Low-cost loans for farm families?

Q. I hear there are 2 percent home loans available for farm families. Is this true? Paul M. Olson Hemet, Calif.

A. The Farmers Home Administration provides loans in rural areas to finance homes and building sites. Rural areas include open country and places with populations of 10,000 or less, rural in character, and not closely associated with urban areas.

Loans may be made in towns with populations between 10,000 and 20,000 that are outside standard metropolitan statistical areas if the secretary of agriculture and secretary of housing and urban development find there is a serious lack of mortgage credit.

Homeownership loans are offered to help families with low and moderate income. These families must:

* Be without decent, safe, and sanitary housing.

* Be unable to obtain a loan from private lenders on the terms and conditions that they can reasonably expect to meet.

The preceding is essentially quoted from a booklet entitled Home Ownership Loans, revised March 1975 and November 1976. The number is 768-059 and was printed by the Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

For more local information on low-cost rural homeownership loans, get in touch with the Farmers Home Administration county supervisor in your area. You can find the address and phone number in the white pages of your phone book under United State Government. Look for the Department of Agriculture and/or Farmers Home Administration.