The Department of Defense has posted the military basic allowance for housing rates for 2020, and, as usual, there are some big winners and some big losers. (Some readers are reporting that the link is giving them difficulties. If you are on an iPhone, you need to open using the three dots instead of clicking through from Facebook. If you are not on an iPhone, you may want to right click, select “copy link address,” and put it into a new tab. I wish I could fix it but it seems to be either a Facebook issue or a DoD issue…)
Important note up front: Thanks to BAH rate protection, or the “grandfather clause,” the only way you lose money is if you are demoted or have a change in dependency status.
BAH is designed to partially compensate military members for the expenses of maintaining a home in lieu of living in military housing. Under the current formula, BAH is designed to cover 95% of rental costs for a house size tied to your rank, and average utility costs for that house.
One of the most common complaints about BAH is that it’s “too low” for housing in that area. In digging down, what I typically find is that families are choosing to live in a house of a larger or different style than the house that their BAH is based upon. Heck, we do…our house is 1 bedroom larger than the housing size linked to my husband’s rank. And there’s nothing wrong with that – the beauty of BAH is that you get to choose your housing – but it often the reason for the discrepancy between the BAH rate and the actual cost of housing.
I’ll have some analysis on these new rates once I’ve had a chance to dig into the data, but I wanted to get this link, grandfather clause rules, and the BAH formula up as soon as possible because we’ve all been waiting for this!
Please leave me a comment telling me whether your BAH went up (or the rate went down but you’ll get the old rate) and whether that seems fair for the area in which you live, based upon the size house you have chosen. I’m really curious to hear folks experiences.
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Ours went up $18 to $1800 for E7 in the Jacksonville, Florida area.
I think that’s very reasonable. We have a 4BR 2500sf home in an older neighborhood and that amount covers our mortgage+escrow, electric, and water.
That’s awesome, Michelle…I love it when you can cover expenses with your BAH. And I love older neighborhoods!
We are moving this month to Washington state. My husband is an O2, and we were going to get $1936 and now we are getting $2091. Unfortunately you can only rent a small, not updated house for $1850 and above. I am livid! The cost of housing there doesn’t not match in anyway the BAH. So I guess all utilities, which will probably be around $300-$400, will come out of our pay check. In addition to that, the wait list for military housing is a year and a half. We had the same issue when we got to San Diego, but after living in a tiny apartment that took all his O1 BAH, for about 8 months, we moved into military housing, because the BAH here also doesn’t match the real cost of renting a home.
O-2 housing allowance is tied to the costs of an “average” 2 bedroom townhouse and a three bedroom townhouse (it’s 98% between the two, so almost to the cost of a 3 bedroom townhouse), and it is designed to cover 95% of the costs. Depending on where you are in Washington, things are definitely tight.
Hubby is an 05. DC area went down from $3216 to $3144. It’s super expensive in this are, so glad we’re grandfathered in!
We went down here too. Luckily, we came in 2017 so we have $3256. I don’t know how people coming in will find much for the $3,144. If you make rank here it doesn’t help either because 0-6 is lower than the last 4 years so… We are about to have the Amazon headquarters suck down even more housing here.
That’s crazy! We live in Jax, E7 with dependents and it is below 1800 a month. How did you get $1800?
We are in Jax FL and our rate went down. Yes we will keep our old rate, but to live in anywhere with good schools that rate will not suffice! :-/
Our rate here in Virginia Beach ‘dropped’ over $100.
We PCS to Jacksonville this spring and my husband’s rank lost $90 there from 2019. I’m from that area and agree with the previous poster, I think the #s there are low. The search for schools drive many families to outlying counties, where homes are more expensive.
Crazy, wa state is extremely expensive to live in, yet the bah is only enough to cover a extremely tiny place or a run down place. I currently live in FL, and the cost of living is way less than in waahington ,yet the bah is over 200 less. This is whidbey island I’m mentioning anyway, if your stationed in everett (less than an hour away) you get way more money, though the cost of living maybe differs by 100 at best. To help cover Bill’s I’m going to have to work, but then I have to pay for childcare which will almost negate my wages. Annoying.
