More vets turning to VA loans for homes
WASHINGTON — For most of his life, Marrio Pearson gave little thought to being a homeowner.
If the 45-year-old Army veteran thought about it at all, he found plenty of reasons why it was a bad idea. He thought he was too old to buy a house. He wasn’t sure he would stay in Washington. He might take a job elsewhere. He figured being single made it too difficult.
Plus, life always seemed to get in the way. He got divorced. He got laid off. He got a new job. Plus, he worried about the cost and the length of the loan.
“$300,000 sounds like an astronomical amount,” said Pearson, a senior quality assurance engineer at a cybersecurity company. “The thought of 30 years of paying for something was very intimidating.”
Pearson eventually overcame his reservations and bought a $330,000 rowhouse in Washington’s Historic Anacostia neighborhood in October 2016. He put down just $2,500 and financed the purchase with a Veterans Administration Loan.
Using a VA loan rather than a conventional or Federal Hous-
ing Administration (FHA) loan, Pearson saved money by obtaining one of the lowest interest rates on the market. He also did not have to scrape together a down payment or pay mortgage insurance.
“It turned out to be way easier than everything I had read online,” Pearson said.
A VA loan proved the most affordable way for Pearson to buy his home. Because of that affordability, a record number of veterans and service members are taking advantage of the loan program. The 740,000 VA loans last year were the most in a single year, and up more than 300,000 from three years ago.
The low interest rate is the biggest reason why many veterans and service members are using the program. VA loans have had the lowest average in- terest rate on the market for the past 41 months, according to Ellie Mae. As of September, the average interest rate for a 30-year fixed VA loan was 3.99 percent. It was 4.26 percent for a conventional loan.
The VA home loan benefit was part of the original GI bill in 1944. Not only did Congress want to help veterans obtain an education, it wanted to help them buy a home.
“It gave millions of Americans who served in World War II the opportunity to build wealth and realize the dream of homeownership,” said Jeff London, director of the loan guarantee service at the VA. “A lot of historians credit the GI bill for the economic boom, not only from the education standpoint, but also from the wealth-building and the building of America when it comes to homeownership.”
Veterans have long had some of the highest rates of homeownership among all segments of society. Their homeownership rate is close to 80 percent, compared with 64 percent for the general population.
“People talk about this idea that homeownership seems to mean more to many veterans and military families,” said Chris Birk, director of education at Veterans United. “Many see it as owning a piece of the American dream that they vowed to defend.”
To be eligible for a VA loan, a military member must serve 90 consecutive days on active duty during wartime, or 181 days during peacetime, or six years in the guard or reserves. Some veterans are under the misunderstanding that they must use the benefit immediately or lose it, or that if they used it once, they can’t use it again.
“In the past, many veterans believed that this is a one-time benefit,” London said. “That’s not the case. This is a lifetime benefit.”
Besides the low interest rate, another big advantage is that a down payment is not required. As long as a veteran has his full VA loan entitlement and remains below the loan limit, he does not have to put money down. The limit is $424,100 for most counties. In more expensive markets, it is $636,150. A veteran can borrow above that amount but would need to put money down.
Pearson is thrilled with his new home. His mortgage payment is about $100 more than what he previously paid in rent. And best of all for the Washington Nationals season ticket holder, it is close to the baseball stadium.
When he finally signed the papers at closing a little more than a year ago, Pearson says, he became emotional at the thought of being a homeowner. His tears of joy continue today.
“Sometimes I go home,” he said, “and I cry again, because it’s my home.”