VA Loans in Hardeeville, SC: the Drive to MCAS Beaufort, Parris Island and Hunter, Your BAH, VA's Residual Income Test and the Funding Fee on a New Home

The flags went up at Memorial Park on Martin Street this past Memorial Day, one for each branch of the service, on the lot beside the library in old Hardeeville, as WTOC reported on May 25, 2026. From City Hall, a few blocks from the park, the gate at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort is about 30 miles by road, Parris Island about 29, and Hunter Army Airfield across the Savannah River about 21. A service member who chose Hardeeville drives one of those roads twice a day. The question I get is whether a VA loan works the same way 30 miles from the gate as it does next to it.

A VA loan buys a home in Hardeeville with nothing down for a service member stationed at MCAS Beaufort, Parris Island, Naval Hospital Beaufort, Hunter Army Airfield or Fort Stewart, and the housing allowance counts as income. The allowance is set by the duty station, so a Hardeeville address does not change it, and a veteran can use the same loan on a brand-new home along US-278. I'm Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, a mortgage broker licensed in South Carolina through C2 Financial Corporation, and I have been in the mortgage business since 1996. I work from Bluffton, east of Hardeeville on US-278. My page on Hardeeville itself covers the city and its two counties, and how VA loans work in South Carolina covers the Certificate of Eligibility, entitlement and the attorney closing. The VA rules below come from VA's Lenders Handbook, Pamphlet 26-7 (the current KnowVA text), and from va.gov. I checked them on October 7, 2026.

How far is Hardeeville from MCAS Beaufort, Parris Island, Hunter and Fort Stewart?

I measured these drive times myself on an online road map on October 7, 2026, starting at City Hall on 205 Main Street with no traffic. Your drive at shift change will be longer.

From Hardeeville City Hall, approximate, no traffic	Miles	Minutes
MCAS Beaufort, gate on Geiger Boulevard	about 30	about 41
Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, gate on the Port Royal side	about 29	about 42
Naval Hospital Beaufort, 1 Pinckney Boulevard	about 28	about 39
Hunter Army Airfield, checkpoints off Wilson Boulevard	about 21 to 22	about 31 to 33
Fort Stewart, Gate 1 off GA-119, Hinesville	about 52	about 66

The commute matters first because of VA's occupancy rule. VA's Lenders Handbook, Chapter 3 says occupancy "as the Veteran's home" implies the home "is located within reasonable proximity of the Veteran's place of employment." You certify at closing that you will move in within a reasonable time, generally 60 days. A service member deployed from a permanent duty station still meets the rule, and a spouse's occupancy satisfies it for an active-duty veteran who cannot move in on time.

The commute also shows up in the numbers. Chapter 4 of the same Handbook counts "significant commuting costs" as a job-related expense, and that expense goes into the debt-to-income ratio. It also goes into the residual income test, which is VA's count of what is left each month after taxes, the housing payment and your debts. A 60-mile round trip to Beaufort is a line on that form, and I put a figure on it below.

Does my BAH change if I live in Hardeeville?

The Basic Allowance for Housing, BAH, is the monthly housing pay a service member receives when the government does not provide quarters. The Defense Travel Management Office publishes the rates. Its BAH Basics page puts it plainly: "Once the duty station is known, the BAH compensation is fixed, regardless of where the member lives." Its rate lookup uses "the member's rank, dependency status, and permanent duty station zip code." So a Marine at MCAS Beaufort or Parris Island who buys in Hardeeville draws the rate for that duty station's ZIP code. So does a soldier at Fort Stewart or Hunter Army Airfield. Hardeeville's own ZIP code, 29927, never enters the calculation.

According to the Defense Department's military compensation site, service members "are not taxed on the amount of BAH received each month." Under individual rate protection, your rate does not go down unless you change duty station, are reduced in grade or change dependents. New rates take effect each January 1. The Defense Department publishes the figures through its own calculator, so once you send me your orders I run it for your rank and dependency status and put that figure on the application.

Does BAH count as income on a VA loan?

Yes. The Handbook's income chapter says to "include a military quarters allowance in effective income if properly verified." It notes that the allowance is not taxable. It tells the lender to verify the amount, because "the BAH amount will change from one duty station to another." The document that proves it is your Leave and Earnings Statement, the LES, which takes the place of an employment verification for active duty. It can be no more than 120 days old at closing, and 180 days on new construction, which matters on a Hardeeville build with a closing date months out.

Your ETS, the end of your current enlistment, is on the same statement. If it falls within 12 months of the projected closing, the file needs one more item. That can be proof you have re-enlisted or extended to a date more than 12 months after closing, or a valid offer of local civilian employment or verified retirement income. It can also be your statement of intent to re-enlist with a letter from your commanding officer confirming you are eligible, or other unusually strong factors, such as 10% down from your own funds.

