Is Your Myrtle Beach Condo Building FHA-Approved?

FHA keeps an actual list of approved condo projects, and you can search it yourself in about a minute. That makes finding an FHA approved condo in Myrtle Beach one of the few financing questions you can settle before you write an offer instead of after.

Here’s what surprises people. Whether a building is FHA approved has almost nothing to do with you. It’s about the association’s paperwork, its budget, its insurance and how the units get used. A borrower with a strong file and a big cushion still can’t buy a unit in a building FHA won’t touch. So check the building first.

How do you find an FHA approved condo in Myrtle Beach?

Search the HUD Condominiums tool at entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/condlook.cfm. You can look a project up by state, county, city, ZIP, name or condo ID.

Read three columns when you get a result. Status tells you whether loans can be processed. Approval Method shows HRAP if HUD reviewed the project or DELRAP if an approved lender did. FHA Concentration shows the percentage of units in the project that already carry active FHA-insured mortgages, and there’s an expiration date that flags when a project is nearing expiration or already past it.

What does each status actually mean?

HUD’s own definitions, in plain terms:

• Approved means applications for FHA mortgage insurance can be processed for units in that project.
• Expired means the approval ran out and hasn’t been renewed.
• Withdrawn means a previously approved status was revoked, and applications cannot be processed.
• Rejected is the one that trips people up. It usually means the project was turned down, but HUD also uses it for records that exist only as single-unit approvals.

That last one matters. Don’t walk away from a building because the search says Rejected without asking a lender to look at why. And don’t assume an Approved result is permanent, because approvals expire.

How long does FHA condo approval last?

Three years from the date the project goes on the approved list, under 24 CFR 203.43b(h)(3). Recertification can be submitted no earlier than six months before expiration and no later than six months after. Before 2019 the cycle was two years; the rule that took effect October 15, 2019 stretched it to three.

Practically, this means a building that was approved when your neighbor bought in 2023 may not be approved today. Pull the current status, not the story.

What if the building isn’t on the list?

There’s a second path called Single-Unit Approval, and it exists for exactly this situation. It gets your specific unit approved rather than the whole project.

The conditions are set in 24 CFR 203.43b(i) and they’re strict. The project has to be complete and not already FHA approved, and it has to contain at least five dwelling units. In a project with ten or more units, no more than 10 percent of the units can carry FHA-insured mortgages. In a project with fewer than ten units, no more than two. At least 50 percent of the units have to be owner-occupied or sold to owners who intend to occupy, measured at the time your loan is approved, which is a higher bar than the standard that applies inside an already-approved project. Manufactured housing condo units are excluded entirely.

The paperwork is Form HUD-9991, and every answer on it has to come from a verifiable source within the last 90 days. That’s a real constraint in July and August, when association managers here are buried. Start early.

Why do so many oceanfront buildings fail FHA approval?

Because of how the units are used, and this is the answer nobody in Myrtle Beach wants to hear.

24 CFR 203.43b(d)(1) says a project must be primarily residential in nature and not intended for rental for transient or hotel purposes. That phrase isn’t left open to interpretation. It comes from 12 U.S.C. 1731b(e)(1), which states that rental for any period less than thirty days shall in any event constitute rental for such purposes. Weekly beach rentals are transient use by statute. A building built around them is not an FHA-approvable project, and no amount of lender creativity changes that.

The other common failure points are about association health rather than use:

• Owner-occupancy. An established project generally needs at least 50 percent owner-occupied, reducible to 35 percent through HUD’s own review process, and that exception requires that no more than 10 percent of units be more than 60 days behind on association fees. New construction and gut rehab projects need at least 30 percent, and two-to-four-unit projects need 75 percent.
• Reserves. The reserve account has to be funded with at least 10 percent of the monthly unit assessments unless HUD accepts a lower amount based on a reserve study, and that study has to be dated within the past 36 months.
• Litigation. Pending litigation gets reviewed and turns on whether the matter affects safety, structural soundness, habitability or functional use.
• Control and contracts. Control has to have passed from the developer to the unit owners, and management agreements have to be terminable on 90 days notice or less.
• Recent financial distress. Any project financial distress event in the last 36 months has to be disclosed.

