USDA Home Loans Orange County NC

Fortunately, earlier this year, USDA decided to migrate over to Bing Maps.  This makes mapping the areas that qualify for USDA Home Loans in Orange County NC so much easier!  I’m not sure why that is, but some of the roads (as I read them) on the USDA Home Loan Mapping System are indicated as “Not Found” on the Orange County GIS system.

For that reason, I decided to work with the USDA Home Loan Map to show you which areas of Orange County qualify for the program, and which areas near Chapel Hill will be impacted by the new USDA Eligibility Maps on .

Unfortunately, USDA Home Loans Orange County NC will see a pretty big impact from the map changes in 2020.

USDA Home Loans have 3 major qualification guidelines:

• The property must be located within a more “rural” section of the County as identified on the USDA eligibility Maps
• The Household gross income must be below the maximum income limit set for the County.  Chapel Hill household of four limit is $122,350
• The minimum MIDDLE credit scores must be over 620, or 640 for the best pricing.  Honestly because the loans are underwritten 3 times, it’s hard to get a loan with a middle credit score under 640 approved. HOWEVER, we are one of only a few banks that allow for Manually Underwritten Loans.

In general homes located within the city limits of most of Carboro and Chapel Hill do not qualify for this 100%, no money down mortgage loan. MOST of the rest of the county, however DOES currently qualify.  The eligibility maps for USDA are scheduled to change on .

With the maps we printed out, we show you how those USDA Map Changes will impact Orange County, the areas near Cary, Durham and Hillsborough NC.  The sections marked in “darker orangy” do not qualify for USDA Home Loans. The lighter areas on these maps DO qualify.

Below the maps show some of the changes we are seeing near Durham, and you can see how many homes are available for USDA Home Loan Financing towards Hillsborough.

Here’s a map of the area towards Cary, NC.  Part of Cary qualifies for USDA Home Loan No Down Payment Financing!

Can you save money by using the USDA Home Loan Grant Program? Yes.  Take, for example, a loan for $100,000.00.   By taking out a USDA Home Loan loan, the borrower saves $4,290.00 in the first 10 years over what they’d pay out on an FHA loan. Why?  For one reason – USDA home loans have super low monthly PMI Rates!

When we first suggest the program, there’s generally a stunned silence at the other end of the line… “ugh, we weren’t really looking for a FARM?” No worries.  The program is NOT specifically designed for farms.  We have done them for Non- Profit / non Commercial Horse Farms.  The good news is that every county in NC has some portion of it that qualifies for the program, and the USDA Rural Development Home Loan Program has some of the cheapest costs associated with it!  Compared to the better known FHA Loan, it can be $200 a month cheaper!

If you want to know more about qualifying for USDA Home Loans in NC please read the guidelines here.  There are income requirements that vary per county, and the credit requirements are pretty liberal – you need to have (in general) 12 months of clean credit and a credit score above 640.  If you want information on other counties that qualify for USDA Mortgage loans in North Carolina, you will find a map here.

If you are considering a mortgage loan and want to know more about the USDA Home Loan program, please call Steve and Eleanor Thorne, 919-649-5058