VA Home Loans for Lehigh Valley Home Buyers

The following is a guest post by Robert from www.VAMortgageCenter.com:

VA Home Loans continue to gain popularity in the Lehigh Valley and across Pennsylvania, as veterans who encounter tighter credit standards increasingly turn to the Veterans Administration for help in buying a home.

The VA currently guarantees more than 3,400 home loans in Pennsylvania, worth a total value of more than $630 million. Those numbers are set to be even bigger come 2010 – the Department of Veterans Affairs guaranteed more than $68 billion in single-family homes in the last 12 months, an 80-percent increase from last year.

VA home loans have proved a lifeline for veterans looking to purchase a home. About 80 percent of VA loan holders could not have qualified for a conventional home loan. Today, VA loans are more important than ever after the housing and credit collapses.

Lenders have tightened their credit standards, making loans difficult to obtain for some Pennsylvania veterans. But VA loans don’t have credit or income restrictions. On top of that, qualified borrowers can purchase a home worth up to $417,000 with no money down.

Other prime VA Home Loan Benefits include:

• No private monthly mortgage insurance
  
• A negotiable interest rate
  
• Borrowers can finance the VA funding fee
  
• Borrowers can have the seller pay up to 6 percent of closing costs and concessions
  
• The ability to prepay without financial penalty

Military Veterans in the Lehigh Valley can also utilize the government’s $8,000 tax credit for First-Time Home Buyers with their VA loan. The tax credit, which expires at the end of November, has its own program requirements.

In terms of VA’s requirements, applicants must first meet the initial eligibility standards. To do that, veterans must Obtain a Certificate of Eligibility (COE) from the Department of Veterans Affairs. This document verifies a veteran’s military service and VA entitlement.

Those who may qualify for a VA loan are typically from three categories:

• Military members who’ve served 181 days on active duty or three months during war time may be eligible.
• People who have spent at least a half-dozen years in the National Guard or Reserves
• Spouses of those killed in the line of duty

Not everyone who gets a COE may qualify for a loan. While the VA doesn’t have income or credit restrictions, the lenders who issue VA loans likely will. Remember, the VA guarantees loans – it does not issue them. At present, veterans will need a credit score around 620 to qualify.

The current VA loan limit for borrowers in Pennsylvania is $417,000. But the VA also provides competitive rates on jumbo loans.

Visit www.lehighvalleyhomesonline.com for more information.