USDA Eligible Counties in Maine (2026)
Most Maine homebuyers assume USDA loans are only for rural farmland. They're wrong. Nearly 99% of Maine's land area is USDA-eligible — including most suburbs and small towns outside the Portland, Bangor, and Lewiston metro cores.
Which Maine counties are USDA-eligible?
Every one of Maine's 16 counties has USDA-eligible areas. The question isn't "is my county eligible?" — it's "is my specific town or neighborhood eligible?"
Androscoggin
Downtown Lewiston-Auburn excluded. Every other town eligible.
Aroostook
Fully eligible.
Cumberland
Downtown Portland excluded. Every other town eligible.
Franklin
Fully eligible.
Hancock
Fully eligible — Ellsworth, Bar Harbor, Blue Hill, MDI all qualify.
Kennebec
Fully eligible — Augusta, Waterville, Gardiner, and surrounding towns.
Knox
Fully eligible — Rockland, Camden, Rockport, and the islands.
Lincoln
Fully eligible.
Oxford
Fully eligible.
Penobscot
Downtown Bangor excluded. Every other town — including Brewer, Orono, Hampden — eligible.
Piscataquis
Fully eligible.
Sagadahoc
Fully eligible — Bath, Topsham, Woolwich, and every town.
Somerset
Fully eligible.
Waldo
Fully eligible.
Washington
Fully eligible.
York
Fully eligible — Biddeford, Saco, Sanford, Kittery, Wells, Kennebunk.
The key insight: USDA eligibility is determined by specific property address, not by county or town name alone. A home on one side of a street may qualify while the home across the street doesn't. The official USDA eligibility map at eligibility.sc.egov.usda.gov is the final word.
How USDA decides which areas are eligible
The USDA Rural Development program defines "rural" based on population. As of the current 2020 Census-based maps, an area must have a population of 35,000 or less to qualify. That's a higher threshold than most people assume, which is why so much of Maine — even suburbs of mid-sized cities — qualifies.
USDA re-runs these maps periodically. The current eligibility map has been in effect since 2024 and will likely remain through 2027.
Popular Maine towns where USDA works surprisingly well
- Scarborough, Windham, Gorham (Cumberland County) — all primarily USDA-eligible despite being in Portland's backyard
- Brunswick, Topsham (Sagadahoc/Cumberland) — most neighborhoods eligible
- Gray, New Gloucester, Raymond — fully eligible
- Kennebunk, Wells, Ogunquit (York County) — significant eligible areas
- Camden, Rockport, Belfast — largely eligible outside downtown cores
- Orono, Hampden, Hermon (near Bangor) — eligible
Areas that are NOT eligible
USDA eligibility is drawn block-by-block, not city-by-city. In Maine, the only areas the USDA Rural Development map currently flags as ineligible are the downtown cores of Portland, Lewiston-Auburn, and Bangor. Everywhere else in Maine — including South Portland, Westbrook, Biddeford, Saco, Sanford, Bath (all of Sagadahoc County), Augusta, Waterville, Rockland, Ellsworth, and Brewer — is USDA-eligible. Even inside Portland, Lewiston-Auburn, and Bangor, many neighborhoods on the edges still qualify. Always check the specific address on the USDA map.
Not sure if your target town qualifies?
I'll run your specific address through the USDA eligibility check — no obligation.
Check My Eligibility →Frequently asked questions
Can I check a specific address myself?
Yes. Go to eligibility.sc.egov.usda.gov, select "Single Family Housing Guaranteed," and enter the address. Green means eligible; tan/yellow means not eligible.
If my town is mostly eligible, is every address in it eligible?
No. Even in broadly-eligible towns, specific neighborhoods may fall inside an excluded city boundary. Always verify the exact property address.
What if the property I want isn't eligible?
FHA (3.5% down) and conventional (3–5% down) are both great fallbacks. If you're a veteran, VA (0% down, no mortgage insurance) is almost always the best choice when USDA isn't available.
Do condos qualify for USDA?
Yes, if the condo project itself is approved and the unit is in a USDA-eligible area. Condo approval is the bottleneck — many Maine condo developments aren't on the approved list.