On Monday, the Illinois Association of REALTORS® hosted an educational webinar by USDA Rural Development representatives that outlined details regarding the Single Family Guaranteed Loan Program and the Single Family Direct Home Loans Program.

If you have clients who are unsure they have the income or assets to secure financing for a home, be sure to share with them information you learned from the audio version of the webinar the PowerPoint presentation.

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According to the USDA Web site, the Guaranteed Loan Program in Illinois helps approved lenders provide “low- and moderate-income households the opportunity to own adequate, modest, decent, safe and sanitary dwellings as their primary residence in eligible rural areas. Eligible applicants may build, rehabilitate, improve or relocate a dwelling in an eligible rural area. The program provides a 90 percent loan note guarantee to approved lenders in order to reduce the risk of extending 100 percent loans to eligible rural homebuyers.”

The Web site also says the Direct Loan Program (Section 502) assists “low- and very-low-income applicants obtain decent, safe and sanitary housing in eligible rural areas by providing payment assistance to increase an applicant’s repayment ability. Payment assistance is a type of subsidy that reduces the mortgage payment for a short time. The amount of assistance is determined by the adjusted family income.” Applicants must “be unable to obtain a loan from other resources on terms and conditions that (they) can reasonably be expected to meet.”

If you have questions about these programs, a list of phone numbers are provided near the end of the PowerPoint presentation, including several regional offices for the Direct program. The webinar was conducted by Barry Ramsey and Nicki Morgan of the USDA at the suggestion of IAR Housing Policy Advisor Sharon Gorrell.