“Jumbo” is one of the sillier bits of mortgage jargon, really. A jumbo loan is any conventional mortgage with a loan amount above the maximum that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will buy. In general, a jumbo loan requires a higher down payment, better credit and more assets and may come at a higher interest rate than a loan that can be sold to Fannie or Freddie. Jumbo loans are also notably less uniform in their underwriting guidelines due to the diverse array of funding sources for them—every jumbo lender makes up its own rules.