Mortgages guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs were among the most popular last year, as thousands of current and former servicemen and servicewomen used the program to finance their houses. And now, legislation has been signed that expands eligibility for these loans.

Under the new rules, members of the National Guard and Army Reserve who have been activated in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, recent civil disturbances and natural disasters are eligible for the benefits, which include mortgages with nothing down. Previously, they needed at least 90 days of consecutive active-duty service to qualify, or to have been members for six years.

Currently, about 3.5 million veterans and active-duty personnel have VA financing. Under the new law, roughly 37,100 more are now eligible, plus the 26,000 or so who were called to Washington, D.C., after the Jan. 6 siege on the Capitol.

Of course, vets and current military personnel must also meet certain government eligibility requirements: See va.gov/housing-assistance/home-loans/eligibility for details. In some instances, surviving spouses of vets also qualify.

Applicants also must meet their lenders’ income and employment criteria. But if they do, they won’t have to spend years accumulating a down payment or building up credit. This eligibility can be used over and over -- again, depending on the rules -- to move up the housing ladder.

Since 1944, when the GI Bill gave soldiers, sailors and airmen returning from World War II a housing benefit, the VA has guaranteed more than 25 million mortgages on their behalf. About 9 out of 10 VA loans are made without a down payment.

Just since the turn of the century, lenders have booked some 9.3 million VA loans. In fiscal 2020 alone, it agreed to back 1.24 million home loans -- a record amount, and more than were guaranteed in fiscal 2018 and 2019 combined. VA loans now account for roughly 10% of the market.

Most of the loans written in fiscal 2020 were for refinancing, as previous borrowers took advantage of record-low interest rates. But plenty of new buyers rushed to do the same.

Despite all this activity, there’s a persistent myth among some realty and lending professionals that VA loans are inferior products that involve tons more paperwork than alternative choices. But that’s just not the case, according to the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, which calls them “an amazing benefit that veterans have earned.”

Chris Birk, vice president of mortgage insight at Veterans United Home Loans, agrees. “It’s not an inferior product at all,” he says. “It’s a remarkable program. Remarkable.”

Birk, who’s also the author of a guide called “The Book on VA Loans,” points to these key statistics from mortgage origination platform Ellie Mae:

The average time it took to close a VA loan last year was 51 days -- just two days longer than a mortgage insured by the Federal Housing Administration, and three days longer than a conventional loan. Also, 78% of all VA loan applicants make it to the closing table, compared to 77% of wannabe FHA borrowers and 79% of those taking conventional financing.

Birk also points out that over the six years Ellie Mae has been tracking VA data, the program has had the lowest average mortgage rate AND the highest closing rate.

Yes, rates on VA-guaranteed loans are often lower. For the first 10 months of 2020, Ellie Mae says the average rate on a VA loan was 3.19%, versus 3.43% for an FHA mortgage and 3.48% for conventional funding. And on top of that, there’s no need for costly mortgage insurance, even with nothing down.

The program works like this: In place of a down payment, the VA guarantees 25% of the mortgage amount. The lender accepts, as your down payment, that promise from the VA that it will to pay if you should fail to do so. That way, there’s no cash out of your pocket, save for closing costs.

Prior to 2020, you could borrow up to $484,350 -- or up to $726,525, in a handful of high-cost areas -- without dipping into your wallet. You could, of course, borrow an amount above those ceilings, but you’d have had to put up $1 of your own money for every $4 above the limit.

But as of last year, the ceiling has been eliminated for most borrowers. Consequently, as long as you have never used your home loan benefit; never had a VA loan, sold the property and repaid the loan; and never paid the VA back after going through a foreclosure or short sale, qualified borrowers could borrow as much as a lender would allow without a down payment.

If you have a remaining entitlement -- that is, you have used some but not all your benefit -- you can use that to purchase a second property. But in that case, the limit comes back into play: The VA will cover up to 25% of the loan limit, minus the amount of entitlement you’ve already used.

This limit also comes into play if you are still paying back a VA loan, paid a previous VA loan in full but still own the house, refinanced out of a VA loan into another type of mortgage and still own the house, or failed to repay the loan in full.

So if you want to move and use your benefit again, simply sell the house, repay the loan and apply for another VA mortgage.

