The loan file, the tax bill, and the rules behind both
Buying at The Huntingdon as a Full-Time Residence, Not an Investment
Updated September 2026
What changes when you buy a home at The Huntingdon to occupy full time rather than to hold and let?
Federal rules put a condominium project's minimum owner occupancy inside a range of 30 to 75 percent, and Texas ties the homestead exemption to occupying the home as a principal residence (24 CFR 203.43b, read September 2026).
Paige Martin, Houston Properties Team, The Huntingdon
Source: 24 CFR 203.43b, eligibility of mortgages on single-family condominium units, September 2026.
What actually changes when the home is the one you live in?
Three things change when the home is the one you occupy: the loan file, the tax bill, and which documents you have to read before you can be sure of either.
The loan is decided partly by the building. A lender underwrites the project as well as the borrower, and Fannie Mae's project standards note that loans in some projects may be limited to certain occupancy types, such as principal residences only, or that there may be limits on the LTV ratios.
The tax bill is decided by occupancy. The residence homestead exemption in the Texas Tax Code turns on occupying the home as a principal residence, and a person may not receive that exemption for more than one residence homestead in the same year.
The documents are decided here, at this address. The declaration, the bylaws and the association rules set what occupancy and leasing look like in this building, and unless the declaration provides otherwise the board may adopt and amend those rules.
The holding cost runs the same way in either case. The maintenance fee here is a rate per square foot, about $1.15 a month on current listings, so the monthly obligation scales with the plan rather than sitting at a flat figure.
What does the resale certificate tell an owner-occupier?
Start with the item most buyers skip. Section 82.157 requires the certificate to state any right of first refusal or other restraint contained in the declaration that restricts the right to transfer a home. A provision like that can decide a closing date rather than a price, which is why it belongs at the top of your reading rather than at the end of it.
The next line is the remaining term of any leasehold estate that affects the condominium, together with the provisions governing an extension or renewal of the lease. Then the two compliance statements, which matter more to somebody who will live with the answer. One records whether the board has knowledge that alterations or improvements to the home or to its limited common elements violate the declaration, the bylaws or the rules. The other records whether the board has received notice from a governmental authority concerning violations of health or building codes affecting the home, its limited common elements or any other portion of the condominium. Work already in place under the first of those becomes yours to correct or to live with.
In one sentence, the money a lender will ask about: the periodic common expense assessment and the unpaid amounts due from the seller, capital expenditures approved for the next 12 months, reserves and any portion designated for a specified project, unsatisfied judgments and pending suits, insurance carried for owners' benefit, the transfer fees, and the current operating budget and balance sheet.
The clock is short and worth starting early. An association has ten days from a written request to furnish the certificate, and the copy that reaches a buyer must have been prepared no earlier than three months before it reaches the buyer.
One caution here is specific to a building of this vintage. Section 82.156, the purchaser's statutory right to cancel when the documents or the certificate arrive late, is absent from the list in Section 82.002(c) of sections that reach a regime recorded before 1 January 1994. That list is the default rather than the last word. Section 82.002(a) lets a condominium recorded before that date be governed exclusively under the chapter where the owners vote to amend the declaration to have the chapter apply and the amendment is filed for record, or where a declaration or amendment recorded before 1 January 1994 states that the chapter will apply in its entirety on that date. Which of those is true here is answered by the recorded instruments, so read the declaration and its amendments alongside the contract's own paragraph on the association documents and the certificate before you rely on any deadline (Texas Property Code, read September 2026).
What do the rules say about leasing here, and where would you find out?
The declaration and the current rules for this building are not published anywhere a buyer can read them in advance, so what they provide about leasing, a minimum lease term or a cap on leased homes comes from the documents themselves. What is settled is where the answer lives and who can move it.
Unless the declaration provides otherwise, the association acting through its board may adopt and amend rules regulating the use, occupancy, leasing or sale of homes and common elements, to the extent the regulated actions affect common elements or other homes. Section 82.002(c) extends that subdivision to a condominium whose declaration was recorded before 1 January 1994, so a leasing provision here is a live document rather than a fixed feature of the building.
A seller furnishes the declaration, the bylaws and any association rules along with the certificate, so ask for all three and read the leasing provisions before the option period ends.
