Mortgage loans backed by the Department of Veterans Affairs can help make homeownership more attainable for military families with its offers of zero-down-payment loans. But many vets or service members may not know what’s required to use one or how they work, a new study shows.

A new study of 1,000 active-duty service members and veterans by the Navy Federal Credit Union found that nearly all respondents were aware of what a VA loan is, but many respondents did show some confusion about their use. Some of that confusion included:

Forty-year-high inflation and supply chain challenges aren’t ruining homeowners’ plans to spruce up their homes, finds a new survey from Nationwide of 1,000 homeowners. Seventy-one percent of homeowners who have upcoming house projects say they expect to proceed with them despite higher costs, delayed timelines, and the limited availability of materials.

But it is one week before the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates further, Nadia Evangelou, National Association of REALTORS® senior economist and director of forecasting, says on the association’s blog. The Fed’s key rate does not have a direct impact on mortgage rates but it does often influence them.

Borrowers may be getting nervous about how high rates could go. Higher rates already are forcing them to increase their budgets. Current buyers need to spend about $25,000 more to buy a comparable home this year than a year ago, Evangelou says.

Home sellers are still fetching multiple offers on their properties and buyers continue to face competition, even as the housing market has shown some signs of slowing.

REALTORS® reported an average of nearly five offers on each home that sold in March, according to the March REALTORS® Confidence Index survey.

On average, half of buyers made two offers before being successful in their purchase by the third try, the survey shows.

With higher rates and home prices, house hunters need to earn about $25,000 extra if they want to buy the typical home now compared to a year earlier, Nadia Evangelou, senior economist and director of forecasting at the National Association of REALTORS®, writes for the association’s blog. Existing-home sales are dropping as a result.

Prop 19 allows eligible homeowners to transfer the taxable value of their primary residence to a replacement primary residence anywhere in California, regardless of location or value, as long as the replacement residence is purchased or newly constructed within two years of the sale of the original primary residence. Homeowners can save big on their annual property tax bills, whether they move to a replacement home that is the same price, more expensive, or less expensive than their original home.

See examples of how homeowners can save with Prop 19 at:

Also, with inflation at a 40-year high, home buyers are finding they may need to adjust their budget to buy this spring. “As Americans contend with historically high inflation, the combination of rising mortgage rates, elevated home prices, and tight inventory are making the pursuit of homeownership the most expensive in a generation,” writes Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.

The rate of inflation reached 8.5% in March, continuing at a 40-year high and showing few signs of relief for consumers. Higher gas prices, food, and housing costs fueled the consumer price index’s jump.