Where BAH Buys a House

Every PCS order is also a housing decision, and every housing decision at a new duty station comes down to one comparison nobody publishes cleanly: your Basic Allowance for Housing against the real monthly payment on the typical local home. So we built it, for all 111 major CONUS installations, using 2026 BAH rates and current home values.

The short version: at 23 of 111 installations, an E-5 with dependents has BAH at or above the estimated all-in monthly payment (principal, interest, taxes, and insurance) on the typical area home. At Altus AFB their BAH covers 142% of it. At NAS Whidbey Island it covers 42%. Same paycheck, wildly different wealth outcomes. That is the map.

Every installation, ranked

Tap a column to sort. "Coverage" is BAH divided by the zero-down VA principal-and-interest payment on the county's typical home.

Why this matters more than rent

BAH is paid whether you rent or buy. When it covers a VA payment, part of every month's allowance becomes principal you keep instead of rent you spend. A military career that routes through two or three green markets on this map, buying at each with a VA loan and converting to a rental at the next PCS, is one of the few reliable wealth ladders left for households without family money. A career routed only through the red markets never gets a rung.

That conversion path has real rules: you must intend to occupy the home for 12 months, second-use entitlement math matters, and a rental that does not cover its costs is a liability, not an asset. Read honestly before acting. Our VA buyer data page covers the local numbers, and assumable VA loans are often the cheapest first rung anywhere.