Ohio's Most VA-Relevant Market Has No Row in the Data, and We Are Not Going to Invent One
Program and regulatory figures verified October 10, 2026. Details change; confirm your scenario with us.
This page exists because the honest answer to "what do homes cost in Dayton" is that we did not find it at a source we trust, and a VA audience deserves to be told that.
★★★ The gap, stated plainly
We pulled the Zillow metro file directly, 33rd to 67th percentile, smoothed and seasonally adjusted, month ending 31 August 2026. 44 rows carry a state name of Ohio. 40 are Ohio-named. None of them is Dayton.
★★ The only row in the entire file called "Dayton" is Dayton, Tennessee. Quoting it would be a straightforward error, and it is exactly the sort of error that propagates once one site makes it.
★★ Why that gap is the worst possible one for this site
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is in the Dayton area. For a VA-loan site, the Dayton market is arguably the single most important market in Ohio, more PCS moves, more first VA purchases, more entitlement restorations than anywhere else in the state.
★★★ So the metro we would most like a figure for is the one metro we do not have. We are telling you that instead of filling the hole. The rule we are following.
★ What we are specifically not doing
- Not quoting Springfield ($202,115, +3.7%) as a Dayton proxy. Springfield is its own metro with its own base, Springfield-Beckley ANGB.
- Not averaging neighbours into a number and presenting the result as data.
- Not quoting a secondary aggregator that may itself be a Dayton, Tennessee mix-up.
★ If you want a Dayton-area value for a specific address, an appraisal or a local agent's comparables will beat anything we could publish, and we will say so rather than guess.
★★ And no figure for the base either
Secondary coverage of Wright-Patterson in a single search gave personnel of "more than 38,000" and economic impact of $4.2 billion, $16.68 billion and $17 billion. Those cannot all be right. Every .mil host is closed to crawlers and we read none of it at a primary source.
★★ So the base is named and the numbers are absent. Same rule, same reason.
★ What we can tell you about a Dayton-area VA purchase
- The loan limit. Greene and Montgomery counties, like all 88, are at $832,750: and with full entitlement the VA says there is no limit. How that works
- ★★ The homestead reduction. A total rating or TDIU gets $50,000 of true value as adjusted, with no wartime condition and no income test, through your county auditor. Every condition
- The conveyance fee. 10¢ per $100 auditor fee plus up to 30¢ county, the county part levied upon the grantor. Detail
- ★ The funding fee, which for a PCS-driven second purchase is the number worth planning around: 3.3% under 5% down, 1.5% at 5%. The table
Mike Certo, NMLS #260555. (480) 296-6513 · mcerto@cfmtg.com. We are a lender and not affiliated with the VA, the Air Force or any government agency.
Frequently asked questions
What is the typical home value in Dayton, Ohio?
We do not publish one. There is no Dayton, Ohio row in the Zillow metro series we pulled for August 2026, and the only Dayton row in that file is Dayton, Tennessee. We name the gap rather than substituting a neighbouring metro such as Springfield, which is a separate metro area.What is the VA loan limit near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base?
Greene and Montgomery counties carry the standard Ohio one-unit limit of $832,750 for 2026, as do all eighty-eight counties. With full entitlement the VA states there is no loan limit at all.How many people work at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base?
We publish no figure. Secondary sources in one search gave personnel of more than 38,000 and economic impacts of $4.2 billion, $16.68 billion and $17 billion, which cannot all be correct, and the military hosts that would settle it are closed to crawlers. We name the installation without attaching a number to it.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.