Realtor.com 2024 Top Military-Friendly Markets

In celebration of 80 years of GI Bill benefits (formally known as the Servicemen鈥檚 Readjustment Act of 1944), Realtor.com compiled a list of housing markets tailored to military households. The highlighted metros feature high veteran loan use, easy homeownership access, affordable prices, abundant housing options, and ample job opportunities. We ranked the top 100 metros based on key criteria important to military home shoppers. The rankings are based on the following factors:

A measure of Veterans Affairs loan use, estimated by the number of sales financed by VA loans per 1,000 military households.
A measure of homeownership accessibility, estimated by the homeownership rate among military households.
A measure of the effectiveness of military benefits in promoting financial stability and access to homeownership, estimated by the homeownership rate gap between military and nonmilitary households, adjusted for age differences.
A measure of affordability, measured by the Realtor.com affordability score reflecting the share of home listings in a market that are affordable to those at various local income levels.
The availability of homes for sale, measured by active listings per 1,000 existing households, to ensure that homebuyers have a good amount of choice in their search.
A measure of job stability, estimated by the forecasted unemployment rate.

Based on the above criteria, and a cap of one market per state to allow for a greater diversity of options, these are the Realtor.com top 10 military-friendly markets for 2024:

Table: Top Military-Friendly Housing Markets

Top Markets	# Sales with VA loans per 1,000 military hh	Homeownership rate, military hh	Homeownership rate gap, military vs. nonmilitary听	Affordability score	Active listing per 1,000 hh	Forecasted unemployment rate
Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA	18.5	88.8%	0.18 ppt	0.77	57.3	2.9%
Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC	27.8	81.0%	0.13 ppt	0.73	53.6	3.9%
Columbia, SC	27.6	81.8%	0.10 ppt	0.73	37.8	3.3%
Birmingham-Hoover, AL	15.4	84.9%	0.12 ppt	0.83	40.7	3.5%
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL	17.4	85.8%	0.10 ppt	0.55	65.8	3.7%
Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR	19.5	78.7%	0.16 ppt	0.77	31.6	3.5%
Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN	16.4	80.9%	0.10 ppt	0.83	38.1	3.4%
Memphis, TN-MS-AR	16.9	79.7%	0.14 ppt	0.77	39.4	4.1%
Richmond, VA	16.1	82.3%	0.11 ppt	0.65	34.1	3.3%
San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX	22.1	76.6%	0.12 ppt	0.58	52.9	3.5%

Higher VA loan use

VA home loans鈥攁 benefit created by the Servicemen鈥檚 Readjustment Act of 1944, or GI Bill鈥攅nable qualified borrowers with smaller down payments, more flexible credit terms, and lower interest rates, making it easier to access homeownership.听

In the top markets, there were an average of 19.8 home sales financed by VA loans per 1,000 military households between April 2023 and March 2024. This is a higher rate compared with the 13.3 per 1,000 military households in the 100 largest metro areas.

Among the top 10 markets, the number of home sales using VA loans per 1,000 military households spans from 15.4 to 27.8. Specifically, Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC, had the highest VA loan use (27.8 per 1,000 military households), followed by Columbia, SC (27.6 per 1,000 military households), and San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX (22.1 per 1,000 military households).

Higher homeownership rates among military households

A higher homeownership rate among military households indicates greater accessibility to homeownership for these families.

The top markets as a group have an average homeownership rate of 82.0% for military households. This figure is higher than the average of the top 100 metros, which stands at 77.4%.

Among the top 10 markets, the homeownership rate among military households spanned from 76.6% to 88.8%. Specifically, Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA (88.8%), emerges as the market with the highest rate among the top 10 markets, followed by Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL (85.8%), and Birmingham-Hoover, AL (84.9%).

High effectiveness of military benefits

A higher homeownership rate among military households compared with their nonmilitary peers suggests a high effectiveness of military benefits in promoting financial stability and access to homeownership, such as with VA loans.听

The top markets as a group are located in metro areas where military homeownership rates are 0.13 percentage points higher than nonmilitary peers. This difference is more pronounced than the average of the top 100 metros, where homeownership rates among military households are 0.09 percentage points higher than nonmilitary peers.

In the top 10 markets, the homeownership rate gap between military and nonmilitary households ranges from 0.10 to 0.18 percentage points. Military benefits seem to be most effective in Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA, where the military homeownership rate is 0.18 percentage points higher than their nonmilitary counterparts. This is followed by Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR, and Memphis, TN-MS-AR, where military homeownership rates are 0.16 and 0.14 percentage points higher, respectively, than those of nonmilitary households.

More affordable home options

The Realtor.com affordability score reflects the share of home listings in a market that are affordable to those at various local income levels. The score varies between 0 and 2, and a higher score indicates relatively high affordability. Specifically, a score of 1 or higher generally suggests a market where homes for sale are more affordable to households in proportion to their income distributions.听

The top markets as a group are located in metro areas that have an average affordability score of 0.72. This figure is higher than the average of the top 100 metros, which stands at 0.63.

Among the top 10 markets, the affordability score spans from 0.55 to 0.83. Specifically, Birmingham-Hoover, AL (0.83), and Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN (0.83), emerged as the most affordable markets among the top 10 markets, followed by Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA, Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR, and Memphis, TN-MS-AR, which all have a score of 0.77.听

Easier to find a home

The availability of homes for sale is important to home shoppers, especially given the fact that the mortgage rate “lock-in鈥� effect has resulted in significantly lower for-sale inventory when compared with the pre-pandemic level.听

The top markets as a group had an average count of active listings per 1,000 existing households of 45.1 between May 2023 and April 2024, higher than the list average of 37.3 in the top 100 metros.

Among the top 10 markets, the number of active listings per 1,000 existing households ranged between 31.6 and 65.8. Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL, had the most active listings per household (65.8 per 1,000 existing households), followed by Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA (57.3 per 1,000), and Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC (53.6 per 1,000).听

More stable job markets

A lower forecasted unemployment rate suggests that one could encounter less competition when seeking employment and obtain better job security, a consideration for veterans and military households with workers who are not active military members.听

The top markets as a group are located within metro areas that have an average forecasted 2024 unemployment rate of 3.5%, lower than the forecasted overall average of 4.0%.

Among the top 10 markets, the unemployment rate ranged from 2.9% to 4.1%. Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA, metro area (2.9%) is forecasted to have the lowest unemployment rate in 2024, followed by Columbia, SC, and Richmond, VA, both of which are forecasted to have an unemployment rate of 3.3% by the end of 2024.

Data source and methodology

For the purpose of this research, a household is considered a military household if any member in the household is on active duty or has a veteran status. In addition, we focus only on households where the head of household is 18 or older. VA loan use: The number of home sales using VA loans between April 2023 and March 2024, estimated from the Realtor.com public records database. The number of military households is derived from听2022 ACS 1-Year individual data. To estimate the homeownership rates among military households, we first calculate the rates for three age groups (18鈥�34, 35鈥�54, and 55-plus) and then take a weighted average across these groups. To get the homeownership rate gap between military and nonmilitary households, we first calculate the homeownership rate gap for each age group (18鈥�34, 35鈥�54, and 55-plus) and then take a weighted average across these groups, based on their proportion among all households. The metro-level Realtor.com affordability score is an average of monthly scores between May 2023 and April 2024. The number of active listings per 1,000 households is calculated using single-family homes, condos, and townhomes listed on Realtor.com between May 2023 and April 2024. The household data is sourced from 2022 ACS 1-Year individual data. The stated forecasted unemployment rates are Moody鈥檚 Analytics projections of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics for each metro area.

Big gaming