USDA Rural Housing Eligibility Checker: Batch Address Lookup

Paste US addresses or lat/lon coordinates and get one row per input with the USDA Rural Development property eligibility result (Eligible / InEligible) for the Single Family and Multi-Family Housing programs. That covers Section 502 Guaranteed and Direct home loans, 504 repair loans and grants, and 515 rental housing.

Who it's for:

• Mortgage loan officers and brokers pre-screening USDA (zero-down) loan leads
• Real-estate agents and investors tagging listings as "USDA eligible"
• Proptech and lead-gen pipelines
• Housing nonprofits, and AI agents that need a yes/no without clicking through USDA's one-at-a-time map

Why use it

• USDA's own answer. Every address goes to USDA's official property-eligibility service, the same back end as eligibility.sc.egov.usda.gov.
• Cross-checked. Each address is also geocoded with the free US Census Bureau geocoder and tested against USDA RD's published SFH/MFH Ineligible Areas map layer.
  • When the two sources agree, the row is labeled confidence: high.
  • When they disagree, it is labeled review.
  • If USDA's service can't verify an address but Census can place it, the map layer decides (basis: usda_gis_layer).
• Batch. Up to 5,000 inputs per run. 75 addresses take about 17 s.
• No API key, no signup.
• Pay only for answers. You are charged once per row that gets an Eligible/InEligible answer (from USDA's service, or from the USDA map layer when the service can't verify the address). Rows that can't be verified, invalid inputs, points outside the US and source errors come back as free rows that say why.

Input

Field	Example
addresses	209 2nd St NW, Aitkin, MN 56431
coordinates	46.5330,-93.7100
crossCheck	true (default)

Output (example)

{"input":"601 W Jefferson St, Louisville, KY 40202","status":"determined","eligibility":"InEligible","eligible":false,
 "basis":"usda_service","cross_check":"agrees","confidence":"high","usda_service_result":"InEligible","gis_layer_result":"InEligible",
 "matched_address":"601 W JEFFERSON ST, LOUISVILLE, KY, 40202","lat":38.254263614918,"lon":-85.760383251635,"county_fips":"21111",
 "usda_map_url":"https://rdgdwe.sc.egov.usda.gov/eligibilitymaps/index.jsp?app=RHS&ADDRESS=...","layer_effective_date":"2023-07-25","checked_at":"2026-10-25T11:16:19.562Z"}

status takes one of these values:

• determined (charged)
• undetermined, invalid_address, invalid_coordinates, outside_us or source_error (all free)

Data sources (official, public)

• USDA Rural Development EligibilityService (property check, program RHS). It is documented in USDA API: Eligibility – Service Description.
• USDA RD "Ineligible Areas" GIS layer RHS SFH MFH: rdgdwe.sc.egov.usda.gov/arcgis/rest/services/Eligibility/Eligibility/MapServer/4. USDA also publishes it as a shapefile at sc.egov.usda.gov/data/data_files.html.
• US Census Bureau Geocoder (Public_AR_Current / Current_Current).

Important

• This checks property location only. It does not check household income limits.
• USDA notes that a final determination is made by Rural Development on a complete application. Treat results as a pre-screen.
• Coordinates-only rows are checked against the map layer alone (confidence: standard).
• The map layer is used as a cross-check and fallback only. Its polygons carry USDA's own effective date (currently 2023-07-25, shown in layer_effective_date); USDA's eligibility service is treated as authoritative.
• Rows with confidence: review (service and map disagree) should be confirmed on USDA's site.
• Not affiliated with or endorsed by USDA or the US Census Bureau. Results come from public USDA and Census services, which can be slow or temporarily unavailable; such rows are returned free as source_error.

Privacy

Addresses and coordinates you submit are sent to USDA's public eligibility service, USDA's public GIS server and the US Census Bureau geocoder to produce results. Nothing else is collected. Don't submit data you're not allowed to share with those services.