VA updates home loan benefits, helping Veterans remain competitive in the housing market
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Published: June 11, 2024
Valery P. Behr, Loan Guaranty Service, Veteran's Benefits Administration
In March, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) reached a settlement in a class-action lawsuit that requires NAR to change its brokerage fee rules. This could result in changes to the real estate market. Before that settlement takes effect, VA has announced an update to help ensure that Veterans using the VA-guaranteed home loan benefit remain competitive buyers. Specifically, eligible Veterans, active duty service members and surviving spouses who use their VA home loan benefits can pay for certain real estate buyer-broker fees when purchasing a home beginning Aug. 10, 2024. This update is intended to ensure VA’s programs continue to promote access to homeownership for Veterans.
What does this mean for you?
Simply put: Veterans using VA home loan benefits can still negotiate and may pay for their real estate professional’s commission (i.e., the buyer-broker fee), beginning Aug. 10, 2024, subject to certain safeguards. VA encourages Veterans to seek out the services of mortgage lending and real estate professionals who have experience with the VA home loan program to ensure they are familiar with the specifics of compensation negotiations and the impact of the settlement on home purchase contracts.
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Extreme Heat: Beat the Heat
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Extreme heat kills. 350 New Yorkers died prematurely last year from preventable heat illness. If you're elderly or have other health conditions like heart disease or asthma, you're at even higher risk, among other factors.
Extreme heat is a serious threat in New York City, and New Yorkers need to be extra careful during hot summer months. Extreme heat means high heat and humidity with temperatures that are much higher than normal (10 degrees or more) lasting for several days.
It is important to understand your risk to extreme heat and make a heat emergency plan that works for you and your family.
Sign up for Notify NYC
The City can let you know when there is a heat emergency. We send out emergency alerts through Notify NYC, the City’s official emergency notification system. Receive free, customizable emergency alerts in 14 different languages including ASL.
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Bob Woodruff Foundation | Our Veterans Calendar
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Post-9/11 Fallen Service Member Memorial Open Call for Artists
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The City of New York seeks artists interested in creating a public monument that honors the lives and legacy of the Service Members who died during combat activities in support of Overseas Contingency Operations (Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, New Dawn, Inherent Resolve, and Freedom’s Sentinel combined) associated with the Global War on Terror. If you are such an artist, then please APPLY to this open call.
The memorial will also serve as a permanent declaration of “Thank you” and “Welcome Home” to our Post 9/11 Veteran community. The Post 9/11 Veteran community includes, but is not limited to: all who served, those sustaining hidden and non-hidden wounds, those who died for reasons that originated in military service who are not acknowledged by the Defense Department as being combat casualties, those who were not able to return home, the loved ones of all previously mentioned groups (Gold Star Families and Blue Star Families), supporters and allies. This project will serve as an eternal testament to their service by also creating a site for future commemorations and remembrances that engage the local community, Veteran Service Organizations, and New Yorkers who wish to learn about these hometown heroes.
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VA to add male breast cancer, to other conditions to presumptive list
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Medical workers prepare to see patients at the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare system campus in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, on Jan. 11, 2022. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)
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Military Times
By Leo Shane III |Jun 14, 2024
Veterans Affairs officials will add male breast cancer, urethral cancer and cancer of the paraurethral glands to the list of illnesses presumed connected to military service in conflicts since 1990, speeding up disability benefits for individuals suffering from the conditions.
The move is the latest in a series of cancers and respiratory conditions added to the department’s list of presumptive illnesses in recent years as part of the PACT Act, sweeping veterans legislation passed two summers ago which has impacted millions of veterans nationwide.
In a statement, VA Secretary Denis McDonough said the decision to add the three illnesses are part of a broader push to “provide health care and benefits to as many toxic-exposed veterans as possible” and as fast as possible. READ MORE...]
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More Veteran-related Headlines
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A Message From Mayor Adams:
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Each week DVS shares a brief update about how our administration is getting stuff done for New Yorkers.
Making this city more livable means supporting working-class families and bolstering our young people’s future. We launched NYC Reads to revolutionize the way our students learn to read, drove math and English Language Arts test scores up, and this month, we announced $127 million in new investments to promote computer science, civics, restorative justice, and our Summer Rising initiative. This funding will protect long-term programs that had previously only been funded with temporary-stimulus dollars and give our young people a chance to learn and grow. And here at DVS, our Military Family Advocacy Program provides resources and support for military and veteran families in NYC Public Schools.
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Week in Review | June 2 - June 8
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We want to showcase Veteran work and help spread the word! This is a space for Veteran artists to express themselves in an authentic way.
Please email submissions to connect@veterans.nyc.gov with a brief bio, an artist statement, art medium, and your affiliation to the Veteran community.
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Join Our Team! Be Part of the Mission!
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Site Reliability Engineer - This position will support and develop the agency’s core business applications while providing secured network connectivity, asset management, and technical support for a highly mobile team.
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VA Work Study Positions at DVS
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The NYC Department of Veterans' Services (DVS) supports VA Work-Study Positions! Here is a current list of available VA Work-Study openings:
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NYC Civil Service Job Openings and Exams
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To view all available job listings, visit the exam board here!
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If you received this newsletter by way of a friend or colleague and have yet to sign-up on your own, click here, and stay up-to-date with the latest news impacting the community, updates on city services, info on DVS programs, Veteran-specific resources & more.
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