PCS'ing to Oahu, Hawaii...why not buy a home?

The VA home loan has no minimum down payment requirement which greatly helps our military personnel get into home ownership without upfront financial strain. Also, by including seller concessions into the purchase contract a military member can virtually purchase a home with no down payment and no closing costs; seller pays all closing costs involved in the transaction. The lender can also pay for the closing costs in some instances for a slight increase to the interest rate. So, you can purchase a home with no down payment, possibly have the seller or the lender pay all your closing costs, and you can virtually walk into a home and your only cost will be the mortgage payments. If the mortgage payment is within your budget, you might want to really think about purchasing a home when PCS'ing to Hawaii. 

As an active duty military member you do receive housing allowance and that is set to increase for Hawaii by 16.75% according to Veteran.com. For example, an E5 with dependence PCS'ing to Oahu, Hawaii will receive $3303/month for housing allowance plus COLA and an O3 with dependence will receive $4461 plus COLA. This is a significant amount to contribute towards the payment of a mortgage if it's affordable for your family and another good reason to think of purchasing a home when PCS'ing to Hawaii.

The VA Loan is re-usable. You can use your VA entitlement to purchase a home with the VA Loan as many times so long you have enough entitlement left. If you currently do not own a home with a VA Loan and are PCS'ing to Hawaii, you can purchase a home with no down payment requirement up to $1,089,300 for calendar year 2023. However, if you do currently own a home with a VA Loan, you'll have less or no entitlement so your purchasing power will be less if you do not intend to put any money down or may not be able to use the VA Loan. There's a fairly easy, quick way to determine what loan amount you might qualify for if your VA entitlement is currently in use. Let say you purchased a home in North Carolina with a VA loan and the purchased price was $450,000 and you now want to purchase a home in Hawaii. You will substract $450,000 from $1,089,300 which is $639,300 (this is the maximum purchase price without a down payment). So, you just might want to think about purchasing a home when you PCS to Hawaii. 

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