Living On or Off Military Base Housing
Two blog posts in one week?! Crazy, I know!
Today’s topic is one that I’ve been itching to write about for a while, and finally after seeing my friends Bailey and Missy share their posts, I’m typing up my own!
Each time a military family moves to a new duty station, they have to decide where to live. More often than not, the options include: on base, renting off base, or buying off base. Between six duty stations and seven different homes, we’ve done a combination of the three options. For us, the decision ultimately comes down to what makes the most sense financially. We also take commute time, school ratings, and community resources into account.
Soldiers who don’t live on base, are given a basic housing allowance known as BAH. This allowance varies from duty station to duty station and takes into account rank and whether or not the Soldier has dependents. The “with dependent” rate is the same regardless of the amount of dependents.
When you live on base, typically, all of the BAH goes to housing and it covers the rent, water, trash, and most utilities. Off base, you’re free to do whatever you want with the allowance, but our goal has always been to have it cover rent, water, trash, and utilities.
So, when it comes time for us to move (which has been pretty frequently these last few years), I hop on two sites: Zillow and Google (to look up our new BAH rate). When we first got married, we swore up and down that we’d always be “off base people,” but as our family has grown, that mindset has shifted.
Fort Stewart, Georgia
Our very first place together after getting married was an apartment rental on the outskirts of Savannah. It was just the two of us, so we rented a tiny apartment while still getting some BAH back.
After a year in the apartment, we decided to buy a house in another small Georgia town. To our surprise, a mortgage can be much, much cheaper than rent. When buying, there’s also the benefit of your money going towards a property that you own versus it paying for your landlords property. At this point, we swore we’d buy a house at every duty station. HA!
Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri
We were a family of 4 when we PCSd to Fort Leonard Wood for the Military Police Captain’s Career Course. Because the MPCCC is only a 6ish month course, we made the decision to rent a smaller townhouse that we could comfortably fit in, without spending too much of our BAH. At this duty station, we didn’t even unpack half of our boxes, because the turn around was going to be so quick.
Schofield Barracks, Hawaii
Although exciting, moving to Hawaii comes with its set of unique challenges. As soon as I knew we were headed to the Aloha State, I started looking for off base rentals. Let’s talk about sticker shock! HolysmokesHawaiiissoexpensive! The sky-high rent prices made the search quite difficult.
Once we made it to Hawaii, we toured a handful of off base rentals. The high rent prices combined with high utility costs and long commute times, made the decision to live on base for the first time pretty easy. Overall, living on base was a great experience. We had fantastic neighbors and were close to work and affordable shopping. The schools on base in Hawaii tend to be slightly better, which was also a plus.
Another plus was actually getting money back for our utility usage. At the time, on base utilities were metered and based on an average usage. If you used an average amount, BAH would cover all utilities and nothing additional would be owed. If you used less than the average, you could expect to see a check in your mailbox.
Fort Knox, Kentucky
We actually explored all three housing options when moving to Kentucky. Coming from having lived on base in Hawaii, we wanted to explore the on base option first. Because we moved at an off-peak time however, there was only one house available, and it was definitely not going to work for us.
When looking at rental homes in the Fort Knox area, we were shocked by how quickly they all rented out. I made dozens of phone calls to realtors, but we never had any luck. It was at that point that we decided to buy.We got so so lucky and found a foreclosed house in a great neighborhood for a steal of a deal! The house was in great condition and only needed some minor updates and to be cleaned up.
We went into purchasing this home knowing that rentals in the area move quickly and we’d more than likely be able to get it rented out easily when it came time to move. We kept the Georgia house as a rental as well. It’s important to know the market when committing to buying, as the military can up and move you when you least except it. Which of course, is what happened to us in Kentucky.
Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island
Once again, we came into this assignment knowing that there would be a quick turnover. Less than a year in Rhode Island for us! Most rentals were right around our BAH, and given the high cost of heating in the winter, I didn’t want to add the cost of utilities on top of that. Based on the advice from several other Army officers who attended the Naval War College, we chose to live in housing at Fort Adams.
Fort Adams housing is technically base housing, however it’s located about 20 minutes from the base itself and doesn’t have a gate like many on base neighborhoods do. After not being surrounded by a military community off base in Kentucky, I loved being surrounded by so many families who were also there just for the year. The oceans views were ok too!
Because the housing at Fort Adams is a bit older and smaller, it’s whats known as flat rate housing. The houses rent for a certain amount, instead of the full BAH rate. Due to this and the high BAH for Newport (it’s an expensive touristy area) we got back nearly a thousand dollars worth of BAH each month. The house was not the greatest (and I wouldn’t live there with 3 kids and a dog for more than a year), but the BAH refund and neighbors made it absolutely worth it!
Fort Riley, Kansas
I had THE most difficult time finding a nice, newer, larger home within our BAH rate in the Fort Riley area. Knowing that John would have long hours and wanting to duplicate that military housing community from Rhode Island, the decision to live on base was easy. Buying wasn’t even on my radar, due to still owning both homes in Kansas and Georgia.
The only catch with on base housing was that we’d have to wait in the hotel for a little over a month. It ended up being totally worth it though! We got a large new house with fantastic neighbors. The school we are zoned for is one of the best in the area, which was important since all three girls are in school this year.
Having been in this house for just over 3 weeks now, I’m thrilled with this decision. John is at work until 8:00 many nights, so it’s nice to have him home in less than 10 minutes, instead of 20 or 30, had we lived somewhere else.
And now that I’m over 1,250 words in, I think I’m done.
For us, the decision to live on or off base varies by location. What works best for one family, may not be the best option for another.