CalVet Home Loan

CalVet runs its own mortgage program rather than only backing a private one. Eligibility starts at 90 days of active duty that was not training, with a discharge under honorable conditions. A member of the National Guard or a reserve component who was ordered to federal active duty, including Active Guard and Reserve duty, can qualify. A veteran currently serving is eligible once the 90-day requirement is met. There is no prior California residency requirement, and the loan is manually underwritten with no published minimum credit score. CalVet's pages say "Most of our loan products have no down payment requirements" and that it does not sell the servicing, so the borrower stays with CalVet for the life of the loan. They publish no fee schedule: the 1% origination fee, the up-front funding fee and the waiver of that fee at a 10% rating that guides repeat are not on CalVet's current pages, so get the loan estimate from CalVet (866-653-2510 for new customers). Where CalVet makes the loan with the federal VA guaranty (a CalVet/VA loan), federal law does not collect the VA funding fee from a veteran receiving VA compensation (38 U.S.C. 3729(c)), and CalVet says a partial remaining VA guarantee can still support 100% financing. The loan can be used for a single-family home, a planned unit development, a VA-approved condominium, a manufactured home installed on land, a mobile home in a park, and a working farm, and CalVet also makes refinance, construction and home improvement loans; the program can be used again once an earlier CalVet loan is paid in full. Loan limits track the federal conforming limits and change every year, so confirm the current limit with CalVet rather than a secondary summary. CalVet builds insurance into the loan: fire and hazard coverage for sudden and accidental losses, disaster coverage for structural damage from covered floods and earthquakes, and a group life policy, with exceptions set out in its coverage documents; it says it will not cancel a policy after a natural disaster. A borrower called to active duty can ask to defer payments, and a borrower in hardship can ask for a term extension that lowers the payment. This is a separate product from a VA-guaranteed loan a bank originates. A veteran can compare the two. Using the CalVet loan does not consume VA home loan entitlement in the way a VA-guaranteed loan does, but the program does use that guaranty on some loans, so ask CalVet how a specific loan is structured. On the ballot November 3, 2026. SB 417, Chapter 16 of 2026, signed June 25, 2026, is the Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2026. If the voters adopt it, it authorizes $11.25 billion of general obligation bonds, of which $1.25 billion adds funding to the Cal-Vet farm, home and mobilehome purchase program in new Military and Veterans Code Article 5ab, section 998.750 and following. It changes no eligibility rule or loan term. The digest describes the 2018 act of the same name, which also funded the program, as the existing law.