage qualification, even though Colorado has licensed recreational cannabis since 2014, because HUD follows the federal Controlled Substances Act and marijuana remains a Schedule I substance federally. We see this trip up otherwise strong applicants across Denver's cannabis corridor more than any other local underwriting issue.

The workaround is usually a co-borrower with W-2 or verifiable 1099 income outside the cannabis industry, or waiting to refinance once a second income source seasons for the required two years. It comes up often enough near the RiNo and Five Points dispensary corridor that we screen for it on the first call rather than after underwriting kicks a file back. Veterans working at the Rocky Mountain Regional VA campus, just east of the city line in Aurora, usually do better comparing FHA against their VA entitlement directly, since VA financing requires no down payment and no mortgage insurance, though FHA still wins for veterans who want to preserve entitlement for a future purchase or whose non-veteran spouse is buying alone. UCHealth Anschutz nurses and residents on multi-year fellowship commitments, meanwhile, are some of our cleanest FHA files in the metro, since verified W-2 income on a teaching hospital campus is exactly what underwriters want to see.

Homes within walking distance of Coors Field and Ball Arena in LoDo, or a short walk from Empower Field near the South Platte, carry a premium that prices most FHA buyers out entirely, which is part of why the Denver FHA pipeline skews so heavily toward Westwood, Sunnyside, and the Globeville corridor instead.

Four Real Denver Scenarios We Ran This Quarter

Which Denver Sub-Markets Does PierPoint Serve for FHA?

PierPoint originates FHA and CHFA-stacked files across every Denver submarket, from Westwood and Barnum on the southwest side to Globeville and Elyria-Swansea along the National Western corridor. The resources below cover the broader Colorado FHA program and the related loan products we shop alongside FHA on every Denver file.