@Ts, you’re right! We’re on Whidbey now and we can’t believe they haven’t classified us as a housing crisis. Everett and Bremerton get almost $500 more, probably because they’re closer to Seattle. Unfortunately, being on an island it’s hard to get utilities and therefore more expensive for those. Our taxes seem very high based on what I’ve heard but we (like SO many people here) have pretty much no option but base housing. There are plans for more private housing but those will take years and most will be unaffordable for enlisted, they also have plans for more base housing but haven’t begun. Pretty clear there is a demand here, oh, and the base is adding a TON more people by 2022 so get into housing while you can. We will thankfully be gone before that storm arrives. Never had a BAH problem in CT, GA, or VA. This market is crazy- E-5 BAH went down for 2020 and everyone is losing their minds! Good luck!
Hi Kate! As a single parent working at the Pentagon I cannot afford to have a 20+ Commute so living near work is best for my family. I am an E7 living in a one bedroom apartment and I am still $700 over my BAH. Not to mention that I pay nannies since the military does not provide non standard hours child care.
Looks like ours will go up a few dollars from last year’s rate. We are heading to FL from Korea, and at this point, Im just glad to be done with OHA and our current fluctuating rent of about $3200/mo. in Seoul. We’ve been fortunate to always find a decent home because we are only a family of two and dont have the space and school zone requirements of larger families, so Im hopeful about what we’ll find in Florida.
Ours is going up $30. For this area, it does not make sense. The quality of home compared to rental rates and living in a safe area do not make sense. When we first came here, finding a place to live in our budget was impossible. Sever homes were in very poor condition and/or in an unsafe area (shootings daily). Living further away from base was a possibility, but then the gas cost driving back a forth to post plus time away from the family when they are already gone a lot as it is wasn’t forth it. Also, forget if you moving during PCS season where a place is gone before you even get a chance to look at it or get your application in. We ended up having to go above our BAH And then pay utilities on top of that. On base housing can take months to get in to and has major mold and structural issues.
Yes this! We are moving during pcs season. The base we are going to next year went down $90. We also have been told it can take 3 months to get into on base housing. Housing that we have been told has many many issues. Currently we live in a place that is falling apart. The carpet is old, the flooring is peeling up which contain asbestos under it, the bathrooms have mold growing and on our curtains in our bedroom. If they are going to change rates they should also increase livability on the on base housing.
Mine is going up $183 a month, in Colorado, where housing prices have skyrocketed in the 3 years I’ve been stationed here. Hopefully this will help me get a good rent price as I turn my home into a rental and head overseas to deal with OHA.
My husbands rank went up by 198 here in CO! As long as it doesn’t go down too much in the next 2 years we should be good to rent our house out. So happy with the extra money but a little curious how it ended up being such a big increase.
We are moving next year and the area we are going to move went down $90. That’s a huge decrease. This only allows us to move on post in a school district we are unhappy with putting our kids in. This is not a livable rate. I do not think areas took utility expenses I to consideration. We would have to find a 3 bedroom home that is $900 a month max. That barely covers an apartment.
Ours has gone down $400 in the last 2 years which is INSANE.
We are attached to the Rock Island Arsenal. Husband is an E7. We pay $2000 for a 3 bedroom 1800 square foot house. That’s already $100 over our BAH.
Your choices here are live in Illinois or Davenport with horrible schools or live in Bettendorf where you can’t afford to feed your kids, but they get to have an education.
I’m not asking for a brand new house. I’m not even asking for a big one. I like our house. It’s just the right size for our family.
But it would be nice to be able to AFFORD to live in a safe neighborhood with good schools. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.
