USDA Information and Data
Shawn Poynter / There Is More Work To Be Done
Shawn Poynter / There Is More Work To Be Done
The Housing Assistance Council (HAC) presents this month’s report on Fiscal Year 2017 USDA Rural Housing program obligations.
USDA operated under a Continuing Resolution (CR) through April 28, 2017 based on last year’s appropriation levels. Congress passed a final appropriations bill to keep the government operating through the end of September. The final spending bill increased funding for several USDA housing programs.
As of the end of April, USDA obligated 81,225 loans, loan guarantees, and grants totaling about $11.06 billion. This is about $2.08 billion more than obligation levels from the same time last year when there were 68,207 loans, loan guarantees, and grants obligated totaling about $8.98 billion
The Section 502 Guaranteed loan program, the largest of the Single Family Housing programs, obligated $10.4 billion (72,862 loan guarantees) up from $8.5 billion (60,652) at the same time last year.
For the Section 502 Direct program, there have been over $484 million (3,588 loans), also up from $434.0 million (3,292 loans) in loan obligations this time last year. Very low-income (VLI) loan obligations as a percentage of the total Section 502 Direct loan dollars was 37.8 percent, exceeding the 30.7 percent VLI obligation level at the same time last year.
The Section 504 Repair and Rehabilitation programs obligated 1,818 loans representing $10.0 million. As in the other single family housing programs, loan volume was up from this time last year (1,511 loans representing $8.1 million.) There were also $17.3 million (2,845 grants) obligated in the Section 504 grant program compared to $16.3 million (2,642 grants) at the same time last year.
There were also 4 credit sales of Single Family properties totaling $346,100.
USDA’s Section 538 Multifamily Housing obligated 46 loan guarantees totaling $85.4 million, up from 51 loan guarantees ($78.7 million.) In the Section 515 Rural Rental Housing program, there were 10 loans totaling $10.5 million obligated. There were also 13 MPR loans and 2 grants totaling $10.9 million and $53,200 respectively. There were no Section 515 loans and no MPR loans or grants at this time last year.
USDA obligated funds for 175,275 rental assistance units under the Section 521 Rental Assistance program totaling $794.5 million. This compares to about 209,931 units ($986.2 million) obligated same time last year. There were also 2,724 Rural Housing Vouchers totaling $10.4 million compared to 2,869 vouchers representing $10.7 million this time last year. The lower numbers for Rental Assistance and Rural Housing Vouchers likely reflects the limits of the CR funding available.
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* The Rural Housing Service (RHS) monthly obligation reports are produced by the Housing Assistance Council (HAC) 1025 Vermont Ave., NW, Suite 606, Washington, DC 20005. The monthly figures derive from HAC tabulations of USDA –RHS 205c, d, and f report data. For questions or comments about the obligation reports, please contact Michael Feinberg at 202-842-8600 or michael@ruralhome.org.