Originally Posted by
MikeF16
For those of you who have recently retired from the military and are on 1st year pay, what have banks been preapproving for loan amounts? I don't want to run a hard credit score yet since I probably won't close in 120 days and running the credit lowers the credit (so stupid). Anyway, I want to live in SEA but holy shnikeys who the heck can get a big enough loan to actually move up there? I'm thinking I'll need to spend $700k or so to get the same home I could get for $500k in ATL (which btw coincides with what I spent $370k on in San Antonio...)
Well the VA loan limit in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties is $517,500 with 0 down, so if you have some equity to put down, you'll do fine, otherwise with 20% down on a $700k loan you'd be out of pocket $140K so your better off getting it to the VA limit.
The most surprising thing that a military retiree will discover in their first year at Delta will be TAXES! The tax advantages of military pay system (with all of it's (allowances), coupled with favorable state tax residency, and an occasional stroll thru a war zone really does produce 20 years of tax bliss that quickly evaporates with that first retiree "annuity payment".