CDFI lenders in Santa Cruz County, CA

5 of these 7 lenders have received CDFI Fund awards, together $34.7M in fiscal years 1996–2024 (CDFI Fund award database; each lender page lists its awards). An award funds the lender, not a particular borrower.

Order: how many kinds of local record we hold (its website names the county or a town in it, headquarters, a branch, SBA loans or HMDA home loans for borrowers here), then the number of those records, then the head office's distance from the county centre. Loan sizes are the range the lender's website states. It is not a rating and nobody pays for a place. SBA loans: SBA 7(a)/504 data (FY2020–FY2026, 3 or more shown); home loans: HMDA 2025 originations (3 or more shown); branches: FDIC/NCUA; distances are straight lines from the average position of the county's ZIP codes.

5 head offices and 12 branches or offices of 6 lenders on this page, within 30 miles of the centre of Santa Cruz County. Lenders with no office nearby may still lend here; many work by phone and online.

CDFI mortgage lenders active here

Certified CDFIs reported 22 originated home loans for properties in Santa Cruz County in 2025 under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act: 0.7% of the 3,314 home loans that all HMDA lenders reported here.

• Change Lending, LLCLoan fund · Anaheim, CAHome mortgages8 home loans here in 2025 (HMDA)Verified
• Champions Funding, LLCLoan fund · Gilbert, AZHome mortgages6 home loans here in 2025 (HMDA)Verified
• Mirastar Federal Credit UnionCredit union · San Jose, CAAuto / vehicle loans, Home mortgages, Personal / consumer loans4 home loans here in 2025 (HMDA)Verified

Plus 4 more certified CDFIs with fewer than 3 loans here each (not listed).

A lender headquartered far away can appear here: HMDA counts the county of the property, not of the lender. Banks and credit unions below the HMDA reporting thresholds and most loan funds do not report, so other CDFIs may also lend here.

Source: FFIEC Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data for 2025, snapshot frozen 2 Jun 2026, loan-level records read through the CFPB HMDA Data Browser API on 3 Nov 2026. Originated loans only; applications that were denied, withdrawn or not accepted are not counted. HMDA publishes each loan amount as the middle of a $10,000 band, so totals and medians are approximate. Counts under 3 are not shown. How we match lenders.

Median household income in Santa Cruz County is $111,093, 12% above the California figure of $99,122 (ACS 2020–2024).

Businesses here took 38.4 SBA-backed loans per 1,000 employer businesses over FY2020–FY2026: fewer than the median California county (47.3), rank 45 of 58.

Approvals by fiscal year: FY2020 39 · FY2021 37 · FY2022 38 · FY2023 45 · FY2024 24 · FY2025 50 · FY2026 41.

For comparison, not an offer. SBA figures count approvals by every SBA lender for borrowers whose ZIP code lies in the county, not only CDFIs; approval is not disbursement. Rate over prime = the SBA's recorded initial rate minus the prime rate on the approval day; SBA caps it at 3 to 6.5 points depending on loan size (current prime rate and caps: methodology).

Sources: Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023, Nonemployer Statistics 2023 and American Community Survey 2020–2024 (table B19013); SBA 7(a) & 504 FOIA data as of 30 Sep 2026; prime rate: FRED DPRIME; SBA maximums: SBA 7(a) terms. Downloaded 15 Nov 2026. How we compute these.

Certified CDFIs were the lender, the CDC or the third-party lender on 7 SBA approvals (7 7(a) loans) for borrowers in Santa Cruz County in fiscal years 2020–2026, from 3 CDFIs. The 7(a) loans total $885,000 approved.

CDFIs with 3 or more: Santa Cruz Community Credit Union (3), AmPac Tri-State CDC Inc. (3). 1 more CDFI made 1 or 2 each.

Counted by the county of the borrower's ZIP code. Approval is not disbursement. These are only the SBA loans of certified CDFIs; most SBA lenders here are not CDFIs, and CDFIs also lend outside SBA programs.

Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, 7(a) & 504 FOIA loan data, files as of 30 Sep 2026, downloaded 3 Nov 2026. Our counts, cancelled approvals left out. How we match lenders.

595 loans and investments totaling $149.5M (median $200,000) were reported to the CDFI Fund for borrowers and projects in Santa Cruz County in fiscal year 2022, by 15 reporting CDFIs. More than half of these records come from a single reporting CDFI.

Of 563 individual borrowers whose income was reported, 40% had family income at or below 80% of the area median.

CDFI banks and credit unions also reported 8,466 consumer loans in Santa Cruz County totaling $172.6M (Consumer Loan Report, tract totals, so no median); they counted 57% of them as serving low-income borrowers.

Loans and investments reported in other years: FY2018 118 · FY2019 127 · FY2020 140 · FY2021 284.

Only CDFIs that hold an active CDFI Fund award (CDFI Program, Native American CDFI Assistance or the CDFI Rapid Response Program) report these transactions, so this is not all lending by the certified CDFIs on this page. The Fund masks which CDFI made each loan, so we cannot say which lender listed here made them.

Source: CDFI Fund, CDFI/NACA/CDFI RRP Program Award Recipient Data Release, Transaction Level Report and Consumer Loan Report public files for fiscal year 2022 (released Dec 2024; downloaded 3 Nov 2026). Amounts are original loan or investment amounts as reported. Place = the 2010 census tract of each record. How we count.