USDA Loans in Sumner County: Which Gallatin, Portland, and Westmoreland Areas Still Qualify

Here is a pattern we see over and over. A young family gets pre-approved, falls in love with the idea of Hendersonville or Gallatin, and then watches the numbers slam a door. Sumner County's median sold price ran roughly $442,000 in late 2025 — and $443,622 in March 2025 (per Redfin and Rocket Homes) — with Gallatin's median sitting near $439,000. For a lot of first-time buyers, the down payment alone becomes the wall between them and a house. So they start driving north — Portland, Westmoreland, the unincorporated stretches toward the Macon and Robertson county lines — chasing a price they can actually reach.

What most of them do not realize is that the same drive north that fixes the price problem often unlocks a second, quieter advantage: the USDA Rural Development loan. Zero down. No private mortgage insurance in the conventional sense. And because Sumner County sits inside the Nashville metro's income boundary, buyers here get a bigger income allowance than someone one county line over. We wear the investor's hat even for a family buying their first primary residence, because one financing decision can shift a household's wealth trajectory for years. This is one of those decisions. Let's map it out honestly.

The Quick Version

• •USDA's Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan offers 100% financing — zero down payment — in eligible rural areas, backed by a 90% loan note guarantee to the lender.
• •The costs are a 1% upfront guarantee fee (which can be rolled into the loan) and a 0.35% annual fee on the remaining balance, paid monthly. Both remain in effect for fiscal year 2026 — that is, loans obligated on or after October 1, 2025.
• •Sumner County's two big cities are largely OUT: Gallatin (44,431 at the 2020 census) and Hendersonville (61,753) blow past the 35,000 rural ceiling, so their developed cores are generally ineligible.
• •The north end is largely IN: Portland (13,156), Westmoreland (2,718), and the unincorporated communities around them sit inside the eligibility boundary. About 13% of the county is ineligible (per USDA property-eligibility map data), so most of it still qualifies.
• •Because Sumner County is inside the Nashville–Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin metro area, the USDA moderate-income cap here is $132,050 for a 1–4 person household — about $12,000 higher than the $119,850 national baseline that applies in truly rural adjacent counties.
• •Eligibility is address-by-address. Two homes two miles apart can flip from eligible to not. Always check the exact address on USDA's map before you fall in love.

USDA in 90 Seconds: How a Zero-Down Rural Loan Actually Works

The program at the center of this conversation is the USDA Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program. The mechanics are simpler than the acronym soup suggests. You borrow from an approved private lender, and USDA provides that lender a 90% loan note guarantee — a backstop that reduces the lender's risk if the loan defaults. Because the government is standing behind most of the loan, the lender is willing to finance 100% of the purchase price. That is where the zero-down headline comes from.

Nothing in life is truly free, and USDA is upfront about its two fees. There is a 1% upfront guarantee fee, which you can finance directly into the loan instead of paying out of pocket, and a 0.35% annual fee charged on the remaining balance and collected in 12 monthly installments. Both fees carried into fiscal year 2026, applying to loans obligated on or after October 1, 2025. Compared with the recurring cost of private mortgage insurance on a low-down-payment conventional loan, that 0.35% annual figure is modest — which is part of why buyers who qualify often come out ahead on the monthly payment, not just on the down payment they skip.

The Rural Line Runs Through Sumner County: How USDA Draws the Map

USDA does not eyeball a neighborhood and decide it feels rural. It uses population tiers tied to census designations. Areas with no more than 10,000 residents generally qualify. Areas of 10,001 to 20,000 qualify if they sit outside a Metropolitan Statistical Area. Areas of 20,001 to 35,000 may qualify only if they were previously designated rural in the 1990, 2000, or 2010 Census, remain 'rural in character,' and show a serious lack of mortgage credit for lower- and moderate-income families.

The map you check today is not the map from a few years ago. USDA's current boundaries reflect the 2020 Decennial Census and took effect October 1, 2023, replacing the older 2010 Census designations. The income figures ride on the 2017–2021 American Community Survey. That timing matters locally: some spots near fast-growing Gallatin that were once eligible have tightened as population climbed. When the map refreshes, the door does not swing wider in a growing county — it tends to swing shut. That is a real reason not to sit indefinitely on a purchase if a specific eligible address is the whole plan.

In or Out? Gallatin and Hendersonville vs. Portland and Westmoreland

Here is where the geography gets concrete. Sumner County is close to a textbook case of how USDA draws its lines, because the county's population is lopsided toward two big cities in the south and thins out dramatically toward the north.

Generally OUT: Gallatin and Hendersonville

Gallatin, the county seat, had a population of 44,431 at the 2020 census — well above the 35,000 rural ceiling — so its developed core generally falls outside the USDA-eligible boundary. Hendersonville, the county's largest city at 61,753, is even further past the line, and its developed areas are outside eligibility. This is the corridor where the roughly 13% of ineligible Sumner County land clusters.

