Sky's the Limit With VA Loan Limits Elimination

Talk about a good start to a new year: Starting in 2020, veterans will be able to take out Veteran Affairs-backed mortgages without a lending cap. Before, if veterans wanted to live in a pricier area or go for their dream home, they paid down payments of up to 25 percent of their loan. Now, the only limits are getting mortgage approval and being able to afford the monthly payments.

Members of the military on active duty and veterans hoping to buy a home in expensive parts of the country have a lot to be thankful for this holiday season. Starting next year, they'll be able to take out Veterans Affairs–backed mortgages as large as their bank accounts will allow.

Thanks to the Blue Water Navy Veterans Act of 2019, veterans will be able to buy larger homes in pricier communities without having to put down a cent. However, they must still qualify for their mortgage and be able to afford the monthly payments.

“It gives the veterans the opportunity to buy homes in the areas they want to be in," says Austin, TX–based real estate agent Kyle Reed, of Pauly Presley Realty, himself a veteran who served in Iraq from 2001 to 2006. “It opens up some areas in cities to VA loans ... that maybe veterans didn’t have access to before without putting a bunch of money down.”

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