Ground up construction loans for a county out-permitting its big neighbors.
Built for spec home builders and developers. We finance the land and the vertical build up to 70% LTV and 85% of cost, with draws that keep pace with your schedule. Thurston County authorized more new housing units per capita in 2025 than King or Pierce County, and Olympia's own impact fee schedule prices an ADU or a downtown unit well below a detached house. Business-purpose only, and every structure is set in underwriting.
Typical figures, subject to underwriting and market conditions. Not a commitment to lend.
How it works
We finance both the land and the vertical construction, with a draw schedule built around your timeline. Experienced builders can access higher leverage on cost.
Is Thurston County actually building more, or does it just feel that way?
It is building more, and by a wide margin. The county authorized 1,669 new housing units in 2025, up 36.6% from 2024, while King County fell 19.5% over the same year. On a per-capita basis Thurston permitted 5.34 units per 1,000 residents against King's 3.51 and Pierce's 3.91. Construction lending demand in south Puget Sound is not tracking Seattle's slowdown.
How much should I budget for Olympia's impact fees on a new build?
A new detached single family in the Olympia School District area runs $12,716 per unit: $6,995 park, $0 school, and $5,721 transportation. An ADU in the same district costs $4,482, and a downtown multifamily or townhouse unit runs $6,414, because downtown carries its own lower transportation rate of $1,705 rather than the citywide rate. The school fee is genuinely zero inside Olympia School District 111; it only turns on at $1,847 for a 3-plus-bedroom home in the slice of the city that falls in North Thurston School District. That structure is a deliberate thumb on the scale toward ADUs and downtown multifamily, worth pricing into a small infill deal.
How long does Olympia's land use review actually take?
By code, 65 days for a Type I review, 120 days for Type II, and 170 days for Type III, with several periods carved out of that clock. The first 28 days of completeness review do not count, and the City can add 70 more days for a site it flags as complex due to environmental constraints or stormwater design. Building and construction permits sit outside these land-use limits entirely. One more detail worth knowing before you push back on a delay: Olympia has opted out of the state's permit-fee refund penalty for missed deadlines because it has already implemented enough of the qualifying process reforms.
Does Tumwater offer any relief on impact fee timing for a spec build?
Yes, and the mechanics matter for how you structure your construction loan. Tumwater lets a single-family builder defer the full impact fee payment until final inspection or 18 months from permit issuance, whichever comes first, on a recorded lien. That deferred impact fee lien is written to be junior and subordinate to one construction mortgage on the same property, which is the clause a construction lender cares about. Two limits to know: the program caps at the first twenty single-family permits per applicant in a year, and the subordination does not erase the obligation. If a senior lien forecloses, the City still withholds final inspection until the fees are paid. DSCR rental loan financing is the natural next step once a build-to-rent unit is finished and leased.
Is the pre-1980 Olympia housing stock relevant if I am building new, not flipping?
Mainly as a supply signal. Olympia proper is a majority-renter city, 50.2% renter-occupied, with a 1982 median year built and 47.5% of units predating 1980, while Lacey ten minutes away sits at a 1996 median with only a quarter of its stock that old. An aging, renter-heavy core plus a fast-growing suburb next door is the demand backdrop for infill and build-to-rent product across the metro, not just for rehab plays.
Is population growth actually supporting new-construction demand here?
Yes, and Thurston County is growing faster than its building permits alone suggest. The county's population rose from 294,793 at the 2020 Census to 312,400 as of April 1, 2026, a 6.0% gain in six years with every year positive. Yelm led every incorporated city at 17.5% growth over the same span, followed by Tumwater at 9.6% and Lacey at 13.4%. That growth, not just the permit count, is the demand base behind Thurston's out-permitting of King and Pierce counties: more people need somewhere to live, and the county is building to meet it rather than speculating ahead of it.
How much of an Olympia build do I have to fund myself?
Roughly 15% of total cost, and it is capped by value as well. We finance land and vertical build up to 85% of cost and up to 70% LTV, whichever is more restrictive. On a $1,000,000 total-cost Olympia project that is up to $850,000 from us and $150,000 from you (1,000,000 x 85% = 850,000), drawn against your build schedule rather than advanced at closing. Put Olympia's impact fees in that cost stack before you size it: a new detached single family in the Olympia School District area runs $12,716 per unit, while an ADU runs $4,482. Maximum loan amount is $5,000,000. Subject to underwriting.
Does my credit score or my build history set my leverage on an Olympia construction loan?
Your build history, mostly. There is no minimum credit score on this program. We run credit, but on an asset-based construction loan it carries far less weight than at a bank, and weaker credit is typically offset with lower leverage rather than a decline. Experienced builders can access higher leverage inside the 70% LTV and 85% of cost limits. There is no hard credit pull to start. For an Olympia build, the schedule and the budget get read harder than the credit report, because the term runs 12 to 24 months and the draws follow the job. Subject to underwriting.
More Ground-Up Construction questions, answered on the program page
Local rules move. Every tax rate, fee, ordinance and market figure here comes from a primary source and carries the date we read it, and we correct them as the rules change. Where a number is mid-change or we could not verify it, we say so rather than guess. Before you commit a budget, confirm anything that drives it with the city or county, and talk to your attorney or CPA on questions of law or tax.
Published by USA Mortgage Funding, LLC, NMLS #152588. Researched from primary sources by our team, drafted with AI assistance, and every figure checked against its source before publishing. Where an answer rests on a public record, that record is linked under it. Figures read on 2026-08-22.
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