Illinois USDA Section 502 Guaranteed Loan income limits, the eligible-area context for its rural communities, and the official USDA sources behind both — then run the live address and income precheck.
Income limits verified 2026-06-18
A USDA Guaranteed Loan in Illinois turns on two separate USDA tests: whether the property sits in a USDA-eligible rural area, and whether household income is within the county income limit. Both must hold before a lender underwrites the file.
USDA HB-1-3555 Appendix 5 sets the moderate-income limit per county and household-size band. Across most Illinois counties the floor is $119,850 (1-4 people) and $158,250(5-8 people). For households above eight, USDA adds 8% of the four-person limit per additional person. The figure is adjusted annual household income after USDA's allowable deductions, not gross pay.
Higher-cost metro counties can exceed the $119,850 / $158,250 floor. This precheck applies the national floor when a specific Illinoiscounty row has not been ingested and labels it as a fallback, so confirm the exact county or metro row in USDA's official income-limit PDF.
USDA eligibility is address-level, not ZIP-level: one ZIP can straddle eligible and ineligible ground, and boundaries often run mid-street near Chicago and other urbanized edges. Enter a complete Illinoisstreet address in the live precheck to geocode the point and test it against USDA Rural Development's ineligible-area layer.
Save the Illinois address, county, household size, income, and check date. A USDA-approved lender and the Illinois USDA Rural Development state office confirm the official county row and final eligibility. Income eligibility is not a loan amount — the lender sets that with the 29% PITI / 41% total-debt ratios.