Common Questions About Military Housing

1. What is BAH?

BAH is Basic Allowance for Housing. This is the allowance a service member receives as compensation for housing weather living offpost or onpost.

If a service member and his dependents move offpost the BAH is theirs to use towards monthly rental or mortgage payments and to offset the cost of some utilities.

If a service member should choose to live onpost he/she will forfeit there BAH and it will go to the company providing housing for that Army post. At most post you usually will not have to worry about a light bill and a water bill and your rent will already be taken care.

2. How much is BAH?

BAH depends on the geographic location where you reside , the service members pay grade and years in service.
You can find out how much your BAH is by going to the following link: BAH Rates

3. How long is the housing waiting list at the base I am going to ?
No one can ever give you this answer except the housing office at the post you are moving to. To find the housing office # to your next duty station visit Onestop Army

4. How can I see what housing looks like at a particular duty station?
Your best bet to see what housing looks like at an Army Post is to visit the Official Army Housing site which is Onestop Army

5. My spouse and I do not want to live onpost , how can we find suitable housing offpost?

The Army has a great site called the Army or Automated Referral Housing Network where you can look up houses by BAH and duty station . You can visit this site by going to


6. How soon can I or my spouse apply for housing?
Answers will vary greatly , I was told many times before we PCS'ed to Hawaii that we had to be here and then we could get on the list. I called back another day and was added to the list and got housing right away when we got here. So always call housing.