Phoenix Valley Among Top Metro Areas for Millennial-Veteran Home Buyers

I’m detecting a subtle shift in the demographics of home buyers lately, at least among a large segment of my clientele.

I frequently handle VA transactions but in recent years my Veteran consumers seem to be younger, indeed many fall into the under 40 category commonly known as Millennials.

— — Veterans and Military Members Get Thousands of Dollars Back When You Buy or Sell a Home — —

Not surprising I suppose, since USNews reported that a full 32% of all home owners can be classified as Millennial, and 17% of home buyers nationwide are Veterans. Even less surprising since the folks at Veterans United Home Loans ranked the Greater Phoenix Valley region as number 18 in the nation in their list of the Top 30 cities for Millennial Veteran home buyers.

Veteran services are plentiful here in the Valley and my educated guess would be that the availability of resources plays a huge part in a Veterans decision regarding relocation. According to the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services, 600,000 Veterans in Arizona alone, have been provided over $399 million in Compensation, Pension, Educational and Medical benefits, and grants from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs in 2017.

VA Financing regulations are fairly liberal from no down payment requirement, to the potential for use over and over again. Loan limits were increased in 2019. Check with your local Realtor or lender as VA loan limits vary by county. The VA does charge a funding fee but this fee is waived for some including disabled Veterans, and beginning Jan 1, 2020, will be eliminated for Purple Heart recipients still on active duty.

A profile provided by NAR (National Association of Realtors) states that over half of Active Military and 41% of Veteran home buyers completely financed their home, with no down payment. I find it puzzling that 77% of Active Military utilize the VA loan while only 58% of Veterans take advantage of this benefit. It’s possible I suppose that, as I’ve heard many times from many Veterans, they are under the impression that there are more obstacles or difficulties involved in VA financing. This is an unfair assumption as VA mortgage loans are no more complicated than other loans, nor do they take longer to complete.

Whatever the case, it would appear that more Millennial Veteran home buyers are doing their research and realizing the advantages of residing in specific metro regions of the country.

Real Estate Study: Top 30 Cities for Millennial-Veteran Homebuyers

In today’s real estate market, homeownership has become more and more difficult for millennials to obtain. However, one subdemographic that may have a leg up? Millennial veterans.

With many having access to VA loans, there’s a large block of potential millennial buyers that are qualified to purchase a home with no down payment, mortgage insurance or great credit.

For these reasons, millennial veterans are some of the most successful homebuyers on the market today. It’s also why Veterans United Home Loans—the nation’s largest VA lender—compiled a list of the top 30 cities for young veterans, as well as active service members.

“The lingering question in housing circles has been when will millennials enter the home-buying market,” Chris Birk, director of Education at Veterans United Home Loans, tells Housecall. “The fact is millennial veterans aren’t standing on the sidelines.”

To create the list, the company compared purchase loan volume numbers for millennials from last year to the same data for that group from 2015. Cities are ranked by their percentage increase in VA purchase loan volume.

Military density is higher in Florida, Georgia and Texas than in most states as a result of more installations and higher veteran populations, which accounts for the large number of cities that made the list from those states.

Additionally, Veterans United Home Loans only considered cities that had at least 75 millennial purchase loans in 2015 and 2018; and the company defines these millennials as any veterans or active service members that were born between 1981 and 1996.

Here are the top 30 cities for millennial veteran homebuyers:

City and VA Purchase Loan Growth (Percentage):

Jacksonville, Fla. Metro Area – 228.80
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla. – 144.80
San Antonio, Texas Metro Area – 135.50
New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, N.Y.-N.J.-Pa. Metro Area – 129.50
Hinesville-Fort Stewart, Ga. Metro Area – 116.90
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Fla. Metro Area – 107.60
Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, Va.-N.C. Metro Area – 107.30
Fayetteville, N.C. Metro Area – 103.70
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va. Metro Area – 102.30
Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, Ill.-Ind.-Wis. Metro Area – 101.90
Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, Texas Metro Area – 100.00
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Ga. Metro Area – 93.80
St. Louis, MO-Ill. Metro Area – 81.30
Oklahoma City, Okla. Metro Area – 79.80
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas Metro Area – 77.50
Baltimore-Towson, Md. Metro Area – 73.10
Savannah, Ga. Metro Area – 68.00
Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz. Metro Area – 66.20
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Wash. Metro Area – 61.80
San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, Calif. Metro Area – 61.40
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pa.-N.J.-Del.-Md. Metro Area – 59.10
Denver-Aurora, Colo. Metro Area – 58.80
Jacksonville, N.C. Metro Area – 56.50
Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas Metro Area – 54.80
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif. Metro Area – 54.10
Kansas City, Mo.-Kan. Metro Area – 42.60
Omaha-Council Bluffs, Neb.-Iowa Metro Area – 41.00
Clarksville, Tenn.-Ky. Metro Area – 32.20
Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Mass.-N.H. Metro Area – 26.50
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, Calif. Metro Area – 24.40

To view all of Veteran United Home Loans’ key findings and for a full breakdown of their methodology, click here. This was originally published on RISMedia’s Housecall. Jameson Doris is RISMedia’s blog and social media editor. Email him your real estate blog ideas at jdoris@rismedia.com. Reprinted with permission from RISMedia. ©2019. All rights reserved.