Because BAH is tax-free, VA lets the lender gross it up, but for one purpose only. The Handbook says tax-free income, which "includes certain military allowances," may be counted at 125% when the lender calculates the debt-to-income ratio, and only for that ratio. The debt-to-income ratio, called DTI, is your monthly debt payments, the new housing payment included, divided by your gross monthly income. The residual income test uses your actual allowance with nothing added. Take $2,000 a month of BAH, a made-up figure and not any rank's rate. It counts as $2,500 in the ratio and as $2,000 in the residual income test.

How does VA's residual income test work on a Hardeeville home?

VA treats the 41% debt-to-income ratio as a guide. The Handbook calls it "secondary to the residual income." A ratio above 41% gets close scrutiny unless the excess comes only from tax-free income or residual income beats the guideline by at least 20%. Residual income that falls short can be reason enough to disapprove a loan, which is why I run it before anything else. My article on VA residual income walks through the form line by line.

South Carolina and Georgia are both in VA's South region, so a Marine at Beaufort and a soldier at Fort Stewart buying in Hardeeville use the same table. On a loan of $80,000 or more, VA's table sets the guideline at $441 a month for a household of one, $738 for two, $889 for three, $1,003 for four and $1,039 for five. Household size counts everyone in the household, including a spouse not on the loan, and anyone you claim as a dependent. The figure drops by 5% if you are on active duty or retired. By my own arithmetic, an active-duty family of four needs $1,003 times 0.95, or $952.85 a month, left over.

Three Hardeeville costs go on the form. The first is maintenance and utilities, which VA puts at 14 cents per square foot of living area, so a 2,000-square-foot home carries $280 a month, by my own arithmetic. The second is property tax. The form uses the increased tax amount when taxes are expected to rise, and in Jasper County a newly built home is taxed at its full value in its first year. My page on the income a Hardeeville home takes works that out at the 4% rate. The third is flood insurance, which goes in when the home is in a Special Flood Hazard Area, FEMA's high-risk zone. The association's monthly assessment goes in too for a home in a planned community.

Below is the test on a household I made up to show the arithmetic. The housing payment and the commuting cost are invented numbers, not figures priced from a rate or a car.

Illustration: an active-duty family of four, numbers made up	Monthly
Gross income, base pay plus allowances	$6,200
Less estimated income tax and Social Security	$700
Less the full housing payment, taxes and insurance included, invented	$2,500
Less maintenance and utilities, 2,000 sq ft at 14 cents	$280
Less a car payment	$450
Less significant commuting costs, a 60-mile round trip, invented	$300
Residual income	$1,970
VA guideline, South region, family of four, less 5% for active duty	$952.85

That family's debt-to-income ratio, figured without grossing up the allowance, is $3,250 divided by $6,200, about 52%, above VA's 41% guide. VA's form puts the commuting cost in the same debts section as the car payment, so it counts in the ratio as well as in the residual income test. Their residual income is about double the guideline, so under the Handbook's own rule the ratio needs no supervisor's justification.

How much is the VA funding fee on a Hardeeville home, and who does not pay it?

Hilton Head Area REALTORS reports an MLS median sale price in Hardeeville of $445,000 for August 2026. VA charges a one-time funding fee on most loans, figured on the loan amount, and you may finance it into the loan. va.gov publishes the table, and I read it on October 7, 2026. The fee on a first-use purchase is 2.15% of the loan with less than 5% down, 1.5% with 5% or more down and 1.25% with 10% or more down. After a first use it is 3.3% with less than 5% down. On the median price, by my own arithmetic:

Estimate: first-use funding fee on a $445,000 Hardeeville home
Nothing down, loan of $445,000, at 2.15%	$9,567.50
5% down, loan of $422,750, at 1.5%	$6,341.25
10% down, loan of $400,500, at 1.25%	$5,006.25

You pay no funding fee if you receive VA compensation for a service-connected disability, or are eligible for it but draw retirement or active-duty pay instead. The same is true for a surviving spouse receiving Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, VA's benefit for survivors. It is also true for a service member with a proposed or memorandum rating from a pre-discharge claim issued before closing, and for an active-duty member with evidence of a Purple Heart on or before closing. All of that is on the same va.gov page.

A claim still pending at closing means the fee is paid, and Chapter 8 of the VA Handbook says you can ask VA for a refund if the award is made retroactive to before closing. The funding fee explainer covers how the fee reaches the loan amount. Please check the current table with me before you count on a figure.

Is there a VA loan limit in Hardeeville?

