Are VA Loans Working for Troops?

This past summer, Air Force Staff Sergeant Jason Goul hoped to buy a home for his family using a loan program backed by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. As reported by in the San Francisco Chronicle, he wanted to have his wife and two children settled into their new home before he was sent overseas to the Middle East in August.

Goul and his wife Judith (seen at left) made several offers on foreclosed homes in California using their "VA loan," but none were accepted.

VA loans are guaranteed mortgages provided to the country's 25 million living veterans (or their surviving spouses) to purchase homes with little or zero down payments. It sounds like a great deal, but the loans do come with certain restrictions around appraisals and inspection that are shutting service members out of buying foreclosed properties.