diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/balancer/BaseLoadBalancer.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/balancer/BaseLoadBalancer.java
index c6086f6875e..b0e088c0400 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/balancer/BaseLoadBalancer.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/balancer/BaseLoadBalancer.java
@@ -739,15 +739,18 @@ public abstract class BaseLoadBalancer implements LoadBalancer {
       }
       numRegionsPerServerPerTable[newServer][tableIndex]++;
 
-      // if old server had max num regions, assume (for now)
-      // max num regions went down since we moved the region
-      if (oldServer >= 0 &&
-          (numRegionsPerServerPerTable[oldServer][tableIndex] + 1) == numMaxRegionsPerTable[tableIndex]) {
-        numMaxRegionsPerTable[tableIndex]--;
+      //check whether this caused maxRegionsPerTable in the new Server to be updated
+      if (numRegionsPerServerPerTable[newServer][tableIndex] > numMaxRegionsPerTable[tableIndex]) {
+        numMaxRegionsPerTable[tableIndex] = numRegionsPerServerPerTable[newServer][tableIndex];
+      } else if (oldServer >= 0 && (numRegionsPerServerPerTable[oldServer][tableIndex] + 1)
+          == numMaxRegionsPerTable[tableIndex]) {
+        //recompute maxRegionsPerTable since the previous value was coming from the old server
+        for (int serverIndex = 0 ; serverIndex < numRegionsPerServerPerTable.length; serverIndex++) {
+          if (numRegionsPerServerPerTable[serverIndex][tableIndex] > numMaxRegionsPerTable[tableIndex]) {
+            numMaxRegionsPerTable[tableIndex] = numRegionsPerServerPerTable[serverIndex][tableIndex];
+          }
+        }
       }
-      // Now check if new server sets new max
-      numMaxRegionsPerTable[tableIndex] =
-          Math.max(numMaxRegionsPerTable[tableIndex], numRegionsPerServerPerTable[newServer][tableIndex]);
 
       // update for servers
       int primary = regionIndexToPrimaryIndex[region];
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/balancer/StochasticLoadBalancer.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/balancer/StochasticLoadBalancer.java
index 2a3582ecefc..8cbdd1e9c67 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/balancer/StochasticLoadBalancer.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/balancer/StochasticLoadBalancer.java
@@ -272,6 +272,14 @@ public class StochasticLoadBalancer extends BaseLoadBalancer {
 
   @Override
   protected boolean needsBalance(Cluster cluster) {
+    ClusterLoadState cs = new ClusterLoadState(cluster.clusterState);
+    if (cs.getNumServers() < MIN_SERVER_BALANCE) {
+      if (LOG.isDebugEnabled()) {
+        LOG.debug("Not running balancer because only " + cs.getNumServers()
+            + " active regionserver(s)");
+      }
+      return false;
+    }
     if (areSomeRegionReplicasColocated(cluster)) {
       return true;
     }
@@ -298,17 +306,6 @@ public class StochasticLoadBalancer extends BaseLoadBalancer {
           + minCostNeedBalance);
       return false;
     }
-
-    ClusterLoadState cs = new ClusterLoadState(cluster.clusterState);
-    if (cs.getNumServers() < MIN_SERVER_BALANCE) {
-      if (LOG.isDebugEnabled()) {
-        LOG.debug("Not running balancer because only " + cs.getNumServers()
-            + " active regionserver(s)");
-      }
-      return false;
-    }
-
-
     return true;
   }
 
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/balancer/TestStochasticLoadBalancer.java b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/balancer/TestStochasticLoadBalancer.java
index 081db762a73..37ff35fdbeb 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/balancer/TestStochasticLoadBalancer.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/balancer/TestStochasticLoadBalancer.java
@@ -50,7 +50,6 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.master.RegionPlan;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.master.balancer.BaseLoadBalancer.Cluster;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.master.balancer.StochasticLoadBalancer.CandidateGenerator;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.master.balancer.StochasticLoadBalancer.TableSkewCandidateGenerator;
-import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.master.balancer.StochasticLoadBalancer.LoadCandidateGenerator;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.testclassification.FlakeyTests;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.testclassification.MediumTests;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.Bytes;
@@ -238,33 +237,6 @@ public class TestStochasticLoadBalancer extends BalancerTestBase {
     }
   }
 
-  @Test
-  public void testTableSkewCostProperlyDecreases() {
-    int replication = 1;
-    Configuration conf = HBaseConfiguration.create();
-    StochasticLoadBalancer.CostFunction
-        costFunction = new StochasticLoadBalancer.TableSkewCostFunction(conf);
-    CandidateGenerator generator = new LoadCandidateGenerator();
-    // Start out with 100 regions on one server and 0 regions on the other
-    int numNodes = 2;
-    int numTables = 1;
-    int numRegions = 100;
-    int numRegionsPerServer = 0;
-
-    Map<ServerName, List<HRegionInfo>> serverMap = createServerMap(numNodes, numRegions, numRegionsPerServer, replication, numTables);
-    BaseLoadBalancer.Cluster cluster = new Cluster(serverMap, null, null, null);
-    costFunction.init(cluster);
-    double cost = costFunction.cost();
-    assertEquals(1.0, cost, .0001);
-    for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
-      Cluster.Action action = generator.generate(cluster);
-      cluster.doAction(action);
-      costFunction.postAction(action);
-      cost = costFunction.cost();
-    }
-    assertTrue(cost < 0.5);
-  }
-
   @Test
   public void testRegionLoadCost() {
     List<BalancerRegionLoad> regionLoads = new ArrayList<>();