USDA Provides $250 Million for Rural Housing

December 13, 1999

USDA will provide $194.5 million in housing assistant for rural residents and another $60 million to leverage private funding through partnerships with local institutions to provide home ownership.

The Friday announcement coincided with the release of a report by USDA's Economic Research Service that indicated the department's single family housing program is rated good or very good by more than two-thirds of the borrowers who use the program. About one in ten were dissatisfied.

Direct subsidized home ownership loans are made to very low income and low income rural families who do not own adequate housing and cannot obtain mortgage financing from other sources. Housing financed through the program must be modest in size, design and cost. The typical home is a detached single family dwelling about six years old with three bedrooms and one bathroom with a median purchase price of $64,900.

ERS found that the program served a larger than proportionate share of female single parent households and young households with borrowers under the age of 40 and a smaller share of married couples without children and borrowers 62 years and older.

The program also served disproportionately more Hispanics and blacks compared with their shares among rural low-income home owners. White households were less represented among the borrowers compared with their share of all low and moderate income home owners.

"These results suggest that younger families, especially those headed by a single parent, and minorities may have more restricted access to conventional loans or more difficulty accruing down payments, causing them to rely on the program for home loans more often than do other households," says ERS.

The entire report, "Meeting the Housing Needs of Rural Residents," is available on the Internet at