Tyler, TX (KETK) — Rural loans are a service provided by the government, that help families and businesses get started in smaller communities.

But the rules could be changing, and for the people of the Henderson and Kilgore communities, it's not for the better.

For a community within an metropolitan statistical area to qualify for the loan your population must not exceede 10-thousand.

The rule change:

They will start going by the 2010 census instead of the 2000 census.

This change will affect around 500 communities nationwide.

And for those in the Kilgore and Henderson communities, they feel this will set their cities' back when it comes to trying to compete with the bigger areas such as Longview and Tyler.

So if you do plan on buying property with those city limits, you may want to start soon.

Now both Henderson and Kilgore exceeded 10-thousand people according to the 2000 census.

But they were grandfathered in.

If the rules changes stick, all communities that were grandfathered in will lose that status.

For more inforamtion go to this link: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/SupportDocuments/TX_GRHtrain.pdf