ELIGIBLE RURAL AREAS- CALIFORNIA 

Guaranteed Rural Housing Loan Program 

United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development 

The Guaranteed Rural Housing loan program may be used to 

finance properties located in rural areas.  Rural is defined as any

town of 25,000 or less that is not adjacent to a large city or that 

is not part of a continuous urban area.   

Since California is a large state with many small towns, a listing of all eligible rural towns 

would take several pages.  Therefore, the listing below is intended to give an overview of 

eligible rural areas in each county.  This listing is of towns where the rural population is 

the largest and most concentrated and where there is the most activity of USDA GRH 

loans. 

Also, please note that there are 20 counties in California that are completely eligible for 

the GRH loan program.  Those counties are listed on the third page of this handout. 

The list below is only a partial listing of the many small communities 

eligible to participate in the Guaranteed Rural Housing loan program.  Maps 

of eligible and ineligible areas are available at the following website: 

http://eligibility.sc.egov.usda.gov  

Butte  El Dorado (cont.)  Fresno (cont.)  Humboldt (cont.) 

Biggs  Placerville  Orange Cove  Rio Dell 

Durham Pollock Pines Parlier Scotia

Gridley Shingle Springs Reedley

Palmero Riverdale

San Joaquin Imperial

Fresno Selma Brawley

Contra Costa  Auberry Squaw Valley Calipatria

Byron  Biola Heber

Caruthers Holtville 

Coalinga Humboldt Imperial 

El Dorado  Easton Arcata Seeley

Cameron Park  Firebaugh  Ferndale  Westmoreland 

Coloma Fowler Fortuna

Diamond Springs  Huron  Garberville 

El Dorado Hills  Kerman  Hydesville  Kern

Georgetown Kingsburg Loleta Arvin

Grizzly Flats  Mendota  McKinleyville  California City 

  California Eligible Rural Areas