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Veterans who are looking to get a home in Greater Boston, will struggle to afford the cost, according to a new report from Redfin.
Four percent of home listings are affordable to the typical U.S. military veteran using a VA loan, while 5.5 percent of veterans can afford a home in Boston with a conventional loan. In comparison, civilians can afford 9.7 percent of homes in Boston.
“VA loans provide a great opportunity for first-time veteran homebuyers to purchase a home without the substantial down payment that’s required of most buyers these days,” Redfin Economist Grishma Bhattarai said in a statement. “It allows them to get their foot in the homeownership door and start building equity, but it comes with the tradeoff of a bigger loan and higher monthly costs. That tradeoff is likely the reason why some veterans choose to take out a conventional loan and make a down payment, even if they qualify for a VA loan.”
According to data from The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman, the median sale price of a single-family home in Massachusetts was $625,000 in September, up 4.2 percent from a year ago. In Greater Boston, the median sales price shot up to $769,000, a 5.3 percent increase year-over-year.
Nationwide, 21.8 percent of home listings are affordable to the typical U.S. military veteran using a VA loan, while 26.5 percent are affordable to the typical veteran using a conventional loan. For comparison, 22.8 percent of listings are affordable to the typical U.S. non-veteran household with a conventional loan.
Affordability has improved slightly over the last two years. Just 20.2 percent of listings were affordable to the typical veteran using a VA loan in 2023, and 25.5 percent were affordable to veterans using a conventional loan, the lowest shares on record. Nationwide, 7.3 percent of mortgaged homebuyers used a VA loan in August, up from 6.5 percent a year ago, and it’s the highest share of any August in six years.
Income growth has helped veterans better afford homes, as the median household income for veterans is an estimated $85,955 in 2025, up roughly 10 percent since 2023, according to Redfin. For non-veterans, it is an estimated $81,078, also up around 10 percent over that same time period.
But zooming out, affordability has worsened as Veterans and civilians can afford far fewer homes than they could have a decade ago. A veteran using a VA loan could afford 53 percent of home listings nationwide in 2015. A veteran using a conventional loan could afford roughly 57 percent of listings in 2015, and a non-veteran using a conventional loan could afford about 52 percent, according to Redfin.
