Where Veterans Can Afford the Most Homes With a VA Loan

A zero-down loan also means borrowing the full purchase price, so the monthly payment is higher than it would be with a down payment. Most VA borrowers pay a one-time funding fee as well, a percentage of the loan amount that can be rolled into the mortgage. Veterans who receive VA disability compensation, along with certain surviving spouses and Purple Heart recipients, are exempt from the fee.

The share of affordable homes climbs above 30% in Macon, GA, Youngstown, OH, Pittsburgh, PA, Akron, OH, and Toledo, OH. But in military towns where VA loans are most common, including Fayetteville, NC, and Jacksonville, NC, fewer than one in 10 listings is within reach.

How many homes can a veteran afford with a VA loan?

The VA home loan’s biggest advantage is that it requires no down payment. That makes the monthly payment, rather than savings, the number that decides what a veteran can buy. For this analysis, a home counted as affordable if the principal and interest on a zero-down loan at the current 7.32% rate came to no more than 28% of the median income for veterans in that metro, as reported by the Census Bureau.

By that measure, 86,227 of the 1,116,613 active listings across 196 major metros were affordable, or 7.7%. Put another way, a veteran earning the local median and buying alone could afford fewer than one in 12 homes on the market. Taxes and insurance would push the real payment higher, so the share is a ceiling rather than a floor.

Affordability varied widely from one metro to the next. More than 30% of listings were within reach in five metros across Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. In 24 others, including San Jose, CA, San Francisco, CA, Los Angeles, CA, Seattle, WA, and Boulder, CO, the share was below 1%. In those markets, the median listing costs three to five times what a median-income veteran could finance.

The places where veterans can afford the most homes aren’t necessarily where the most veterans live. These metros had the largest shares of affordable listings:

Ohio stood out, with five metros among the top 12. In these markets, median list prices ranged from $195,000 to $300,000, with estimated monthly principal-and-interest payments of $1,340 to $2,060 on a zero-down loan. That’s considerably less than the $2,919 monthly payment on the national median listing of $425,000.

Affordability and veteran presence don’t necessarily align. None of the 15 metros above has a veteran share above 10% of adults, and only Dayton, Shreveport and Montgomery top 8.5%.

Where do the most veterans live, and what can they afford?

The metros where veterans can afford the most homes aren’t necessarily those with the largest veteran populations. In some major military communities, affordable listings are much harder to find.

Veterans are 6.2% of adults nationally, but the mix changes sharply from one metro to the next. The largest veteran populations are in the largest cities: New York, NY, has 432,659 veterans, Washington, DC, 352,853 and Dallas-Fort Worth, TX, 324,151. The highest concentrations are in military towns: veterans are 21.8% of adults in Jacksonville, NC, home to Camp Lejeune, 19.2% in Killeen-Temple, TX, next to Fort Cavazos, and 18.0% in Fayetteville, NC, outside Fort Bragg.

For the metros with the largest veteran populations, the affordable share was mostly in the single digits. Washington, D.C., is the exception. Veterans there earn a median of $103,580, the highest of any metro, which puts 17.6% of listings within reach despite a $575,000 median price.

Affordable homes were even harder to find in many veteran-heavy metros. Among the 31 metros where veterans make up at least 10% of adults, the median affordable share was 5.4%, below the national figure. A few metros stood out:

Warner Robins, GA, outside Robins Air Force Base, combined a $296,920 median listing with a $70,758 median veteran income, among the highest of any metro, and was the only high-concentration market where more than one in five listings was affordable. Huntsville, AL, where veterans earn $76,686, also made the list despite a higher median price.

Where are VA loans most common?

Federal mortgage filings show how heavily some markets lean on the VA program. Across the 383 metros with lending data, VA loans made up 8.1% of the 478,048 mortgages originated in 2025. In Jacksonville, NC, the figure was 58.2%. In Fayetteville, NC, it was 53.4%, in Killeen-Temple, TX, 46.4% and in Clarksville, TN, 41.4%. Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA, originated more VA loans than any metro in the country, 15,933, or 32.5% of its total.

