Yes, you can close a VA loan before the new year. If you are buying in Crowley or anywhere else in Texas, though, the honest answer depends on the day you go under contract, because December 2026 has less room in it than it looks. Here is the calendar, the rules that will not flex for anybody, and the reason you may not need to rush at all.
The last possible weekday is Thursday, December 31. Friday, January 1 is a federal holiday, and the Fedwire Funds Service is closed on weekends and Federal Reserve holidays. So if your loan does not fund on the 31st, the next day that wire can move is Monday, January 4.
The same thing happens a week earlier. Friday, December 25 is a holiday, so a Thursday, December 24 closing that misses its wire waits until Monday, December 28.
That is the downside of a Thursday deadline. There is no Friday to catch you. If your lease ends on the 31st or your movers are booked for January 1, ask your title company what time their wire cutoff is and build in a backup plan.
You must receive your Closing Disclosure at least three business days before you close. For this rule the CFPB counts every calendar day except Sundays and legal public holidays, so Saturdays count and December 25 does not.
Ask how your lender will deliver it, because a mailed copy does not count as received the day it goes out.
A corrected disclosure usually does not restart the clock. Three things do: the APR becoming inaccurate, the loan product changing, or a prepayment penalty being added. If one of those happens the week of Christmas, you can lose your date with nothing else wrong.
The Loan Estimate has its own rule: it must go out at least seven business days before closing. For December 31, that is December 22. Treat that as the legal floor and not a plan. Nobody should be applying on December 22 and expecting the 31st.
The VA reported an average appraisal time of about seven business days nationally as of May 31, 2026. That is an average and not a promise. The VA does not count weekends or federal holidays toward appraiser timeliness, and the clock starts the first business day after assignment.
Run it forward. If your appraisal is assigned on Monday, December 7, seven business days lands on Wednesday, December 16. If the appraiser expects to come in short of the price, the Tidewater process generally gives the lender or contact person two business days to send more sales, which moves you to about Friday, December 18. That still leaves underwriting and any required repairs before the December 28 disclosure date.
Two Texas details to plan around. Wood-destroying insect information is required statewide on VA appraisals here, so order that early. And if the appraiser calls for repairs, you now need a contractor in the middle of December. I go through what gets flagged in what a VA appraisal actually looks for.
This is my own judgment from the arithmetic above, not a rule, and your lender gets the final word.
People want to close by January 1 to get the homestead exemption for the coming year. Texas has softened that deadline, and it is worth knowing how before you pay rush fees or skip an inspection step.
Tax Code Section 11.42 still ties most exemptions to January 1. But under subsection (f), someone who acquires a home after January 1 can get the general homestead exemption for the rest of that year, starting when they qualify, if the prior owner did not receive the same exemption for that year. And under subsection (e), a veteran who qualifies for the 100 percent exemption after January 1 can receive it for the applicable portion of the year.
In plain terms, closing on January 4 on a home with no homestead on it, like a builder's new house, generally costs you a few days and not a year.
Here is the catch. If the seller lived there and held the homestead exemption on January 1, subsection (f) does not help you for 2027, so ask your appraisal district what your 2027 bill will look like. That is the main property tax case for closing in December, and it also requires you to be living there as your home. Closing on December 31 and moving in on January 15 may not get you what you think. Confirm your facts with the appraisal district or a tax professional before you build a deadline around this.
Give me the choice between a clean January closing and a forced December one and I will take January every time. If December matters to you, tell me why and we will build the calendar around it. I am a REALTOR, not a lender or a tax professional, so confirm your timeline with your lender.
You need to receive it by Monday, December 28. The rule requires three business days, and for this purpose business days are all calendar days except Sundays and legal public holidays. A mailed copy does not count as received the day it is sent, so ask how your lender is delivering it.
Not always. Under Tax Code Section 11.42(f), a person who acquires a home after January 1 can get the general homestead exemption for the rest of that year if the prior owner did not receive the same exemption that year. If the seller did hold it, ask your appraisal district how the year will be handled.
The VA reported an average of about seven business days nationally as of May 31, 2026. It does not count weekends or federal holidays toward appraiser timeliness, and that average is not a guarantee for any one property. Ask your lender what they are seeing locally.
Trying to hit a date? Tell me your target and where you are in the process, and I will lay out the calendar with you and your lender. If you have not pulled your Certificate of Eligibility yet, read the funding fee post first, because it may change your cash to close.
REALTOR® · BHHS PenFed Realty Texas
I help buyers and sellers across the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex — Fort Worth, Burleson, Southlake, Crowley and Keller, and the surrounding Dallas area. I write these because they are the questions I answer on the phone every week, and most people never get a straight answer to them. If you have one I have not covered, ask me — I will probably turn it into the next post.