One honest caveat: 'the city is over the ceiling' is not the same as 'every address near the city is ineligible.' Eligibility is drawn address by address, and land on the fringes of even Gallatin and Hendersonville can still fall inside the boundary. We have seen homes that felt 'too close to town' come back eligible on the map. You cannot assume either direction — you have to check.

Generally IN: Portland, Westmoreland, and the North County

Portland had a 2020 census population of 13,156, which keeps much of the town within reach of USDA rural eligibility relative to Sumner County's larger cities. Westmoreland, at just 2,718 residents, sits comfortably under the 10,000 automatic-rural threshold, making it and its surroundings a strong USDA-eligible zone in northern Sumner County. The unincorporated communities around them — Cottontown, Bethpage, Castalian Springs, and the rural areas running toward the Macon and Robertson lines — generally sit inside the eligibility boundary as well.

Zoom out and the scale becomes obvious: about 90% of Tennessee's total land mass is eligible for USDA Rural Housing financing (per USDA Rural Development lender data). Middle Tennessee's exurban north is a big piece of that. In Sumner County specifically, only around 13% of the land is ineligible (per USDA map data) — so the large majority of the county still qualifies, with the ineligible pockets concentrated in that developed Gallatin–Hendersonville corridor.

How to Check a Specific Address in Five Minutes

This is the single most useful skill in this entire article, so do not skip it. USDA's property eligibility map is address-based, which means the only answer that counts is the one for the exact home you want. Two nearly identical houses on the same rural road can land on opposite sides of the line.

1. Go to USDA's property eligibility site at eligibility.sc.egov.usda.gov.
2. Choose the Single Family Housing Guaranteed program.
3. Enter the full property address — street, city, state, ZIP — not just the town.
4. Read the shaded map: ineligible areas are shaded, and the rest is fair game. Confirm the specific parcel sits in the clear.
5. If the result is borderline or the pin looks off, verify the address with a lender or with our team before writing an offer — a mislabeled pin is not worth a dead deal.

Two practical notes. First, remember the map reflects the 2020 Census and took effect October 1, 2023, so a 'it was eligible when my cousin bought in 2019' story is not proof of anything today. Second, this is an owner-occupancy program: USDA guaranteed loans are limited to owner-occupied, single-family primary residences. Farms, rental or investment properties, vacation homes, and other income-producing properties do not qualify — even if the address itself is in an eligible zone.

The Sumner County Income Advantage

This is the part almost nobody tells buyers, and it is a genuine edge. USDA income limits are set at 115% of area median income, with adjustments for household size — larger households get higher caps — and certain deductions for dependents, childcare, and eligible medical expenses can reduce a household's countable income under USDA's adjusted-income rules.

Because Sumner County sits inside the Nashville–Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin metro area, its income cap is the elevated metro figure, not the plain rural baseline. For the Nashville-metro area, the USDA moderate-income guaranteed-loan limit is $132,050 for households of 1 to 4 people and $174,350 for households of 5 to 8 people. Compare that to the standard national baseline of $119,850 for 1–4 person households and $158,250 for 5–8 person households, and the picture snaps into focus.

“A Sumner County buyer gets both a zero-down rural loan AND a bigger income allowance than someone one county line over. That is roughly $12,000 more room on the 1-to-4-person cap, in a county where much of the land still qualifies. That combination is rare, and most buyers never hear about it.”

The takeaway: a household earning, say, $128,000 might be over the $119,850 baseline that applies in a truly rural adjacent county like Macon or Smith, yet still comfortably inside the $132,050 Nashville-metro cap that governs Sumner. Same income, different county line, completely different answer. Do not assume you earn too much until you check the metro number, not the national one.

Do You Qualify? The Rest of the Rulebook

Income and address are the two big gates, but a few more rules decide whether the loan actually closes.

• •Credit: Most lenders want a credit score of at least 640 for the streamlined, automated USDA approval path. USDA itself publishes no formal minimum, and scores in the low 600s can sometimes be considered with added documentation and manual underwriting.
• •Occupancy: Owner-occupied, single-family primary residence only. No rentals, no vacation homes, no farms, no income-producing property.
• •Income math: Limits are 115% of area median income, adjusted up for larger households, and deductions for dependents, childcare, and eligible medical costs can lower your countable income below the cap.
• •The property: It has to be an eligible address on the current USDA map, which reflects 2020 Census boundaries effective October 1, 2023.

We say this plainly because most agents have two or three weeks of real estate school and will not sweat these details for you. Our team wears the investor's hat here: if a household is a few thousand dollars over the income cap, there may be legitimate deductions that bring them back under, or a household-size adjustment they did not know applied. That is worth a real conversation before anyone concludes they are shut out.