Stephanie Visscher is still in the game. But she is pulling her hair out.

Along with her boyfriend, the Denver public relations counselor has been looking for a house since early January, to no avail. Inventory is so scarce where she wants to live, and competition so stiff, that she hasn’t even had a chance to make an offer.

“It’s definitely been tempting to give up,” Visscher told me. “Everyone says you have to make compromises on your first home, but there’s nothing to compromise on. When I have gone to showings, it’s crazy.”

How crazy? Once, as the couple toured a house, the people next in line to see it knocked on the door to make sure they didn’t go beyond their allotted time. Visscher and her boyfriend went for coffee after the showing, and when they circled back by the place, someone else was peering in the windows, trying to get an early look.

Still, the couple keeps looking, hoping that something will magically appear that they can afford and that has some of the features they desire.

Many others aren’t as optimistic. They’ve thrown in the towel for now, figuring they’ll start looking again when the market loosens up.

In February, Florida agent Robert Goldman of Michael Saunders & Co. listed a house on a Monday, had offers that Tuesday and wrote a contract on Wednesday. One of the offers was from a woman who had already lost out on a couple of other houses, and when she was told she’d lost again, she had had enough. “That’s it!” she screamed. “I’m done with this.”

Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, calls the phenomenon “buyer fatigue,” noting that those who aren’t up to the scrum “can find the process draining.”

“Imagine getting excited enough to submit an offer on a home -- quickly making what is likely the biggest purchase of your life -- only to lose out to a higher bidder,” Hale told me in an email. “Perseverance pays off,” she said, but added that “aggregate data suggest that some would-be buyers are likely putting their searches on pause so that they can regroup.”

Some buyers are turning to the new-home market, where sales are up nearly 20% from a year ago. But even that sector is not immune from buyer burnout.

Buyers of new-build homes may not be outbid in the way that resale buyers are. But if they decide to think on it, even just overnight, the house and lot they were looking at could be sold to someone else by the time they return the next day. So they just give up.

According to researcher Rose Quint of the National Association of Home Builders, the share of buyers likely to give up until next year (or later) has jumped from 16% to 28% year over year. It’s the fourth time in four years that this percentage has increased, Quint reports.

According to one study, 44% of buyers found themselves in a bidding war last year. Of those, about half won.

Buyers throw in the towel for any number of factors. Maybe they tire of racing out to see the latest listing, only to find it’s in terrible condition or in a less desirable neighborhood. Or perhaps they find the lending process irritating, if not impossible.

But in today’s high-pressure market, where being first with an offer isn’t necessarily the key to getting it accepted, the entire process can sap the energy out of even the most prepared wannabes.

“I’ve seen buyers back out for a variety of reasons -- the stress. The emotions. The feeling of ‘they don’t stand a chance,’” says Ohio agent Donna Deaton of RE/MAX Victory+Affiliates. Deaton says she “stood in the cold and the dark” on a recent Friday night at a new listing, waiting for her turn to take clients through. “We were at least 20 people deep. We wrote an offer for $25,000 over list price and still lost out.”

Economist Hale says that with prices rising like crazy over the last six months, it’s understandable that buyers become frustrated and start “reevaluating their options.”

“Buying a home is a roller-coaster of a journey in the best market circumstances,” she says, and “housing market conditions are especially challenging to buyers right now.”

“Supply and demand are out of control,” says Ohio agent Denton. Florida agent Christopher Carter agrees.

“The frenzy here for real estate is disturbing,” he said. “People just keep looking because for some reason, they feel they have to buy something.”

At last count, the National Association of Realtors put the inventory of unsold houses at a historic low of 2.3 months’ supply nationally -- about a third of the six months’ supply that is considered normal. In Austin, Texas, the inventory sits a mere 0.7 months.

In the new-home sector, meanwhile, builders can’t get shovels in the ground fast enough. Some are sold so far in advance they are purposefully slowing sales.

As Holden Lewis at NerdWallet sees it, the lack of inventory is partially being fed by the fact that sellers often have their choice of multiple, above-asking-price offers.

