Military Members, Veterans Make Up Slightly Higher Share of Mortgaged Homebuyers Than Last Year As Buyer’s Market Persists

The data in this report is from a Redfin analysis of county records across 40 of the most populous U.S. metropolitan areas. August 2025 is the most recent month for which data is available. Data on loan types is limited to home purchases for which buyers took out a mortgage. An all-cash purchase is one in which there is no mortgage loan information on the deed.

VA and FHA loans are both insured by the U.S. government. VA loans are available to veterans, service members and their surviving spouses, and require little to no down payment.  FHA loans, meant for low-to-moderate-income borrowers and popular with first-time homebuyers, have lower financial requirements than conventional loans; typically, they require a 3.5% down payment. Here’s more info from Rocket Mortgage on VA loans, including benefits, eligibility requirements, and here’s a Rocket post with everything to know about assuming VA loans. 

“Military members have made sacrifices to protect our home,” said Bill Banfield, chief business officer at Rocket. “VA loans are one of the most powerful benefits available to veterans and service members, opening doors to homeownership with zero down payment, no monthly mortgage insurance and flexible credit requirements. Now is a prime time for veterans and service members to take advantage of them. VA loans have a better chance of getting accepted in today’s buyer’s market than they did several years ago, when buyers were competing against each other and sellers were calling the shots.”

The share of mortgaged homebuyers using a VA loan has increased, and so has the number of buyers taking out VA loans. Nationwide, the number of VA loans rose 3% year over year in August, while the number of conventional loans declined 9%.

A higher share of homebuyers are using VA loans than any late summer since 2019 because it’s a buyer’s market in much of the country. In an ultra-competitive market, like we saw during the pandemic, the market favors buyers with higher down payments and more ability to prove their financial security.  In late 2020 and early 2021, when mortgage rates were at record lows and we were in a prime seller’s market, less than 6% of mortgaged homebuyers were using VA loans. But now that the market has tilted in favor of buyers, people are more likely to get an offer using a VA loan accepted and the share of buyers using a VA loan has risen.

“A buyer can make an offer with a VA loan, put virtually no money down, ask for $5,000 in closing credits, and get their offer accepted,” said Jim Fletcher, a Redfin Premier agent in Tampa, FL. “The market is slow, there’s a backlog of inventory, and buyers are in the driver’s seat. Florida historically has had a lot of all-cash buyers, but recently, there are more financed buyers–and many of them are able to win homes with ultra-low down payments while also having the seller cover most closing costs.” 

Still, only a small share of homebuyers use VA loans. That’s because they’re only available to a small portion of the population, and even in a buyer’s market, some sellers favor other offers that come with bigger down payments. 

“The overall market is slower than usual, but move-in ready houses in desirable neighborhoods are still selling fairly fast,” said Matt Ferris, a Redfin Premier agent in Virginia. “I’ve seen a few military sellers recently who have houses that fall into that category. Sometimes they’d ideally like to sell to another military family, but then they get four, five, six offers, and the best is from a buyer using a conventional loan and they’re offering $10,000 more than the offer using a VA loan. The seller takes the higher offer with the conventional loan because they need to make the most money from the sale.”

Just under one in seven (13.9%) mortgaged buyers used an FHA loan in August, down incrementally from 14.1% a year earlier. Conventional loans are the most common type of mortgage, by far. Nearly eight in 10 (78.9%) home loans were conventional in August.

VA Loans Are Most Prevalent in Virginia Beach, VA

In August, 43.2% of all mortgaged homebuyers in Virginia Beach, VA used a VA loan, the biggest share of any major U.S. metro by a longshot. That’s also the most prevalent VA loans have been in Virginia Beach of any August on record. 

Next comes Jacksonville, FL (17.2%), followed closely by Washington, D.C. (16.7%). That’s the highest August share for Washington, D.C. in 14 years.

 San Diego (15.2%) and Las Vegas (11.9%) round out the top five. 

VA loans are most common in those places because they each have a large military presence. Virginia Beach has the largest concentration of military personnel outside the Pentagon, with nearly 100,000 active-duty military members stationed there across the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corp, Navy and NATO. The Jacksonville area is home to several military facilities, including naval stations and a submarine base, and the Washington, D.C. metro, is home to the Pentagon and a handful of military bases. The Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard have bases in San Diego, and there’s a major Air Force facility in Las Vegas. 

Virginia Beach is also where the use of VA loans increased most year over year, rising to 43.2% of all mortgage home sales from just under 40% a year ago. 

The next-biggest increases were in Orlando, FL (8.2%, up from 5.3%) and San Diego (15.2%, up from 12.3%). The use of VA loans increased in 32 of the 40 metros in this analysis. In the places where they became less common, the dips were about one percentage point or less. 

Other Metro-Level Highlights

The data below is from August 2025, the most recent month for which data is available, and covers 40 of the most populous U.S. metros. 

VA loans 

• VA loans were least prevalent in expensive West Coast metro areas. In San Jose, CA and San Francisco, less than 1% of all mortgaged homebuyers used a VA loan, followed by New York (1.7%). 
• The use of VA loans declined year over year in 8 of the metros in this analysis. Their use declined most in Cincinnati, San Jose, and Cleveland. 

FHA loans

• FHA loans were most prevalent in Riverside, CA, where 27% of mortgaged home sales used one. Next came Las Vegas (24.3%) and Tampa, FL (23.1%).
• They were least prevalent in California: San Francisco (0.6%), San Jose (2.7%) and Anaheim (4%). 
• Their use increased most in Milwaukee, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. 
• Their use declined most in Jacksonville, FL, Providence, RI and Nashville, TN.