USDA Information and Data

USDA Rural Development Obligations FY 17 – June

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 June, USDA obligated 108,554 loans, loan guarantees, and grants totaling about $14.9 billion. This is about $2.09 billion more than obligation levels from the same time last year when there were 96,193 loans, loan guarantees, and grants obligated totaling about $12.79 billion.

Single Family Housing Program Highlights

The Section 502 Guaranteed loan program, the largest of the Single Family Housing programs, obligated $14.0 billion (97,846 loan guarantees) up from $11.8 billion (85,548) at the same time last year.

For the Section 502 Direct program, there have been over $665 million (4,838 loans), down from $723.3 million (5,364 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 37.2 percent, exceeding the 31.5 percent VLI obligation level at the same time last year.

The Section 504 Repair and Rehabilitation programs obligated 2,306 loans representing $13 million. As in the other single family housing programs, loan volume was up from this time last year (2,165 loans representing $11.7 million.) There were also $20.6 million (3,408 grants) obligated in the Section 504 grant program compared to $23.8 million (3,879 grants) at the same time last year.

There were also 5 credit sales of Single Family properties totaling $410,780.

Multi-Family Housing Programs.

USDA’s Section 538 Multifamily Housing obligated 60 loan guarantees totaling $110.2 million, up from 76 loan guarantees ($137.2 million.) In the Section 515 Rural Rental Housing program, there were 10 loans totaling $10.5 million obligated. No Section 515 loans were obligated this time last year. For the Farm Labor Housing programs, USDA obligated 7 loans totaling $10.6 million and 0 grants compared to 7 loans ($5.2 million and 6 grants ($9.6 million) this time last year. There were also 30 MPR loans and 2 grants totaling $21.4 million and $53,200 respectively, compared to 50 loans ($45.8 million) and 3 grants ($801,900) this time last year.

USDA obligated funds for 191,740 rental assistance units under the Section 521 Rental Assistance program totaling $864.2 million. This compares to about 237,179 units ($1.1 billion) obligated same time last year. There were also 4,225 Rural Housing Vouchers totaling $16.6 million compared to 4,224 vouchers representing $15.5 million this time last year.

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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.