Those markets also had relatively few affordable homes for sale. Fayetteville, NC, had 378 affordable listings for 45,752 veterans, and Jacksonville, NC, had 68 for 25,681. Although VA lending is especially common in these markets, the analysis cannot establish whether VA loan demand contributes to higher home prices.

Where different types of veteran buyers can find affordable homes

Affordability also depends on the kind of home a veteran needs. Census age data shows that veterans in military towns tend to be younger, while veterans in much of Florida and the Sun Belt are more likely to be past retirement age. The listing data also shows how housing options differ for younger buyers, families and retirees.

Where younger veteran buyers can find lower-priced homes

In the metros where more than half of veterans are under 55, the entry point is the lower end of the market. Killeen-Temple, TX, had the lowest entry price of any young-veteran market: a quarter of its 3,867 listings were priced below $236,730, and 14.1% were affordable on a median veteran income. Fayetteville, NC, El Paso, TX, Jacksonville, NC, and Clarksville, TN, all had a quarter of listings under $275,000. Killeen, TX, was the only one of the five where the affordable share reached double digits.

Where veterans can find more affordable family homes

Homes with four or more bedrooms made up roughly half of all listings in several military metros, and they were cheapest in Warner Robins, GA, and Killeen-Temple, TX, where the median four-bedroom listed for $335,000 and $343,390. That works out to a zero-down payment of about $2,300 to $2,360 a month. Columbia, SC, had the deepest pool, with 2,434 four-bedroom listings at a $369,900 median. Even in these markets, though, 6% or fewer of four-bedroom homes were affordable on a single median veteran income, so a second income usually decides whether a larger home is within reach.

Where retired veterans can find affordable homes

Popular retirement destinations aren’t necessarily the most affordable places for veterans to buy. In the Florida metros where most veterans are past 65, list prices may look modest, but veteran incomes are lower still. In Ocala, FL, the median listing was $304,999 and the median veteran income $43,859, which left 3.4% of listings affordable. Homosassa Springs, FL, was at 2.7% and Sebring, FL, at 5.8%. Palm Bay-Melbourne, FL, Hot Springs, AR, and Myrtle Beach, SC, did best among retiree-heavy metros, at 6.7% to 7.6%. Each has at least one VA site in the metro, though none has a VA medical center; the nearest is 35 to 82 miles from the metro center.

Retirees with pension income or another source of income may be able to afford more than these figures suggest. But for someone relying on the median veteran income, markets in Figure 1, especially Dayton, OH, and Pittsburgh, PA, which each have VA medical centers, offer far more choice.

What this means for veteran buyers

For veterans using a VA loan, buying without a down payment can make homeownership more accessible. But the number of homes within reach still depends heavily on local prices and income. In the metros at the top of Figure 1, a median-income veteran can choose from a quarter or more of the homes listed for sale. In many large military towns, the same income leaves far fewer options.

In markets where VA loans make up a large share of lending, such as Fayetteville, NC, Killeen, TX, and Virginia Beach, VA, buyers may encounter sellers and agents who are familiar with the program. But affordable inventory can still be limited. Listings in those metros had been on the market a median of 49 to 99 days. Homes listed longer than that may be worth a closer look, since some sellers could be more open to negotiating.

Taxes, insurance and the VA funding fee all add to the monthly figures here, which cover principal and interest only. A home that fits the 28% guideline on paper may not fit once those are added, so it can help to run the full payment before setting a price range.

What this means for home sellers

In markets where a third or more of buyers use VA financing, pricing to the local veteran income can widen the pool of qualified buyers. In Killeen-Temple, TX, for instance, a listing at or below about $200,000 fits a median-income VA buyer’s budget, while the metro’s median listing of $295,000 does not.

Sellers in those markets should also be prepared for VA appraisals and property requirements when working with VA-financed buyers. Understanding what a median-income VA buyer can afford may help sellers set a competitive asking price, especially where VA loans account for a large share of mortgage activity.