USDA Information and Data

USDA Rural Development Obligations FY 19 – May

The Housing Assistance Council (HAC) presents this month’s report on Fiscal Year 2019 USDA Rural Housing program obligations.

As of the end of May, USDA obligated 64,313 loans, loan guarantees, and grants totaling $9,081,241,676. This is $869,914,101 less than obligations from the same time last year. At that time were 71,545 loans, loan guarantees, and grants obligated totaling $9,951,155,777.

The agency has been operating under several continuing resolutions and a 35-day government shutdown since the beginning of the fiscal year. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019 was signed into law on February 15, 2019 which provided funding for the rest of the fiscal year.

Single Family Housing Program Highlights
The Section 502 Guaranteed loan program, the largest of the Single Family Housing programs, obligated $8,456,186,019 (57,962 loan guarantees) down from $9,344,108,146 (64,441 loan guarantees) last year.

For the Section 502 Direct program, there have been $469,298,153 (2,975 loans) in loan obligations, compared to $470,085,569 (3,172 loans) this time last year. Very low income (VLI) loan obligations as a percentage of the total Section 502 Direct loan dollars was about 35 percent. VLI loans represented 40 percent of the total number of Section 502 Direct loans.

The Section 504 Repair and Rehabilitation programs obligated 1,385 loans representing about $8,299,424. Loan volume was down from this time last year (1,512 loans representing $9,060,511 million.) In the Section 504 grant program, there were $11,229,910 (1,385 grants) obligated compared to $761,087 (2,304 grants) at the same time last year.

USDA’s Section 523 Self Help Housing Grant program funded 10 grants and contracts totaling $10,088,093, up from this time last year when 5 grants and contracts were funded totaling $14,238,816.

USDA has also funded 5 credit sales representing $402,961.

Multi-Family Housing Programs
USDA’s Section 538 Multifamily Housing obligated 53 loan guarantees totaling $86,375,887, down from last year’s 60 loan guarantees ($82,500,369.) In the Section 515 Rural Rental Housing program, there were 40 loans totaling $33,788,303 obligated compared to 14 loans totaling $12,095,965 this time last year. There has been 1 MPR loan totaling $537,865 and no grants obligated compared to 15 loans and 2 grants representing $15,650,054 and $251,260 this time last year.

In the Farm Labor Housing programs, 5 loans and 2 grants have been funded totaling $3,587,261 and $1,400,000 respectively. Last year in May, there were no loans or grants.

No Section 533 Housing Preservation grants have been obligated so far this year, like this time last year. USDA obligated funds for 153,093 rental assistance units under the Section 521 Rental Assistance program totaling $808,780,291 million. This compares to about 133,633 units ($662,237,636) obligated same time last year. There were also 4,354 Rural Housing Vouchers totaling $19,380,653 compared to 3,763 vouchers representing $15,497,346 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.