Every Figure Here Names Its Source, and We Publish What We Left Out
Program and regulatory figures verified October 10, 2026. Details change; confirm your scenario with us.
The sourcing rules are the product here. If a figure is on this site, we read it somewhere we can name; if we could not, it is in the omissions list below.
Who you reach
Mike Certo, NMLS #260555, with Cornerstone First Mortgage, NMLS #173855. Direct: (480) 296-6513 · mcerto@cfmtg.com.
We are a lender. We are not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Ohio Department of Veterans Services, any county auditor, or any government agency.
★ Where the figures come from
| Claim | Source | Verified |
|---|---|---|
| ★ Certified amounts: $58,000 disabled-veteran and $29,000 standard (tax year 2025, collected 2026); $41,000 income threshold (tax year 2026, collected 2027) | Tax Commissioner entry 25-09-0346, dated 3 Oct 2025, a scanned PDF with no text layer, rendered and read | 2026-10-10 |
| Statutory bases $50,000 vs $25,000, the 35% cap, the $30,000 income gate, GDP-deflator adjustment | ORC 323.152, read at the statute | 2026-10-10 |
| Who qualifies: total rating or TDIU, honorable conditions, national guard and reserve components, no wartime condition | ORC 323.151 | 2026-10-10 |
| Auditor fee 10¢/$100 (or $1, whichever is greater); county permissive up to 30¢/$100 levied "upon the grantor" | ORC 319.54(G)(3), 322.02(A) | 2026-10-10 |
| $832,750 in all 88 counties | FHFA conforming-loan-limit data, parsed | 2026-10-10 |
| Funding fee 2.15%/3.3%/1.5%/1.25%/0.5% and all five exemptions | VA funding-fee page | 2026-10-10 |
| Full entitlement, "no loan limit", the $36,000 basic entitlement, the 25% guaranty | VA loan-limits page, verbatim | 2026-10-10 |
| Philadelphia 4.578% = 3.578% city + 1% Commonwealth | City of Philadelphia and PA Department of Revenue | 2026-10-10 |
| 40 Ohio-named metros, 39 up, Jackson -1.5% | Zillow ZHVI metro file, Aug 2026, parsed | 2026-10-10 |
| "Proudly serving Ohio's 700,000 veterans" | Ohio DVS Resource Guide 2026, quoted as the Department's own wording | 2026-10-10 |
★★ What we deliberately did not publish
- ★★ A dollar saving for the homestead reduction. ORC 323.152 makes it $50,000 times the assessment percentage times your effective tax rate: and the effective rate is local, varies by taxing district and changes. We show the structure and stop. Why
- ★ Any homestead figure for a tax year later than those certified. The Tax Commissioner adjusts by journal entry each September; we publish the certified $58,000 / $29,000 / $41,000 with the tax year each one attaches to, and nothing beyond them. The table
- ★★★ Any Dayton, Ohio house-price figure. The metro has no row in the Zillow series; the only "Dayton" row is Dayton, Tennessee. Named, not filled
- ★★ Any installation headcount or economic impact. Wright-Patterson coverage gave $4.2bn, $16.68bn and $17bn in one search; every military host is closed to crawlers. Bases are named, numbers are absent.
- ★ A precise Ohio veteran count. Secondary figures spread nearly 200,000 across different definitions and vintages, so we quote only the Department's own 700,000 wording, attributed.
- ★ Individual county permissive conveyance rates. We publish the statutory ceiling, not 88 county rates we did not each read.
- ★ VA residual-income thresholds. A policy choice, not an availability one: the current authority is VA Pamphlet 26-7, Chapter 4 on the VA's KnowVA portal, and we decline to reproduce underwriting tables that change. The detail
★ That list is the point. A site with no omissions list has either read everything or filled the gaps.
★ What this site never publishes
No interest rates, no APRs, no monthly payment figures, no payment examples. Not a style choice, advertising a rate pulls in disclosure requirements this site is not built to carry, and a stale rate is worse than none.
Related sites
We publish state-specific VA guides because county loan limits, state veteran property-tax relief, the installations driving each market and the housing stock around them differ by state. Pennsylvania VA Loan Experts covers the Commonwealth's $114,637 need-based full exemption, which is written nothing like Ohio's.
Compliance
This is not a commitment to lend. Loans are subject to buyer and property qualification. Equal Housing Lender. Cornerstone First Mortgage, NMLS #173855. Mike Certo, NMLS #260555.
Corporate: Cornerstone First Mortgage, Inc., 2650 Camino del Rio N, Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92108.
Frequently asked questions
Who runs Ohio VA Loan Experts?
Mike Certo, NMLS #260555, with Cornerstone First Mortgage, NMLS #173855. We are a lender and are not affiliated with the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Ohio Department of Veterans Services, any county auditor or any government agency.Where does this site get its Ohio figures?
The tax figures are read at the Ohio Revised Code itself, sections 323.151, 323.152, 319.54 and 322.02. Loan limits come from the parsed FHFA 2026 county file, VA mechanics from the VA's own pages quoted verbatim, and metro values from the Zillow metro file for August 2026.Why does this site not publish a dollar saving for the Ohio homestead exemption?
Because the statute makes it $50,000 of true value times the assessment percentage times your effective tax rate, and the effective rate is local, varies by taxing district and changes. We publish the structure and leave the arithmetic to your county auditor's figures.Does this site publish mortgage rates?
No. There are no interest rates, APRs, payment figures or payment examples anywhere on this site.Mike Certo · NMLS #260555 · Cornerstone First Mortgage NMLS #173855 · Equal Housing Lender. Educational content about VA home loan financing, not a loan commitment and not legal, tax or financial advice. Cornerstone First Mortgage is a private lender and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or acting on behalf of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or any government agency. VA entitlement, funding-fee exemption and disability ratings are determined by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The Ohio homestead exemption for disabled veterans is governed by Ohio Revised Code sections 323.151 and 323.152 and is administered by county auditors, not by Cornerstone; the statutory amounts are adjusted annually by the Ohio Tax Commissioner and the tax effect depends on local assessment and effective tax rates. Figures here carry the date we verified them against primary sources. All loans are subject to borrower, property and program qualification.