I've been stationed here at Lackland since November 2004. I PCA'd within the Group in 2007; so I've been under the same Group since Nov 2004. I recently had an Assignment cancelled, with the caveat that I get no Base of Preference for the rest of my career. Anyways, with the $8k tax credit, and with the feeling of on-base housing shrinking in on me, I'm undecided on whether I should purchase a home.

I understand I'd be taking a risk because I could get orders anytime. I have some questions that hopefully you guys help me with...

1) Does my denial of a Base of Preference affect career Airmen? I was told BoP is only 1st-Term Airmen so it won't affect me at all, but I dont know if should believe that...

2) Does my denial of a Base of Preference mean that I can't volunteer for Korea? If I can volunteer for Korea, would I still get a follow-on, or would they deny me a follow-on and send me anywhere they want?

As you can see, I wanna try to do a short tour to Korea for a year, and get a follow-on back here to Lackland.

Now with all that said... If I can't get Korea, and I decide to purchase this home, and I get orders within the next year to PCS, how hard would it be to sell the house and break even? I'd be putting the $8k tax credit into my savings to help pay for closing costs and anything else. Is it common for people to assume VA Loans?

Your help is greatly appreciated!

You can volunteer for any base you wish.

Real estate "experts" say it takes 3 - 5 yrs to make a profit on a home. If you plan to PCS in a yr, you need to seriously think about skipping the purchase. THe market isn't going to rebound that fast. Unless you buy a house significantly under current market prices, you'll probably have a hard time breaking even in a yr.

im not really planning on PCSing anywhere. but if i can, i want to volunteer for korea for a year and have my wife watch the home, then come right back to lackland.

I did it at Langley and came out ok...

With the $8K credit I think it is a calculated risk. If you do it, look hard, find an area with decent schools (North of Potranco) otherwise you loose a whole group when you try and sell.

If you are handy buy a fixer-upper, look at a lot of homes and look how long they have been on the market and make "low ball" offers.

The market here isn't bad and I think it will get better once the NSA facility opens and after all the brac stuff happens, even if you can't sell it with all the Military here you could probably rent it fairly easily.

Also the housing allowance here is higher than is should be, buy something below the allowance and put the entire allowance towards the mortgage and pay it down quicker so you won't be upside down.

What group are you in?

1. Denying BOP does mean that you can never make another BOP request. Career airmen can make BOP requests when they've been on station for a few years, but that option is closed to you now.

2. A follow-on isn't a BOP, so you should still be eligible for a follow-on if you go to Korea.

remember with the 8k credit, you have to live at the house for 3 years otherwise you need to pay it back. they did this so it would prevent people from flipping homes

Exemption for military on orders:

http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/service_mem.php

Actual if you read the above military can use it into next year if they are returning from overseas....

The house we're wanting is in Laurel Mountain, off 1604 about 2 miles north of I-90. It's a brand new home for $146k, built by D-R Horton. The School district is NISD, which I hear is one of the best school districts in Texas. I'm in the 690 NSG.

I think buying new is a bad idea...it makes it more likely that you will loose money and there is a lot of work and expense buying new. Also assuming you're a SSgt $146k is a lot to pay.

You are in NISD but I don't think the schools there are great either...

I have info about the SA home market. there are some deals on fixer uppers, but you need 20% down to pull it off. my advice is to do the math and see what you can afford on a 15 year mortgage and then get a 30 on the same house. This way you can still pay more when times are good and pay less when times are bad. San Antonio has a great rental market, becose of all the military. You can buy a house, live in it for a few years, then rent it out for a year while you are overseas. I know some great agents who help people just like you do just that.


Glock23

A few bases ago, I had a SrA co-worker who tried for a couple years to get orders anywhere, even volunteering for Korea constantly. He finally gave up and dropped a huge down-payment on a house for his family (wife and 3 kids). Less than a week later, he got overseas orders. They were non-voluntary too, so he couldn't turn them down. I've never seen anyone so pissed off before. He actually considered missing his flight and taking an article 15 if it meant he could stay in place.

Yes,IF you serve OCONUS for 90+ days. But if you ended up going CONUS-->CONUS then, you wouldn't be eligible.

Pentagon Federal has a grant program for first time Active Duty Home buyers. They match 3 to 1 your down payment/closing costs up to $5000. (so you put down $1,667 + their $5000 = $6,667)

Stipulations are you must make less than $50K a year, provide an LES proving it, put at least 3% down ($6,667 is a little more than 3% of $200,000 home) towards the house which can include the grant money and not have purchased a home in the past 3 years. Also you don't even have to go through them for your mortgage to qualify or get the money.

The programs called Dream Makers and the grant only has to be repaid if you sell your house before five years and it's not due to a PCS/Deployment move.

https://www.pentagonfoundation.org/what ... grants.asp

Dont do it. Apartment life/renting is the way 2 go.

i've lived on base for 5 years. that's over $60k that i've paid in rent for houses that don't belong to me.

The 60k should not have come out of your pocket though. Granted it would be nice to get a chunk of that back but you should never look at it like the 60k was yours to begin with. It should be concidered a PCS bonus when/IF you sell.

A $125,000 30 year mortgage at 5% has a $670 monthly payment. Add property tax, utilities, homeowners insurance, repairs, etc and you're up to the $1,000 per month your 5 years in base housing cost you. At the end of 5 years paying on that mortgage you'd still owe almost $115,000. Chances are with the drop in the housing marget that house you bought 5 years ago might still be worth what you paid for it but probably not any more. So best case I'd say maybe you're out $10,000. More likely you're slightly up.

That's not including the tax deduction for the interest, so maybe you'd be doing a little better. Not $60k better, though.