The mechanism: Every November, the Federal Housing Finance Agency resets the conforming loan limit — the ceiling on mortgages Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are allowed to buy — using a formula baked into the Housing and Economic Recovery Act, not a press conference. For 2026, FHFA raised the baseline limit to $832,750 (up $26,250) and the high-cost-area ceiling to $1,249,125, tracking a 3.26% rise in average U.S. home prices. Nobody votes on this. It just happens, every year, and every year it quietly reclassifies a chunk of "jumbo" borrowers as "conforming" ones. That reclassification matters because agency-eligible loans get better rates, lower down-payment minimums, and easier underwriting than portfolio jumbo product — which lenders price wider to compensate for the risk they can't offload to Fannie or Freddie. Raise the ceiling, and buyers in expensive metros who were previously locked into jumbo financing suddenly qualify for cheaper, more standardized agency paper. That's a direct subsidy to move-up demand in high-cost coastal and mountain-west markets, delivered with zero legislative debate.