USDA Mortgages For Manufactured Homes are Now Possible!

Buying a manufactured home just got easier with a USDA Mortgage!

The USDA previously had pilot program in select states for existing manufactured homes built on or after January 1st of 2006. This program was available in Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Effective March 4th per the Federal Register, the USDA is opening up the opportunity to finance existing manufactured homes in all 50 states. This of course includes the great state of Florida where our rural communities have plenty of beautiful existing manufactured homes. Furthermore the restriction of not allowing for the financing of homes prior to 2006 has been lifted. 

They are aligning their guidelines to that of FHA, Conventional, and VA financing, going back to June 15th, of 1976. However the homes have to be up to current HUD standards. You can learn more about current manufactured home standards and guidelines here. That means the tie downs have to be up to current HUD standards!

This program won’t be for everyone but it will certainly help a lot of folks out!

Lets continue learning about USDA specifics in regards to financing manufactured homes. 

What are the USDA requirements?

This is going to be just like any other USDA mortgage, so what does that mean? There are going to be household income limits and geographic limitations. For most counties in Florida with a household of 1-4 the household income limit is going to be $112,450. For a household of 5 or more it goes up to $148,450. This is going to be the case for most of Florida except counties with higher median income. The counties with higher median income usually have less eligible areas that qualify for USDA financing. For more specific income limit details use the USDA’s Income eligibility tool. It will factor in child care expenses. 

To check for the eligible areas for USDA use their property eligibility tool. You can type in an address to see if a home qualifies. From there you can use the map to get a better idea of what areas qualify and what doesn’t. Areas shaded in brown do not qualify.

What Does My Credit Score Need to Be to get a USDA mortgage for a Manufactured Home? 

Your credit score must be a 600 for most USDA financing. This would require a manual underwrite at 600. For what is called a GUS approval, which allows for higher debt ratios you would need a 660 credit score or higher.

Some USDA Financing Manufactured Home Tips:

• To use USDA financing on a manufactured home it must be your primary residence.
• You can not currently own any other property unless that property is unfit for the size of your family or a disability of a member of the family.
• You do not have to be a first time home buyer, you just can’t own property at the moment.
• Even if a member of the household isn’t going to be on the loan, their income is still included in the household income limits.
• There is no wiggle room on the income limit calculations, if you are over you are over. In fact if you are salaried, and you recently received a raise, and your new income will put you over the income limit the USDA will not guarantee the loan. You would need to use alternative financing like FHA Financing. 
• There is no down payment for USDA financing but you still have closing costs! You may be able to negotiate for your seller to contribute towards your closing costs if you are trying to keep your out of pocket costs to a minimum.

USDA Eligibility Maps for Manufactured Homes

We are licensed in 32 states! So feel free to inquire even if you don’t live in Florida but here are a couple of pictures zoomed out pretty far to the areas in brown that do not qualify for USDA financing if you want to buy a manufactured home. Get pre-approved today using the link below!