USDA Direct - Square Footage?

[Anonymous]

To those of you who have had successful USDA Direct Loans, I have a question about the square footage limit.

Is there a difference between total square footage and livable area?

I asked my USDA point of contact to clarify if it had to be 1800 sqft or less and she said "You are correct the house cannot be more than 1800 square feet of living area."

Does that include attics and/or basements? Finished or unfinished?

For example, just saw a house with sqft listed with the following:

SQFT-Tot Fin: 2600

Above Grade Unfinished:

Abover Grade Finished: 1600

Below Grade Finished: 1000

Below Grade Unfinished:

Tax Living Area: 1512

I've emailed our realtor to see if he might know already, as well as the USDA Technician I've been speaking to.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thank you all again for all of your help.

[amthystwlf]

Not sure about where you are but here in my part of NC, there is a different between "finished" and "living area". Finished just means flooring and the walls are covered, so a basement doesn't have exposed concrete block. Living areas must be heated, in addition to being finished. There are also minimum ceiling heights. For example, my brother lives in a home with a 6 1/2' basement ceiling. Even though the basement is finished and heated, it can't be a living area because they require 8' ceilings here. 

So around here, that home is listed as 1500 sq ft living area, then that is what they would use to determine if it qualifies.