VA Loans Can Buy a Home About 4 Years Sooner, but 0% Down Costs $20 More a Month
Key Takeaways
- A 0% down VA loan saved $41,925 upfront on the September median-priced home versus a 10% down conforming loan, cutting the time to homeownership by around four years, according to a new Realtor.com report.
- At the same 10% down, a VA loan payment was $2,387 a month versus $2,648 for a conforming loan, a saving of $261 a month, or 9.8%.
- Over the past year, 75.7% of VA-financed purchases required no down payment, and 24.3% of VA borrowers had fair credit scores, versus just 4.8% of conforming borrowers.
- The biggest barrier may be awareness: only 3 in 10 veterans were aware of the zero down payment benefit in a Veterans United survey cited in the report.
A veteran who can afford a monthly payment but has not yet saved a down payment may be waiting years for no reason. That is the central finding of the Realtor.com VA loan report released on November 10, 2026, in recognition of Veterans Day.
The report compares VA loans with conforming loans originated over the past 12 months. It also calculates what the difference means on a typical-priced home, using the September median listing price of $419,250.
The $20 Trade That Buys About Four Years
The most useful number in the report is not the zero-down headline. It is the trade behind it.
A 0% down VA loan costs about $20 more per month than a conforming loan with 10% down on that median-priced home. In exchange, the buyer does not have to bring $41,925 to the purchase first.
| September median listing price | Loan type | Down payment | September mortgage rate | Monthly payment | Monthly saving vs. conforming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $419,250 | Conforming | 10% | 6.91% | $2,648 | — |
| $419,250 | VA | 0% | 6.36% | $2,668 | -$20 |
| $419,250 | VA | 10% | 6.39% | $2,387 | $261 |
Source: Realtor.com report, Table 1. Conforming payments include PMI, and VA payments include VA funding fees, according to the report.
"At first glance, a 0% down VA loan costs about $20 more per month compared with a similar conforming loan requiring 10% down," explains Jiayi Xu, Realtor.com senior economist and author of the report. "But it saves $41,925 upfront, which cuts the time to homeownership by around four years."
That timing matters in a market where the median first-time buyer is now 40 years old. Realtor.com also found that about 11% of renter households under 40 have qualified income to afford a median-priced home but lack the liquid savings for a 10% down payment.
For that 11%, savings, not income, are the wall. A zero-down option for an eligible borrower addresses that upfront barrier directly.
Lower Rates and Fair Credit Widen the Door
The monthly saving becomes clear when both loans carry the same down payment. At 10% down, the VA payment in the report was $261 per month lower than the conforming payment, or more than $3,129 a year.
Rates explain much of that gap. From October 2025 to September 2026, the average rate on 30-year fixed VA purchase loans was 5.81%, compared with 6.22% for conforming loans.
The gap was wider in September 2026 alone. The average conforming rate was 6.87% that month, while the average VA rate was 6.37%.
- Average down payment: 4.3% for VA loans, versus 19.1% for conforming loans.
- Down payment under 10%: 86.1% of VA loans, versus 41.1% of conforming loans.
- No down payment at all: 75.7% of VA loans, a feature the report says is not available with conforming loans.
- Fair credit scores of 580–669: 24.3% of VA homebuyers, versus 4.8% of conforming borrowers.
Those figures put VA loans in a different place from the high-rate loans covered in this site’s recent look at Freddie Mac rates at 7.18%. The report’s VA and conforming averages cover purchase loans originated from October 2025 through September 2026, so they are not a quote for a loan locked today.
The credit figures matter for beginners, too. Nearly one in four VA borrowers fell into the fair credit category, compared with roughly one in twenty conforming borrowers.
What Eligible Buyers Should Do Next
The report also exposes a knowledge gap. A 2026 survey commissioned by NewDay USA found that 68% of current and former service members were unsure or incorrect about whether VA loans required a down payment.
The benefit can also be used more than once. The Department of Veterans Affairs reiterated in September that eligible borrowers can use the benefit repeatedly, provided they meet applicable lending and occupancy requirements.
Coast Guard veteran Matt Couling has used his benefit three times, according to the Realtor.com article on the report. Of his first purchase, he says: "The zero money down aspect of the VA loan is really what allowed me to buy my first house."
Eligible buyers can put the findings to work in four steps:
- Confirm eligibility first, and ask whether a prior VA loan still leaves room to use the benefit again under the lending and occupancy requirements.
- Compare a VA quote and a conforming quote at the same down payment, not only at 0% down, so the rate saving of $261 a month in the report’s example is visible.
- Ask for the full payment breakdown, including the VA funding fee for a VA loan and PMI for a conforming loan, because the report’s comparison includes both.
- Separate the savings problem from the income problem: another 83% of renter households under 40 are constrained by both savings and income, and the report says that group would also need income growth or other assistance before buying.
Sellers and beginner investors should take the same lesson from the other side of the table. A VA buyer with little or no down payment is not automatically a weak buyer, especially when nearly three in four VA purchases closed with no down payment over the past year, as this site also noted in its coverage of government-backed loan performance in the third quarter.
Data source: Realtor.com, VA Loans in a High-Rate Market, released November 10, 2026. Mortgage data are sourced from Optimal Blue for 30-year fixed purchase loans for primary residences from October 2025 to September 2026.
https://www.unitedstatesrealestateinvestor.com/realtor-va-loans-2026-buy-4-years-sooner-261-month/?fsp_sid=64297
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