VA loan perks are up against stigmas | Real Estate Newsletter

Air Force veteran Diamond Jones found stability in South Jersey.

She bought her first home there this year. And since she used a loan backed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, she didn’t have to drain her savings to do it.

VA loans help former and current members of the military afford to buy homes, and they help shrink home ownership gaps. But many veterans, service members, real estate agents, and mortgage lenders aren’t familiar with them. The mortgages come with both perks and stigmas.

Keep scrolling for that story and the rest of this week’s edition:

📮 Did you ever buy a house that checked all your boxes only to find out later there were major, hidden issues? For a chance to be featured in my newsletter, email me.

— Michaelle Bond

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It’s been 80 years since the VA home loan program was created.

VA loans come with a bunch of perks:

But home sellers can be hesitant to work with buyers with VA loans for some of the same reasons they sometimes stay away from buyers with another type of government-backed loan. I wrote back in 2021 about how sellers’ preferences were shutting some buyers with FHA loans out of our region’s hot real estate market.

A veteran and real estate agent based in Moorestown told me she sees a lot of discrimination against her VA-backed buyers.

“Everybody says, ‘Thank you for your service,’ but they don’t take their loan,” she said.

Keep reading to learn more and to see how the Philly region ranks in using VA loans.

In last week’s newsletter, I mentioned that low-income neighborhoods near certain gentrified areas of Philly are seeing the biggest spikes in property assessments.

My colleague Layla A. Jones is back with more context about that and how it’s part of a pattern of assessment spikes in Black and Latino neighborhoods.

Experts point to redlining, gentrification, and subjective data as major reasons why property assessments are systemically biased and inaccurate. The Inquirer found that in the city’s latest round of reassessments, property values rose the most in gentrified, working-class neighborhoods of color.

The city determines the values of properties based on recent sales nearby and property characteristics.

City officials say they’re working to improve the fairness and accuracy of the process.

The Queen Village home of Natalie Pompilio and Jordan Barnett came with pros and — they found out much later — some pretty serious cons.

Pros:

✅ a roof deck that came in handy during the height of the pandemic

✅ straight, not winding, stairs

✅ the “villageness of the neighborhood”

Cons:

❌ a sinking kitchen with no foundation

❌ no insulation behind the drywall — just mold

The couple lived in an apartment for about a year while their house went through major renovations. They’ve fixed what needed to be fixed and added touches that make the home their own, including a large backyard mosaic Pompilio created.

Peek inside the couple’s upgraded home and find out what object had been supporting the kitchen. (You’ll never guess.)

Construction is scheduled to start this month on FloatLab, a giant circular artwork on the Schuylkill. The $6 million project will be both an art installation and an environmental center that’ll offer prime views of the river.

Question: When is FloatLab scheduled to be up and running?

A) Spring 2025

B) Summer 2025

C) Fall 2025

D) Summer 2026

This story has the answer.

Do you know the location this photo shows?

📮 If you think you do, email me back. You and your memories of visiting this spot might be featured in the newsletter.

Shout out to Dorothy S. for knowing that last week’s photo showed a person running along the tracks between the cherry blossoms in the middle of Christopher Columbus Boulevard.

Last week, I asked for your stories about sharing plants. I want to leave you with this sweet story (pun intended) from reader Howard G.

“In the 1960s, as a boy in suburban, central New Jersey, I had a friend whose German-Jewish, immigrant grandfather was a serious gardener. He tended an enviable patch of raspberries in the backyard of my friend’s house.

“In the late ‘60s, as a college student, I transplanted some when my parents moved to another New Jersey town, where the plant did well for years. In the early 1980s, I took some from my parents’ house and planted them at a house my wife and I moved to where our little daughter and her friends ate them right off the vine before I got home from work.

“I moved them again a few years later when we bought our second house. The second location we chose wasn’t so favorable, but within a few years the raspberries had relocated themselves to a sunnier spot where they did thrive.

“Around eight years ago, I moved some to our daughter’s house in Mount Airy, where they took some seasons to get established but this spring produced a fine crop. Last fall, one of my brothers took some to his house in Westchester County, N.Y., where it’s too soon to tell, but they look to be well started. We live in an apartment in Center City now, where even this tireless plant wouldn’t make it, but they are established in Philadelphia, so who knows where they go next.”

Did I go buy some raspberries this week after reading this? Yes, I did. But I bet they’re even more delicious plucked from your own yard and with this kind of history behind them. Enjoy the rest of your week.

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