County directory · New York

CDFI lenders in Onondaga County, NY

2 certified CDFIs name Onondaga County or a town in it as part of their service area on their own website. 2 more are headquartered here. 2 more say they serve all of New York. Sources: lender websites (29 Oct 2026–4 Nov 2026), the CDFI Fund list (21 Oct 2026).

Name this county: 2
Based here: 2
Serve all of NY: 2

A lender naming Onondaga County on its website is a good sign, not an offer. Lenders based elsewhere may lend here too. Search your exact ZIP code in the finder to include lenders based nearby. Towns in this county: Apulia Station, Baldwinsville, Brewerton, Bridgeport, Camillus, Cicero, Clay, Delphi Falls, East Syracuse, Elbridge, Fabius, Fayetteville….

Lenders compared for Onondaga County

6 with local records

Lender	Local records	Loan sizes	Head office
1. Empower Federal Credit Union Credit union, Syracuse NY	headquarters here; 11 offices here; 1,820 home loans here, 2025	ask	6 mi
2. Syracuse Cooperative Federal Credit Union Credit union, Syracuse NY	website names Onondaga County; headquarters here; 2 offices here	ask	2 mi
3. Champions Funding, LLC Loan fund, Gilbert AZ	9 home loans here, 2025	up to $3M	2,027 mi
4. Oswego County FCU Credit union, Oswego NY	4 home loans here, 2025	ask	31 mi
5. Home Headquarters, Inc. Loan fund, Syracuse NY	headquarters here	ask	in the county
6. Alternatives Federal Credit Union Credit union, Ithaca NY	website names Onondaga County	ask	44 mi

6 of these 6 lenders have received CDFI Fund awards, together $56.9M in fiscal years 1997–2024 (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.

Where these lenders have offices

4 lenders

3 head offices and 18 branches or offices of 4 lenders on this page, within 30 miles of the centre of Onondaga County. Lenders with no office nearby may still lend here; many work by phone and online.

Loan types confirmed on these lenders' websites

Home mortgages (3 lenders)
Small-business loans (3 lenders)
Auto / vehicle loans (2 lenders)
Commercial real estate loans (2 lenders)
Credit-builder loans (2 lenders)
Equipment loans (2 lenders)
Personal / consumer loans (2 lenders)
Home repair / improvement loans (2 lenders)

Banks and credit unions with a branch in this county

2 certified CDFIs have at least one office in Onondaga County (NCUA branch data as of 30 Jun 2026). A branch shows presence, not a stated service area; credit unions also require membership.

CDFI mortgage lenders active here

Certified CDFIs reported 1,833 originated home loans for properties in Onondaga County in 2025 under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act: 21% of the 8,764 home loans that all HMDA lenders reported here.

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.

Small business and SBA lending in Onondaga County

Official statistics

Median household income in Onondaga County is $76,945, 11% below the New York figure of $85,974 (ACS 2020–2024).

Businesses here took 48.5 SBA-backed loans per 1,000 employer businesses over FY2020–FY2026: more than the median New York county (40.2), rank 22 of 62.

Measure	Onondaga County	New York
Businesses with paid employees (CBP 2023)	11,166 (2.1% of the state)	541,313
…of which under 20 employees	83%	88%
Businesses without employees (Nonemployer Statistics 2023)	33,106	1,985,320
Median household income (ACS 2020–2024)	$76,945 (11% below the state)	$85,974
SBA 7(a) and 504 approvals, all lenders, FY2020–FY2026	542 (483 7(a), 59 504)	22,848
…per 1,000 businesses with employees	48.5 (rank 22 of 62 New York counties)	40.2 (median county)
Median SBA 7(a) loan, all lenders	$102,300	$130,000
…with a certified CDFI as lender, CDC or third-party lender	1 or 2	296 (1%)
Variable-rate 7(a): median rate over prime at approval, FY2024–26	2.99 pts (205 loans; 17% at the SBA maximum)	3 pts (15% at the maximum)

Approvals by fiscal year: FY2020 53 · FY2021 64 · FY2022 86 · FY2023 72 · FY2024 76 · FY2025 102 · FY2026 89.

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.

CDFI lending recorded here (FY2022)

CDFI Fund data, released Dec 2024

2,969 loans and investments totaling $264.1M (median $50,000) were reported to the CDFI Fund for borrowers and projects in Onondaga County in fiscal year 2022, by 15 reporting CDFIs. More than half of these records come from a single reporting CDFI.

Purpose (CDFI Fund category)	Count	Total	Median
Home improvement	1,702	$94M	$40,000
Home purchase	908	$126.8M	$132,000
None of the listed purposes	225	$3.5M	$9,626
Non-real estate microenterprise	44	$783,895	$13,000
Real estate: commercial construction, permanent or acquisition	35	$19M	$102,000
Non-real estate business	19	$3.3M	$116,412
Other purposes	36	$16.7M

Of 2,833 individual borrowers whose income was reported, 60% had family income at or below 80% of the area median.

CDFI banks and credit unions also reported 15,963 consumer loans in Onondaga County totaling $214.9M (Consumer Loan Report, tract totals, so no median); they counted 91% of them as serving low-income borrowers.

Loans and investments reported in other years: FY2018 2,222 · FY2019 2,208 · FY2020 2,974 · FY2021 3,222.

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.

Lenders whose website names Onondaga County or a town in it

Headquartered in Onondaga County

The official list gives a headquarters address here. Check each lender's page for where it lends.

Say they serve all of New York

Free help before you apply

These offices give free or low-cost advice: a Small Business Development Center or SCORE mentor can help with the business plan, cash-flow projections and paperwork most business lenders ask for, and a HUD-approved housing counselor can help with a homebuyer course, a budget or a missed mortgage payment. Some counseling agencies also lend; using their advice does not commit you to their loans. Call ahead to check hours and what they cover.

Business advice

Housing counseling

Sources: SBA local assistance listings, read 6 Nov 2026; HUD's list of approved housing counseling agencies (open-data version last updated 9 Apr 2025). For the current list and the services each agency offers, use the CFPB's housing counselor search (it uses HUD's list) or call HUD at 800-569-4287. Offices are placed by ZIP code, so distances are approximate.