This matters to an owner who never intends to let. A project whose legal documents restrict an owner's ability to occupy the home during any part of the year, or require homes to be made available for rental pooling, is ineligible for sale to Fannie Mae. A provision written to control leasing can reach a loan on a home its owner occupies.
How does a lender look at a building like this one?
Almost none of this part is about the borrower. The first question is the project's status. An established condominium project is one where at least 90 percent of the homes have been conveyed to purchasers, the project is 100 percent complete, the project is not subject to additional phasing or annexation, and control of the association has been turned over to the owners. For an attached home in an established project, the review routes are a Full Review, an FHA project approval, or a Fannie Mae review through the PERS process.
A Full Review reads the association's finances. No more than 15 percent of the homes may be 60 days or more past due on common expense assessments, and the projected budget has to provide for replacement reserves at at least 10 percent of the budget.
Concentration comes next. In a project of 21 or more homes, a single entity owning more than 20 percent of the homes makes the project ineligible, and homes currently subject to a rental or lease arrangement count in that calculation.
Litigation can stop a loan as well. An association named as a party to pending litigation relating to the safety, structural soundness, habitability or functional use of the project makes the project ineligible, with a carve-out for minor matters the guide defines, such as neighbor disputes and claims whose anticipated damages and legal expenses stay within 10 percent of the project's funded reserves.
Reviews expire, and they can move mid-transaction. A Full Review of an established project must have been completed within one year before the note date, and loans must be delivered within 120 days following the note date. A lender who becomes aware of information that could change a project's eligibility status, such as significant deferred maintenance or major litigation, has to report it within five business days (Fannie Mae Selling Guide, dated 5 August 2026).
One point matters in a tower whose plans reach a full floor. Two legal homes combined into one are financeable where every requirement the guide lists is met, among them that the home securing the mortgage is a single legal unit under a single deed, that the project's legal documents have been amended to reclassify the combined homes as one, and that all structural work to physically combine them is complete. Two accounts on the county's 2025 roll here describe a pair of homes sharing a single address.
What about an FHA loan, and how do you check the answer yourself?
A home has to sit in a condominium project approved by HUD or by a DELRAP mortgagee, or else qualify under single-unit approval. Project approval carries an owner-occupancy condition. The acceptable minimum level of owner occupancy sits within a range between 30 and 75 percent of the total number of homes in the project, with the specific minimum percentage established by HUD through notice. For that calculation the rule counts a home occupied by its owner for some portion of the calendar year other than as a principal residence, and not rented for a majority of the year, toward the total number of secondary residences.
Single-unit approval needs a project of at least five dwelling units, complete and ready for occupancy, not already on the list of approved projects and not subject to an adverse determination by HUD. Either route is dated: a project approval runs three years from the date of placement on the list unless HUD specifies otherwise, and HUD may rescind an approval at any time where a project stops meeting a requirement.
Checking it is straightforward. HUD publishes the list of approved condominium projects and it is searched by the project's name, so look the building up there and then take the answer from a lender who has read the list on the day it matters. This site's maintenance-fees page carries the single-unit route in more detail.
What does occupying the home do to the tax bill?
The definition is occupancy. A residence homestead is a structure designed or adapted for human residence, used as a residence, and occupied as the individual's principal residence by an owner. A person may receive that exemption for one residence homestead in a year, and joint, community or successive owners may not each receive the same exemption for the same residence homestead in the same year.
The size comes in two pieces. A school district exempts $140,000 of the appraised value of an adult's residence homestead. A taxing unit may adopt a percentage exemption of up to 20 percent, and where that percentage produces less than $5,000 on a particular homestead, the owner is entitled to $5,000 of appraised value instead.
Two rules follow an owner-occupier around. Renting part of the structure leaves its character as a residence homestead intact, although the exemption does not apply to the value of the portion used primarily for purposes incompatible with the owner's residential use. A temporary absence of less than two years leaves the exemption in place as well, provided the owner does not establish a different principal residence and intends to return and occupy the home as a principal residence.
Set that against what the home costs to run. Property tax follows the county's appraised value at the combined rate for the address, which the ten-year series behind this site puts between about two and two and a half percent, on top of a maintenance fee that scales with floor area.
What can this page not tell you?
