Military PCS Great For Honolulu Real Estate
February 4th, 2009 categories: For Sellers, Military
PCS stands for Permanent Change of Station. There are seven active military installations on Oahu: Naval Base Pearl Harbor; Hickam Airforce Base; Kaneohe Marine Corp Air Station; Fort Shafter Army Base; Schofield Barracks Army Base; Naval Communications Center in Wahaiwa and Lualualei Naval radio station.
Most military families PCS orders are for a term of 3 years. The honorable people that serve provide a terrific buyer pool for Oahu real estate. The ongoing long-term military presence in Hawaii is one of the main reasons I am very bullish on our real estate values. Here is why.
1. Veterans Administration (VA) Loans have always been one of the best ways to purchase a home with little or nothing down. This means as conventional lending guidelines become tighter, our military folk will be one of the lucky few that can buy with nothing down. Note that the maximum VA loan amount is $625,500.
2. Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) is an off base housing allowance provided for military families. Since there is a shortage of available on-base housing, the military makes BAH available to allow military members to find housing off base. BAH ranges from $1,555 for and E-1 with no dependents to $3,401 for an O-7 with dependents. An E-1 that gets for a 30 year mortgage at 5.5% could buy a property for approximately $274,000 with the BAH, an O-7 at the highest BAH level could buy a home for approximately $599,000! CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL OF THE BAH LEVELS.
CLICK HERE TO SEARCH FOR HOMES AND CONDOS ON OAHU.
If you are in the military and would like to discuss using your BAH to buy in Honolulu, feel free to call me at my toll free number 877-737-2093 or locally at 808-737-2093.
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Great blog Keahi. You are right, VA is an incredible program for minimum down loans. With Fannie Mae’s pricing adjustments for FICOs and loan to values, it will begin to become more and more beneficial to go VA.
Thanks for sharing!
Tim