“Would-be sellers know they would face fierce competition when looking for a home to buy,” wrote Lewis in an email. “Rather than subject themselves to a demoralizing home search, they stay put and keep their homes off the market -- which exacerbates the problem of scant inventory.”

If you are a homeowner, or a would-be buyer, take heed: Your property taxes are going up.

They may not increase this year, or even next year. But thanks to the unusually large jump in housing prices over the last 12 months, plus a major shortfall in state and county revenue from other sources, your property taxes will increase by 2023.

According to CoreLogic, housing prices closed out 2020 at the highest annual gain -- 9.2% -- in six years. And Zillow predicts prices will continue to trend upward, rising a whopping 10.5% in 2021.

That’s good news for sellers, but not so great for owners who aren’t interested in selling -- or for buyers basing their purchase decisions, at least in part, on a house’s property taxes. Even sellers who move on to another house will eventually have to pay the piper.

There’s no telling how high the tariffs may go; that depends on the tax rates of your particular jurisdiction. But as sure as I’m sitting here typing this, they will go up.

State and local governments derive about half of their revenue from taxes: states, largely from income and sales taxes; counties and cities, primarily from property taxes. Revenues tend to fluctuate with economic conditions -- and boy, have those changed over the last year.

Taxable sales are down, as are incomes, as are the values of large swaths of income-producing property. With the exception of industrial real estate and some apartment projects, commercial real estate is scraping bottom. While the hotel and retail sectors have taken the brunt of the virus-induced recession, office space is also sitting empty because many people are still working from home. And malls are shutting down because we’re doing the lion’s share of our shopping online.

Many states saw a free-fall in revenues in the second quarter of 2020, according to the latest figures from the Census Bureau. And as result, “most ended the 2020 fiscal year uncertain about their fiscal bottom line,” says Lucy Dadayan, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute.

Some states have cut spending, laid off or furloughed workers, and/or used federal aid or rainy-day funds as they wait to see what taxes they can collect. And although vaccines have arrived, Dadayan thinks it will “take a long time” for business activity to return to pre-pandemic levels.

Meanwhile, local jurisdictions are almost assuredly going to be forced to lower the value of a good part of their tax bases, leaving housing to make up the shortfall. And with housing values rising practically everywhere, homeowners are going to be easy prey for their local tax assessors.

Not everywhere, of course: Some states have property tax caps to prevent local governments from making too dramatic an increase.

And not everyone thinks levies are about to rise, but it’s the prevailing view among industry experts. David Logan, the director of tax analysis at the National Association of Home Builders, figures he’ll receive word soon from his own lender about his property taxes going up -- and says other homeowners should brace for the same.

Maybe not right away: Most jurisdictions reassess properties within their borders on two- or three-year cycles. Then again, Logan believes some places might change their schedules to allow for more frequent assessments until the recession blows over.

Either way, Logan says local governments “are likely to seek ways to raise taxes on many types of properties to fill their budget holes.”

There are other ways to boost revenue that don’t involve property taxes, of course. But when localities search for a stable income source, what’s more stable than housing? And is there any other group besides homeowners with no lobby fighting on their behalf? Even if your assessment falls for some reason, your tax rate, also known as “millage,” could go up and you’d still end up paying more.

“Values can decrease, while at the same time, property taxes can increase,” says Barry Sharpe, a Florida broker and head of the Real Estate Tax Appeal Group.

Minneapolis realty broker Kris Lindahl sees the handwriting on the wall, too. He points out that if your neighbors down the street sold their place during this current housing up-cycle, the value of your house is going to change -- more likely up than down.

“If homes in your neighborhood are selling for above asking price, your tax bill may increase,” Lindahl told me in an email.

Many people stuck at home for months have made improvements to their places -- upgrading a kitchen, perhaps, or finishing a basement. That, too, can impact property taxes.

“We’ve seen a lot of homeowners invest in home improvements during the pandemic,” says Lindahl. “Some of those home improvements will definitely increase the assessed value of the home, which will increase the property tax bill.”

One upshot of all this is that some owners may decide to flee to areas where property taxes are lower. If that happens to any great degree, the inventory of houses for sale will increase, offering would-be buyers more choices.

At the same time, buyers already stretching the limits of their budgets might shun houses in areas where the property taxes are sky-high.