Three more items get reviewed, and here the regulation sets a range rather than one fixed number. Under 24 CFR 203.43b(d)(6)(viii), HUD may cap the share of units carrying FHA-insured mortgages anywhere between 25 and 75 percent of the project. Under 24 CFR 203.43b(d)(6)(vii), the ceiling on commercial and non-residential floor area falls somewhere between 25 and 55 percent. HUD also measures individual owner concentration, meaning the share of units held by a single owner or a related party. Where HUD has set each of those today is a question to put to your lender about the specific building, and it’s worth asking rather than trusting a figure you found online.

How is this different from a conventional loan?

Conventional financing has no public approved list. Under Fannie Mae’s Selling Guide B4-2.1-01, the lender determines whether a project is eligible, file by file, based on documentation it collects. There’s nothing to search, which is why two lenders can reach different answers on the same building.

Fannie also got stricter this year. Lender Letter LL-2026-03 retired the Limited Review process for applications dated on or after August 3, 2026, so established projects that used to slide through with minimal paperwork now get a full look at their financials and insurance. And Fannie’s own ineligible-project list at B4-2.1-03 rules out hotel-like operations, mandatory rental pooling, projects where a single entity owns more than two units in a 5-to-20 unit project or more than 20 percent in a project of 21 or more, and projects with more than 35 percent commercial space.

VA runs a third system: its own approval list, separate from FHA’s, checked through VA’s lender portal. If you’re a veteran, using a VA loan on a Myrtle Beach condo starts with that list, not HUD’s.

What I’d actually do

One thing, before the offer: send me the building name and address and let me pull the status while you still have room to walk. It takes a few minutes. If the project is approved and current, you know what you’re working with. If it’s expired, there’s sometimes time to get it recertified. If it’s a transient-rental building, you’ve saved yourself an earnest money deposit and three weeks.

Read up on how an FHA home loan works if you’re still deciding on a program, then contact me with the address and I’ll check it.

Frequently asked questions

How do I check if a Myrtle Beach condo is FHA approved?

Use the HUD Condominiums search tool at entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/condlook.cfm. You can search by state, county, city, ZIP code, project name or condo ID. The results show the project status, whether HUD or a lender approved it, the current FHA concentration and the expiration date.

What does it mean if a condo project status says Rejected?

It usually means the project was not approved, but HUD also uses Rejected for records that represent single-unit approval only. Ask a lender to look at the record before you rule the building out.

How long does FHA condo approval last?

Three years from the date the project is placed on the approved list, under 24 CFR 203.43b(h)(3). Recertification can be filed no earlier than six months before expiration and no later than six months after.

Can I get an FHA loan on a condo in a building that is not approved?

Sometimes, through Single-Unit Approval. The project has to be complete, not already approved, and contain at least five units. No more than 10 percent of units in a project of ten or more can carry FHA-insured mortgages, and no more than two in a project with fewer than ten. At least 50 percent of the units must be owner-occupied or sold to owners who intend to occupy.

Why do oceanfront condo buildings often fail FHA approval?

Because FHA requires a project to be primarily residential and not intended for rental for transient or hotel purposes, under 24 CFR 203.43b(d)(1). Federal law at 12 U.S.C. 1731b(e)(1) states that a rental for any period less than thirty days constitutes rental for transient purposes. Buildings operated around weekly rentals fall inside that definition.

About Travis Buis

Travis Buis is a loan officer with Elite Home Lending serving Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand, working with buyers and homeowners throughout Horry and Georgetown counties. Condo financing takes up a large part of his week here, from FHA and VA project approval to conventional warrantability, association insurance and the rental-use questions that decide whether a building is financeable at all. He explains the mechanics first so you can make the call, then handles the loan once you have. Get in touch.

Travis Buis, NMLS #1711446. Elite Home Lending, LLC — NMLS #2788023. Equal Housing Opportunity.

This article is for educational purposes only and is not a commitment to lend or an offer of credit. Program terms, rates, and eligibility standards are set by lenders, investors, and agencies and are subject to change without notice. Loan approval is subject to underwriting, credit approval, and property eligibility. Calculator results are estimates only. Nothing here is tax or legal advice — consult your CPA or attorney for your situation.