In today's economy, it's difficult to get mortgages let alone getting 100% financing loans. Rural Development Mortgages are available for people who qualify under certain criteria. Not a lot of real estate agents or mortgage brokers are aware of this type of mortgage.

There are several different types of rural housing loans that you need to know about when searching out your mortgage options. These rural development mortgages are available to individuals and families that fall into certain income brackets. There are options for moderate and low income families that may not typically qualify for a mortgage at a bank or other financial institutions.

Most rural programs will allow first time home buyers, or home buyers who have not owned a home in three years, to gain access to affordable single family homes at a below market fixed mortgage rate, minimum down payment and closing costs. Rural Development guarantees these loans, eliminating the Private Mortgage Insurance requirement, allowing lower income home buyers access to a wider price range of homes.

USDA Rural Development has achieved a new milestone toward full-scale deployment of its Guaranteed Underwriting System (GUS), used by lenders to underwrite USDA Section 502, Single Family Housing Guaranteed loans. This system was developed by the USDA to automate the manual loan underwriting process. One unique feature of the rural development system is that it uses the borrower's income and a property's eligibility for the Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan program. It also uses a scorecard feature to assess any risk of the loan process.

Rural Development Mortgages deliver programs in a way that will support increasing economic opportunities and improve the quality of life for rural residents. Rural Development has invested more than $72 billion since the beginning of the Bush Administration to provide equity and technical assistance to finance and foster growth in home ownership, business development and critical community and technology infrastructure. This has resulted in more than 1.2 million jobs being saved or created.

In a December, 2008 ruling, a single set of regulations was set to standardize the rural development mortgage process. The ruling is intended to make it easier for eligible individuals or businesses to apply for loan guarantees. This is encouraging as potential applicants review their options as it will benefit lending companies as well as borrowers.