What this building's declaration and rules provide about leasing, occupancy or a minimum lease term: the seller furnishes the declaration, the bylaws and any rules, so ask for all three and read the leasing provisions.
Whether the declaration or a recorded amendment brings this condominium under the modern chapter in full: the recorded instruments settle it, and the county's real property records hold them.
What share of the homes here are occupied by their owners: no public source publishes it, and the figure reaches a lender through a questionnaire to the association.
Whether the project holds an FHA approval or a Fannie Mae approval today: both expire, both can be rescinded, and the answer is the list on the day it matters.
The exact owner-occupancy percentage in force: the regulation states the range and leaves the figure to a HUD notice, so a lender is the person to ask.
Your own exemption position: it depends on your account, your ownership and the taxing units on your statement, and the county appraisal district for the address answers it.
Whether the declaration here carries a right of first refusal: the resale certificate states it, so read that line first.
Questions & answers
The Huntingdon questions, answered
What changes if I buy at The Huntingdon to live in rather than to hold and let?
Three things: the loan file, the tax bill, and the documents behind both. A lender reviews the project as well as the borrower, and a project finding can restrict which occupancy types a loan supports. Texas ties the residence homestead exemption to occupancy. The declaration, the bylaws and the association rules settle what occupancy and leasing look like at this address, and each of those three answers is decided in a different place.
The loan is decided partly by the building. A lender reviews the project alongside the borrower, and a project finding can limit which occupancy types a loan in that project supports. The tax bill is decided by occupancy. Texas gives one residence homestead exemption per person per tax year, and it rests on the home being occupied as a principal residence by an owner. The documents decide the rest. The declaration, the bylaws and the rules set what occupancy and leasing look like here, and the board may amend rules on those subjects unless the declaration provides otherwise. The holding cost runs either way: the maintenance fee is a rate per square foot, about $1.15 a month on current listings, so the monthly obligation scales with the plan.
How does the Texas residence homestead exemption depend on occupying the home?
A residence homestead is a structure designed or adapted for human residence, used as a residence, and occupied as its owner's principal residence. Texas allows one per person per tax year, and joint, community or successive owners may not each take the same exemption on the same homestead in the same year. A school district exempts $140,000 of appraised value, and a taxing unit may adopt a percentage exemption of up to 20 percent.
Where a taxing unit's percentage produces an exemption of less than $5,000 on a particular homestead, the owner is entitled to $5,000 of appraised value instead. Two further rules matter to an owner who lives in the home. Renting part of the structure leaves its character as a residence homestead intact, although the exemption does not apply to the value of the portion used primarily for purposes incompatible with the owner's residential use. A temporary absence of less than two years also leaves the exemption in place, provided the owner does not establish a different principal residence and intends to return. Your own position turns on your account, your ownership and the taxing units on your statement. The county appraisal district for the address is the body that answers that (Texas Tax Code, Section 11.13, read September 2026).
Where do I find out what the rules at The Huntingdon say about leasing?
In the declaration, the bylaws and any association rules, all three of which a seller furnishes alongside the resale certificate. Unless the declaration provides otherwise, the board may adopt and amend the rules that govern occupancy and leasing, and that power reaches a condominium whose declaration was recorded before 1 January 1994. Ask for the three documents early and read the leasing provisions before the option period ends.
Because the board holds that power, a leasing provision here is a live document rather than a fixed feature of the building. A rule in force when you buy can be amended later, within whatever limits the declaration sets, so the declaration is the document that tells you how far a rule can travel. This is worth reading even for an owner who never intends to let. A project whose legal documents curtail an owner's ability to use the property during any part of the year, or which impose mandatory rental pooling, is ineligible for sale to Fannie Mae. A provision written to control leasing can therefore reach a loan on a home its owner occupies, which is why the leasing paragraphs belong in the diligence period rather than after it.
What does a lender check about the building before approving my loan?
Mostly the project, and only partly you. A lender first asks whether the project is established: at least 90 percent of the homes conveyed to purchasers, 100 percent complete, no further phasing or annexation, and control of the association turned over to the owners. For an attached home in an established project, the routes are a Full Review, an FHA project approval, or a Fannie Mae review through the PERS process.