We just left there in 2018, and my husband was an E5. BAH was about $1500. We had a 3 bedroom in Rock Island…one bathroom…for 6 ppl. We lucked out though and our kids went to Eugene Field. I originally wanted Bettendorf or PV but realized we were going to have to sacrifice space or education. Originally lived on base until we had to move so they could rebuild. But even on base takes you to an underperforming school. I definitely understand your frustration.
We live in the DC area and ours is slightly lower than when we moved here 2 years ago. We live in a house with 1 bedroom more than the house size tied to our rank, and we are modestly below BAH with rent alone, but slightly above it with utilities added. We have been lucky to PCS during off-peak times for the past several moves.
I’m a contrarian and think that BAH is too high in this area. Housing and rental prices are boosted by insane BAH rates, so reining them in is a good idea. It’s not reasonable to spend $36K/year on rent or mortgage.
This is an interesting question. I agree that in many places, market rents are boosted by BAH rates, but I’m not sure that is the case in DC. There are 6.2 million people in the DC metro area. Those are individuals, not families, but let’s just guess an average of 3 people per household – that’s over 2 million households. Per the DoD, there are only around 10,000 active duty folks stationed in the DC area, and a total of 27,000 DoD folks including AD, reserve and civilian employees. Even if we count the reserves and civilians, who aren’t getting housing allowances, DoD employees only make up less than 1.5% of the population. If you only count the people who are actually getting BAH, it’s around 1/2 of a percent of the population. That hardly seems like enough to push rents higher in the whole region.
There are absolutely pockets that are heavily populated by military, but the studies look at the metropolitan area as a whole, and it doesn’t pass the logic test that the housing costs of 6.2 million people are being driven by the 10,000 people receiving military housing allowances.
Numbers rounded, obviously.
We are in northern VA and the rate went down but thankfully we are grandfathered in. I feel bad for the parents with children who have to also pay for childcare. Amazon moving into Arlington has driven our rent up and the cost of living is horrendous here.
We are pcsing from Phoenix to Nashville. Both places have a good drop in bah rates and cost of housing in both places is on the up and up. Disappointing, especially considering we have a large family of 7, we are moving to a 4 bedroom home and my husband will commute an hour and our mortgage is still higher than bah.
Hey Kate! Here in NoVA ours is going down $82. Thank goodness for grandfathering!
Went down for the 2nd year in a row for us at this duty station. Which to me is crazy because our house is smaller, older, and more outdated than what we could live in on base if we were willing to do the waitlist. Frustrating since we come out of pocket for rent not even including utitlities. But it is what it is and we knew it when we signed the lease!
We’re in Seattle Metro and ours is dropping nearly $200, but it looks like JBLM is going up (which is fantastic for them and much needed).
Glad to be grandfathered in, not looking forward to potential rank changes and losing BAH though since E7 is lower than current E6.
BAH rate protection covers promotions, too…you’ll get the higher of your pre-promotion rate (grandfathered or not) or the current rate for the new rank. The only time you lose due to rank is if you are demoted!
Our BAH went down $201 in Tampa
Wow! Thank goodness for that grandfathering!
Philadelphia area (considering w/dep pay grades E3-E9, W2-W4, and O1-O6) – six pay grades see decreases, one sees no change, and nine see increases. Highest increase is +96 with highest decrease -93
Seems inconsistent when evaluating a housing market to have simultaneous decreases and increases.
Currently rate protected at what feels to be an appropriate amount but feel for incoming personnel.
It’s not uncommon for a certain sector of the housing market to have increases while a different sector has decreases – for example, during a depression, the cost of less expensive housing usually goes up (more demand) while more expensive housing loses value (less demand.) Even within broad categories, prices can change due to things like development (a lot of townhouse building will decrease the prices for ranks that are tied to townhouses), certain areas being placed off limits (for example, if a large apartment complex near base starts having unacceptable levels of crime.) There’s so much that goes into it!
I’ve always looked at BAH as part of my income. In San Francisco it is almost $6000 per month, and there is also CONUS COLA in SF to add to that.