The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service is considering whether to modify the maximum interest rate charged on single-family rural mortgages with a USDA guarantee. The RHS, which administers the USDA’s guaranteed rural housing program, is seeking public input on how establishing a maximum interest rate could affect lending to potential borrowers. The agency is also seeking comments on how the maximum rate could be modified to help those rural folks who could not obtain a conventional loan become homeowners, finance housing repairs and rehabilitation costs in relation to a home purchase, and refinance an existing USDA loan to lower the rate. The USDA Section 502 Handbook defines the maximum allowable interest rate as “the current Fannie Mae posted yield for 90-day delivery (Actual/Actual), plus one percent for 30-year fixed-rate, conventional loans, rounded up to the ...