Where BAH covers a mortgage: every PCS base ranked, 2026
At E-5 with dependents, BAH covers the estimated mortgage payment in 4 of 8 mapped neighborhoods near Fort Campbell, but in none of the 28 neighborhoods near JBLM. Across 121 neighborhoods at 7 bases, BAH covers 21. Estimates assume 10% down at 7%, Redfin medians and DoD 2026 BAH.
How do PCS bases rank on BAH versus a mortgage?
| # | Base | BAH | Median neighborhood price | Neighborhoods at or under BAH | Median gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fort Campbell | $1,815 | $242,356 | 4 of 8 (50%) | -$22 |
| 2 | Fort Hood | $1,695 | $223,072 | 7 of 19 (37%) | -$172 |
| 3 | Fort Bragg | $1,806 | $267,700 | 4 of 14 (29%) | -$312 |
| 4 | JBSA | $1,869 | $246,162 | 5 of 20 (25%) | -$227 |
| 5 | JEB Little Creek-Fort Story | $2,430 | $392,288 | 1 of 12 (8%) | -$579 |
| 6 | Fort Carson | $2,358 | $449,844 | 0 of 20 (0%) | -$943 |
| 7 | JBLM | $2,556 | $581,048 | 0 of 28 (0%) | -$1,964 |
Download the full table, every base and grade (CSV)Download every neighborhood used (CSV)
Which bases and neighborhoods are included?
- Fort Campbell: 8 well-sampled neighborhoods
- Fort Carson: 20 well-sampled neighborhoods
- Fort Bragg: 14 well-sampled neighborhoods
- Fort Hood: 19 well-sampled neighborhoods
- JBSA: 20 well-sampled neighborhoods
- JEB Little Creek-Fort Story: 12 well-sampled neighborhoods
- JBLM: 28 well-sampled neighborhoods
How was this calculated?
BAH. 2026 Basic Allowance for Housing by pay grade, with and without dependents, from the Defense Travel Management Office rate files (effective January 1, 2026), keyed by each base’s military housing area. All figures were checked against the DoD files on 2026-10-10. DoD BAH Rate Lookup.
Home prices. Median sale price per neighborhood from Redfin’s neighborhood data (Jan-Jun 2026), for neighborhoods mapped to the base’s city. Neighborhoods with fewer than 5 recent sales (best of four rolling windows) are excluded from every figure on this page.
Payment estimate. 10% down, 7.00% interest, 30-year fixed, plus property tax at the city’s effective rate (Census ACS 2023), homeowners insurance at 0.5% of price per year, and mortgage insurance at 0.8% of the loan per year. “Covered” means that total is at or under the monthly BAH.
Known limits. Crime data is citywide only, so it is not used in the ranking. Where we have no sourced property tax rate for a city, we publish no payment estimate rather than a guess, and that base is listed without a rank. Neighborhoods are those in our data, not every neighborhood near a base. Medians describe a neighborhood, not a specific home. A VA loan can remove the down payment and mortgage insurance, which would change these figures, and your rate, credit and the specific home matter more than any median. Estimates are not a loan offer.
Reproduce it. Both CSVs contain the inputs and outputs behind every figure here. Cite as: NeighborSeek, “Where BAH covers a mortgage: every PCS base ranked, 2026,” https://neighborseek.com/pcs/bah-vs-mortgage-2026/.
Questions about BAH and buying near a base
Is BAH enough to buy a home near a military base?
It depends on the base and your pay grade. In the table above, pick your grade to see how many nearby neighborhoods an estimated payment fits under your BAH. Each base’s page has a grade-by-grade breakdown and its most affordable neighborhoods.
Does living farther from the base change my BAH?
No. BAH is set by the military housing area of your duty station’s ZIP code, not by where you choose to live.
Can I use these numbers if I am buying with a VA loan?
Use them as a starting point. VA loans typically need no down payment and no monthly mortgage insurance, though a funding fee usually applies, so your payment may differ from our 10%-down estimate. A lender can give you a real quote.
Want to talk it through?
Questions about BAH or PCS timing?
Call or text Chris Harris, REALTOR® (Real Broker, LLC). He answers these himself. Chris is licensed in Kentucky only. For a base in another state he will connect you with a licensed Real Broker agent there, and he may receive a referral fee from that agent’s brokerage. It does not change your price. Open your base’s page above to request an introduction.