Got orders? See what your BAH becomes.
Basic Allowance for Housing is set by where you're stationed, your pay grade and whether you have dependents. Move, and it changes. Sometimes by thousands a year. Put both stations in and see the difference.
Monthly, E-5, with dependents, rate year 2026. FORT BRAGG/POPE, NC is MHA NC182, SAN DIEGO, CA is CA038. BAH-ASCII-2026.zip
Why the number moves so much
BAH is meant to cover local housing costs, so it tracks rents where you're stationed rather than paying everyone the same. An E-5 with dependents draws wildly different amounts depending on the duty station, and none of it is taxed. A raise of a few hundred a month in allowance is worth more than the same figure in base pay.
Three things change your rate and nothing else does: the ZIP of your duty station, your pay grade, and whether you have dependents. Not your actual rent, not your family size beyond having any dependents at all, and not whether you own or rent. If your housing costs less than the allowance, you keep the difference.
Where these come from
The Defense Travel Management Office publishes one rate file a year, covering every military housing area and every pay grade for both dependency statuses. That's 18,252 figures. This site reads that file and nothing else.
Rates for a given area also change mid year on occasion. Includes the 13 May 2026 temporary increase for Abilene/Dyess AFB (TX270). The build refuses to run if it detects a superseded file, which is a real risk because the archive ships several versions of the same table.
BAH-ASCII-2026.zip, Defense Travel Management Office, rate year 2026. Includes the 13 May 2026 temporary increase for Abilene/Dyess AFB (TX270).