Hawaii’s High Cost of Living Should Be Considered When Vets Seek Housing Loans

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U.S. Senator Brian Schatz
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U.S. Senator Brian Schatz

Washington, DC— After the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) made changes to its loan guarantee program resulting in a $125,000 drop in the maximum loan guarantee for Honolulu, U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai`i) is requesting that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the VA take Oahu’s high cost of living into consideration and increase the loan guarantee limit for the City and County of Honolulu.

“O’ahu has some of the most expensive housing in the country.  We need to do more to help our veterans afford to live here, not less,” said U.S. Senator Brian Schatz. “Any change in the VA’s calculations that makes it harder for veterans and their families to buy and own a home is unacceptable.  This is an important program that helps veterans achieve the American dream after serving our country, and it needs to accurately reflect the cost of owning a home in Hawai`i so more families can afford to stay here.”

“The new loan limit will make homeownership unobtainable for a lot of our veterans,” said Tony Dias of Veterans United.  “My initial thought was that this was a typo, but was assured by VA it was not.  I believe that once the facts are presented to the powers that be, this will be corrected to allow those who defend our country to own a piece of it.”

Limits on VA loan guarantees for home mortgages on O‘ahu have dropped from $750,000 in 2013 to $625,500, despite median single-family home prices on O‘ahu rising to $684,000 this year.

A $125,000 decrease in the level at which the VA will offer loan guarantees could result in higher down payments and increased financing rates for veterans and their families.  Last year, more than 5,000 families in Hawai`i relied on VA loan guarantees.

Submitted by the office of US Senator Brian Schatz 

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3 COMMENTS

  1. The Abandoning of the missions and the purposes of, along with the once
    again promises to the Afghan people, first time was after the
    Afghan/Soviet long war, quickly after 9/11, with the Lives still being lost, those serving still being wounded!!! Giving rise to, with the rhetoric from within, not a victory over, and spread of al Qaeda type ideology criminal terrorism!!!

    The Cost of War, All Costs, the Responsibility of Those Served

    "12 years also is a long time. We now have a lifetime responsibility
    to a generation of service members, veterans and their families." Dr. Jonathan Woodson 11 Sep. 2013: 'With 9/11 Came Lifetime Responsibility'

    There's only one branch of Government, Federal and States, consistently
    doing for not only us Veterans' but also the Military personal and their
    Families and without the control of the Countries purse strings and combining
    the Cabinet agencies abilities to help where possible with their
    budgets. That's the whole Executive branch under President Obama. Doing
    what Congress, and State legislatures in passing feel patriotic support bills that are unfunded, and the people represented by them and served by the
    Military refuse to do, Sacrifice, especially the wealthy!

    Decades, and wars of, of under funding the VA. With these two recent
    wars little was done for the Veterans of as well as the Military
    personal, i.e. Walter Reed as one example, and their Families, in the
    first years of both under the previous executive branch and those
    congresses. Rubber stamped war costs, off the books and on the countries
    credit card with no bid private contracts, including building an
    expensive private merc army! That's not adding in all the other rubber
    stamped costs of the bush administration policy wants, especially in the
    first six years of!

    Rachel Maddow: "We got a huge round of tax cuts in
    this country a few weeks before 9/11. Once 9/11 happened and we invaded
    Afghanistan, we kept the tax cuts anyway.
    How did we think we were going to pay for that war? Did we think it was
    free?

    Then, when we started a second simultaneous war in another country, we
    gave ourselves a second huge round of tax cuts. After that second war
    started. The wars, I guess, we thought would be free, don`t worry about
    it, civilians. Go about your business." 23 May 2013

    "If military action is worth our troops’ blood, it should be worth
    our treasure, too" "not just in the abstract, but in the form of a
    specific ante by every American." -Andrew Rosenthal 10 Feb. 2013

    David (CBS News) Martin: "Then there's the financial cost. To date,
    the Pentagon has spent more than $500 billion on the war in Afghanistan.
    A defense spending bill the Senate is expected to pass this week would
    add another $80 billion to that." 17 December 2013

    That's not counting those decades to come results from costs and the once again ignored, by those served, issues!

    The wars, neither Afghanistan nor Iraq, have yet been paid for. Nor
    especially the now decades to come, DeJa-Vu all over again, the of
    results for those sent, over and over, and the continuing under funding
    the Peoples Responsibility, the Veterans Administration charged with
    much more then just caring for the wounded, as those served ignore most
    of those results from!!

    'Cost of War' site {real and estimated costs}: "Total
    US federal spending associated with the Iraq war has been $1.7 trillion
    through FY2013. In addition, future health and disability payments for
    veterans will total $590 billion and interest accrued to pay for the war
    will add up to $3.9 trillion." 19 March 2013 © 2011 Watson Institute, Brown University

    USN All Shore '67-'71 GMG3 Vietnam In Country '70-'71

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