Basic Allowance for Housing : 2010

BAH RATES EXPLAINED

There are several types of BAH to satisfy various housing situations that occur among military members. In general, the amount of BAH you receive depends on your location, pay grade, and whether you have dependents. New rates are established each year by the percentage growth in housing costs over the previous year.

Though the 2010 BAH rate increase may be as much as 13.6 percent for some servicemembers, 2.5% is the average increase they will see. This is substantially lower than the 6.9% 2009 BAH increase and is likely due to lower rental costs found throughout the country.

Non-locality BAH rates apply, for example, to reservists who are on active duty for less than 30 days. Also known as BAH II (RC/T), it also applies when a member is in transit from selected areas where no prior BAH rate existed. It does not vary by geographic location. Click here to search for BAH rates by zip code.

The Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) is based on geographic duty location, pay grade, and dependency status. The intent of BAH is to provide uniformed service members with permanent duty within the 50 United States accurate and equitable housing compensation based on housing costs in local civilian housing markets, and is payable when government quarters are not provided.

The differential listed in the table below (BAH-DIFF) is the housing allowance amount for a member who is assigned to single-type quarters and who is authorized a basic allowance for housing solely by reason of the member's payment of child support. A member is not entitled to BAH-DIFF if the monthly rate of that child support is less than the BAH-DIFF.

Non-locality BAH for Reserve Component/Transient (RC/Transient)