I’m Travis Buis, a loan officer with Elite Home Lending in Myrtle Beach. The USDA loan is the program most Grand Strand buyers write off before they check, and a fair number of them are wrong to.

Eligibility here is decided by the address and by your household income, not by how rural a place feels.

What is a USDA home loan?

It’s a mortgage made by a private lender and partly guaranteed by USDA Rural Development, through the Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program. Like the VA program, that guarantee is what lets a lender offer terms it otherwise wouldn’t.

USDA guaranteed loans are fixed-rate, so your rate doesn’t change over the life of the loan. The home has to be your primary residence, and it has to sit in an area USDA has mapped as eligible.

Who can use the USDA program?

Three things decide it:

• The address. USDA publishes an eligibility map. You check the specific property, not the town.
• Household income. It has to fall under USDA’s limit for the county and your household size, and it counts everyone living in the home, including adults who won’t be on the loan.
• Occupancy. You have to live in the home. You don’t have to be a first-time buyer.

What does a USDA loan cost?

USDA charges two fees in place of private mortgage insurance: an upfront guarantee fee, which can usually be rolled into the loan, and an annual fee that’s paid monthly. Both show up on your Loan Estimate, so you can compare them against an FHA or conventional loan before you choose.

What does underwriting look for on a USDA loan?

Steady income, a credit history that shows you pay on time, and a debt-to-income ratio, or DTI, that fits the program. DTI is your monthly debts divided by your gross monthly income. USDA doesn’t ask for perfect credit, but it does want the full picture, so expect to document your income and assets like you would on any other loan.

Where does a USDA loan in South Carolina actually work?

Which parts of Horry County are eligible?

Closer in than people expect. Aynor and Loris are the obvious ones, and the map reaches into stretches around Conway that most buyers assume are ruled out because they’re twenty minutes from a Target.

What it will not cover is the beach. Myrtle Beach proper, North Myrtle Beach and the strip along the ocean are outside the eligible area. USDA decides this by address, so the only answer that counts is the one you get by checking the specific property.

What are the USDA income limits?

They’re based on your household income against the area median, and they move. USDA publishes a lookup that takes your address and household size and returns the current figure, which is a better answer than any number I could print here and let go stale.

Household size matters more than people expect. The same house can be a yes for one family and a no for another on income alone. The local detail is in how USDA loans work in Horry County.

Can I use a USDA loan on a second home or a rental?

No. USDA financing is for a home you will live in as your primary residence. If you’re looking at a beach rental, that’s a different loan and I’ll point you at the right one.

If the address might qualify, get pre-qualified and I’ll run the eligibility check with you rather than leaving you to guess at a map. It’s also worth comparing against the other first-time buyer routes before you settle on one.

USDA loan questions

Do I have to be a first-time buyer for a USDA loan?

No. USDA loans are for anyone who meets the income and property rules and will live in the home as a primary residence.

Does USDA count my whole household’s income?

Yes, for eligibility. USDA looks at the income of everyone in the household, even adults who won’t be on the loan. Only the borrowers’ income is used to qualify for the loan itself.

Is a USDA loan fixed-rate or adjustable?

Fixed-rate. USDA guaranteed loans don’t come in an adjustable version, so your rate stays the same for the life of the loan.