Your entitlement is the amount VA will guarantee on your behalf, and with all of it available, there is no cap on the loan. The Handbook says "there are no maximum dollar amounts prescribed for VA-guaranteed loans." The loan is capped at the lower of VA's reasonable value, the figure VA's appraiser sets, and the purchase price, plus the funding fee. VA requires no down payment, with one exception a new build can run into: if the price is above the reasonable value, you pay the difference in cash from your own funds. With full entitlement, VA guarantees a quarter of any loan over $144,000. With part of your entitlement still tied up in an earlier VA loan, the guaranty is figured against the county's one-unit conforming limit, and a lender may require a down payment. That limit is $832,750 in both Jasper County and Beaufort County for 2026, and the box below this article shows it. VA points to FHFA's county table for the figure.

Can I use a VA loan to buy a new home in Hardeeville?

Hardeeville issued 897 single-family building permits in the first eight months of 2026, according to the Census Bureau's place file, so a veteran shopping here is often buying from a builder's model center. D.R. Horton's page for Cypress Landing names FHA, VA and USDA together in one special-rate offer tied to its affiliated lender.

My new-construction page for Hardeeville has the full builder table and how a rate lock reaches a closing date months out. The comparison I run is the builder's VA loan with its credit beside the same VA loan from me, for the same loan amount and closing date. Both come as a Loan Estimate, the three-page federal form every lender has to give you.

VA also caps what a builder can add to the sale. The VA Handbook, in Chapter 8, defines a seller concession as "anything of value added to the transaction by the builder or seller for which the buyer pays nothing additional and which the seller is not customarily expected or required to pay or provide." The list includes paying your funding fee and prepaying your taxes and insurance. It also includes paying to lower your rate for the life of the loan or for its first years. Paying your closing costs and paying points at the going market level are left out of the count.

Concessions above 4% of the home's reasonable value are "excessive, and unacceptable," which on a $445,000 value is $17,800 by my own arithmetic. Concessions over 4% make the loan ineligible for a VA guaranty. VA orders the appraisal, and I confirm what the builder must provide before you sign.

What to send me for a VA purchase in Hardeeville

When you're ready, please send the following, and I'll take it from there.

• Your Certificate of Eligibility, VA's form showing your benefit, or the service record I can pull it with, which also shows any entitlement tied up in an earlier VA loan.
• Your most recent Leave and Earnings Statement, all pages, with the ETS date visible, and your orders to the duty station.
• If you have a VA disability rating, a pending claim or a Purple Heart, the award letter or the claim status, because it decides the funding fee.
• The parcel record on the Jasper County or Beaufort County property search, which shows the county and the tax district.
• The builder's current written offer, with the lender it names and every credit listed, so I can check it against VA's 4% cap.
• The square footage from the builder's plans, your round-trip miles to the base, the community's monthly assessment, and the FEMA flood zone for the lot.

South Carolina assesses the home you live in at 4% of its value, and the county's millage is applied to that assessed figure. A second home or investment property is assessed at 6%. The Jasper County Assessor's FAQ lists PCS orders, your permanent change of station orders, among the attachments for military clients applying for that rate. My FHA page for Hardeeville walks through the filing.

Once you have a community or an address in mind, I can run the residual income test and the full payment with that parcel's tax bill, the dues and a flood premium if the zone requires one. Then I set it beside any builder offer you have in hand. You'll see pricing for your scenario, choose a rate option, which you can change later, and the application opens from there. You are also welcome to call me and talk through your orders and your timeline first. Nothing on this page is a loan approval, a denial or a commitment to lend, and it is not tax or legal advice.

Common questions

Can I use a VA loan to buy a home in Hardeeville, SC?

Yes. Hardeeville is in Jasper County, with a small part of the city in Beaufort County, and a VA loan works on a resale or a brand-new home on either side of that line. VA requires no down payment, sets no maximum loan amount with full entitlement, and counts your housing allowance as income.

Does my BAH change if I live in Hardeeville and work at MCAS Beaufort or Parris Island?

No. Your allowance is set by your permanent duty station's ZIP code, your rank and your dependents, so a Hardeeville address, or any address, leaves it where it is. I run the Defense Department's calculator for your rank once I have your orders.

What is the VA loan limit in Hardeeville, SC for 2026?

With your full VA benefit free, there is no limit; the loan can be as large as the home appraises for, plus the funding fee. If an earlier VA loan still ties up part of your benefit, VA measures what it will guarantee against the county's 2026 loan limit, which is the same in Jasper County and in Beaufort County and is stated in the loan limit section above.

How much is the VA funding fee on a median-priced home in Hardeeville?

With nothing down on a first use, the fee is 2.15% of the loan, which comes to the dollar amount in the funding fee section above, by my own arithmetic from the va.gov table as of October 7, 2026, and the fee can be financed into the loan. A veteran receiving VA disability compensation pays nothing.

Can I use a VA loan on a new construction home in Hardeeville?

Yes, and most of what is for sale in Hardeeville is new. The two VA rules that matter on a build are the 4% cap on what a builder may add to the sale, and the longer life of your Leave and Earnings Statement. It stays good for 180 days instead of 120, which covers a closing months out.