View Rule

The Guaranteed Single-Family Housing Loan Program interim final rule encourages new residential construction in rural areas. The new rule provides for a "construction-to-permanent financing" process. Lenders will be able to obtain a loan note guarantee when construction commences, in a "single close" transaction, rather than first obtaining short-term construction financing and then later obtaining the guaranteed loan. The new rule streamlines the financing of building new homes. The interim final rule also expands the types of lenders who are eligible to participate, increasing the reach of the program to small community banks in remote areas and to credit unions with memberships who are teachers as well as other groups. The rule change will allow participation by any lending entity supervised and regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve Banks, or the Federal Housing Finance Board. Currently, these entities may not be eligible lenders.