During his third deployment in Afghanistan, Air Force Staff Sgt. Claude Hunter was so eager to return to the U.S. and buy a house that he signed a contract for a property that his agent showed him over Skype. Hunter got back in time to close the deal, paying $219,000 in May for the four-bedroom Waldorf, Maryland, house that he financed with a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs mortgage. “On Facebook, my friends have started posting: ‘I got my VA loan, I got my house,'” said Hunter, 31. America’s fragile housing recovery is getting a boost from military buyers using VA mortgages as the U.S.