It's getting harder to buy pricey homes now that lower mortgage caps are on the way.

The limits are set to kick in Saturday, and it's unclear what the changes will do for the housing market and the economy. At issue are the 90% of new home loans guaranteed by the government. What is the maximum mortgage the government will support?

When the economy was tanking in 2008, Congress raised those limits in order to boost the housing market, The Los Angeles Times reports. That helped people buy more-expensive homes, because lenders knew they could count on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration for backup.

Raising those limits was always meant to be a temporary move. But people say now is the wrong time to push the reset button.

"This is just going to kill us," the president of the California Association of Realtors told the Times. "You don't want the real-estate market to get any worse than it is, and it surprises me that our congressmen and senators don't understand that."

The following video notes that home prices were down 3.3% in July from the previous year.

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The caps vary by county. In Los Angeles County, for example, FHA borrowers will see the loan limit drop to $625,500 from $729,750, the Times reports.

In Washtenaw County, Mich., the cap will drop to $271,050 from $345,000, according to The Detroit Free Press.

The result? Some home sellers will have to drop their prices or search harder for qualified buyers, writes Susan Tempor of the Free Press.

Fannie and Freddie loans will also see new limits, but they won't go below the old jumbo-loan cap of $417,000, the Times reports.

These changes won't affect most homebuyers -- just the ones pushing up against the limits. Even with the caps in place, the California realty group still expects a 1% increase next year in home sales in the state.

"We are still technically in recovery," the group's chief economist said, according to the Ventura County Star. "It's very clear that this market is struggling to gain momentum and move forward."