A Full Review reads the association's finances. No more than 15 percent of the homes may be 60 days or more past due on common expense assessments, and the projected budget has to fund reserves at 10 percent of the budget. Two conditions outside the association's accounts can also stop a loan. In a project of 21 or more homes, a single entity owning more than 20 percent of them makes the project ineligible, and homes under a rental or lease arrangement count in that calculation. An association named as a party to pending litigation about safety, structural soundness, habitability or functional use makes the project ineligible as well, with a carve-out for minor matters. Timing matters too. A Full Review of an established project has a one-year life before the note date, loans go to Fannie Mae within 120 days after it, and a lender who learns of something that could change eligibility reports it within five business days.
Which lines of the resale certificate matter most if I am going to live in the home?
Four of them. Any right of first refusal or other restraint in the declaration on transferring a home, which can govern a closing date. The remaining term of any leasehold estate affecting the condominium. Whether the board knows of alterations or improvements that violate the governing documents. And whether the board has had notice from a governmental authority about health or building code violations.
The first line decides how a sale can happen. The second tells you what the condominium sits on and how long that arrangement runs. The last two tell you what you would inherit: work already in place that breaches the documents becomes yours to correct or to live with, and a code notice affecting the home, its limited common elements or any other part of the condominium is a repair somebody has to fund. The money lines matter to your lender: the periodic assessment and unpaid amounts, approved capital spending for the next 12 months, reserves, pending suits, insurance, transfer fees, and the budget and balance sheet. An association has ten days from a written request to furnish the certificate, and the copy delivered must have been prepared within the three months before it is handed over. Request it in writing on the day you go under contract.
If the association documents arrive late, can I cancel the contract?
By default that depends on the contract rather than on the statute. Section 82.156, the purchaser's statutory right to cancel when the documents or the certificate arrive late, does not appear among the sections Section 82.002(c) applies to a condominium whose declaration was recorded before 1 January 1994. A declaration or a recorded amendment can bring an older building under the chapter in full, so the recorded instruments settle it for this address.
The sections that do reach a regime of this vintage include the resale certificate section and the board powers over rules covering use, occupancy and leasing. The cancellation section sits outside that list. Section 82.002(a) is the exception to it: the owners may vote to amend the declaration so the chapter applies and file that amendment for record, or a declaration or amendment recorded before 1 January 1994 may say the chapter will apply in its entirety. So ask the seller for the declaration and its amendments, and read your contract's own paragraph on the association documents and the certificate before you sign rather than after a delivery slips. Then start the association's clock in writing, because it has ten days from a written request, and the certificate has to be recent when it reaches you. A Texas real estate attorney is the person to ask how the contract wording and the recorded instruments apply to your own file (Texas Property Code, read September 2026).
What does FHA require about owner occupancy in a condominium?
A home has to sit in a condominium project approved by HUD or by a DELRAP mortgagee, or qualify under single-unit approval. Project approval carries an owner-occupancy condition set inside a range between 30 and 75 percent of the homes in the project, with the exact minimum set by HUD through notice. The regulation also counts certain secondary residences toward that calculation.
Single-unit approval runs on its own conditions: a project of at least five dwelling units, complete and ready for occupancy, not already on the list of approved projects, and not subject to an adverse determination by HUD. Approvals are dated. A project approval lasts three years unless HUD specifies otherwise, and HUD may rescind one at any time where a project stops meeting a requirement. That is why a snapshot on any web page ages badly. The practical step is short. HUD publishes the list of approved condominium projects and it is searched by the project's name, so look the building up and then take the answer from a lender who has read the list on the day it matters to your file (24 CFR 203.43b, read September 2026).
Two homes here were combined into one. Does that affect financing?
It is financeable where every condition the guide lists is met, and three of them are these. The home securing the mortgage has to be a single legal unit under a single deed, the project's legal documents have to have been amended to reclassify the combined homes as one, and all structural work to physically combine them has to be complete. Two accounts on the county's 2025 roll at this address describe a pair of homes sharing one address.
Each of those three is a document rather than an impression. The single deed is a recorded instrument. The reclassification is an amendment to the condominium's legal documents, which means somebody has to produce it. The completed structural work is a matter of permits and inspection records. So the request list for a combined home is specific: the deed, the recorded amendment reclassifying the homes as one, and the permit history for the work. Ask for all three during the option period, because a lender reviewing the project will want the same paperwork and there is no substitute for it later in a file.