Where the Math Works Best: Portland, Westmoreland, and the North County

A zero-down loan is only as powerful as the price it is applied to. And this is exactly where Sumner County's geography and its financing line up. Portland's median home price was around $340,000 in early 2025 (per Rocket Homes) — notably below the county median in the low $440,000s — which puts a lot of the local inventory in the price tier where a zero-down USDA loan has the most leverage, because the down payment you skip is a bigger share of the whole deal.

There is meaningful new construction here too. The Portland-area new-construction market spans roughly 103 communities from about 30 builders (per NewHomeSource), with pricing that starts near $199,000 and climbs well past $1 million for the largest homes — so a real slice of it sits in USDA-relevant territory. As one concrete, entry-tier example, D.R. Horton's Parkside Point community in Portland lists new single-family homes starting around $279,990 (per D.R. Horton, 2026). As always, we confirm a specific community's exact addresses against the USDA map before anyone counts on zero-down financing — a new subdivision can straddle the line.

The Lower-Income Track: USDA Section 502 Direct Loans and THDA

If a household's income sits below the guaranteed-loan range, there is a separate door. USDA's Section 502 Direct Loan program serves low- and very-low-income buyers with no down payment, a payment-assistance subsidy that can lower the effective monthly payment, and payback terms up to 33 years — or 38 years for very-low-income borrowers. In Tennessee, buyers often coordinate this alongside programs from the Tennessee Housing Development Agency (THDA); the THDA Single Family Help Desk can be reached at 615-815-2100.

This is not a fallback to be ashamed of; for the right household it is the more affordable path, precisely because of the subsidy. The catch is that direct loans have tighter income limits and a longer, more involved process than the guaranteed program. If the guaranteed loan's income cap is the ceiling that fits you, take it; if your income is well under that, ask specifically about Section 502 Direct and THDA before assuming the guaranteed program is your only option.

A Buyer's Playbook: What To Do Before You Write an Offer

1. Check the exact address on USDA's eligibility map (eligibility.sc.egov.usda.gov). Not the town — the address. A home two miles away can flip the answer.
2. Confirm your income against the Nashville-metro cap ($132,050 for 1–4 people; $174,350 for 5–8), not the national baseline. Factor in household-size adjustments and eligible deductions.
3. Know your credit position. Aim for 640-plus for the streamlined path; if you are in the low 600s, ask a lender about manual underwriting before you count yourself out.
4. Confirm owner-occupancy. This is a primary-residence program only — no rentals, vacation homes, or farms.
5. Get a USDA-experienced lender pre-approval in writing before you shop, so your offer is credible.
6. Move with intent on a confirmed-eligible address. The map reflects 2020 Census data and can tighten as the north county grows; do not assume today's eligible pocket stays eligible forever.
7. Have our team match the address to the loan. We will pull the property specifics, verify eligibility, and flag anything that could derail a USDA closing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does all of Sumner County qualify for a USDA loan?

No, but most of it does. About 13% of Sumner County is ineligible, and that ineligible land clusters around the developed Gallatin and Hendersonville corridor. The northern communities — Portland, Westmoreland, Cottontown, Bethpage, Castalian Springs — generally fall inside the eligibility boundary. Because it is address-based, always confirm the specific home.

Is Gallatin eligible for a USDA loan?

Gallatin's developed core generally is not, because the city's 2020 population of 44,431 is above the 35,000 rural ceiling. That said, eligibility is drawn address by address, and land on the fringes of the city can still qualify. Check the exact address rather than assuming based on the city name.

How much can I earn and still qualify?

For the guaranteed loan in the Nashville metro area, which includes Sumner County, the moderate-income limit is $132,050 for a household of 1 to 4 and $174,350 for a household of 5 to 8. Those caps are 115% of area median income with household-size adjustments, and deductions for dependents, childcare, and eligible medical expenses can lower your countable income.

Do I really pay zero down?

Yes, the USDA guaranteed loan offers 100% financing on the purchase price. You will still owe a 1% upfront guarantee fee (which can be rolled into the loan) and a 0.35% annual fee collected monthly, and you will have normal closing costs — but the down payment itself is $0.

Can I use a USDA loan to buy a rental or investment property?

No. USDA guaranteed loans are limited to owner-occupied, single-family primary residences. Farms, rental and investment properties, vacation homes, and other income-producing properties are not eligible, even if the address sits in a USDA-eligible zone.

What credit score do I need?

Most lenders look for at least 640 for the streamlined, automated approval process. USDA does not publish a formal minimum, and some lenders will consider scores in the low 600s with additional documentation and manual underwriting.

Where can I get official answers?

The USDA Tennessee State Office (Rural Development) is at 441 Donelson Pike, Suite 310, Nashville, TN 37214, and can be reached at 615-783-1300 or 800-342-3149 for eligibility questions. For the Section 502 Direct and THDA payment-assistance track, the THDA Single Family Help Desk is 615-815-2100.