Rates effective
01 JAN 2026 · CONUS

Basic Allowance for Housing by duty station, pay grade and dependency status. Official DoD rates, no login, no email.

Duty station or MHA
    Try Fort Liberty, Cavazos, Moore or a ZIP — old and unofficial names resolve.
    Or type your rank
    Dependents

    O-1 with dependents at Charleston draws $2,421 per month in 2026

    Permalinkbahratedesk.com/charleston-sc/o-1/with/ExcelCSVDownloads cover this station.
    Charleston, SC
    O-1 · with dependents
    $2,421/ month
    $29,052 / year
    At O-1, this is #114 of 338 stations loaded · high San Francisco $5,172 · low Youngstown $1,218
    MHA SC259 · ZIPs 29401 29402 29403 29404 29405 29406 +53 more
    Your grade is calledARMY2LTUSMC2ndLtNAVYENSUSAF2d Lt
    Untaxed — matching it with taxable pay takes$3,104 / mo gross
    Other dependency status here$2,049 without dependents
    In government quarters, no dependents$50.10 / mo partial
    Charleston — full sheetTap a row
    PCS compareCharleston · O-1 · $2,421/mo
    Aberdeen Proving Grounds$2,517/mo · $30,204/yr
    ▲ RAISE+$96+$1,152/yr · like +$1,477 of salary

    What this rate means

    O-1 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,172 / month
    San Francisco$5,172
    Corvallis$2,433
    Patuxent River$2,433
    Reno$2,433
    Portland$2,430
    Charleston$2,421
    Charlottesville$2,421
    Bremerton$2,415
    Richmond$2,400
    Detroit$2,397
    Youngstown$1,218

    Charleston is #114 of 338. The spread between the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,954 a month — $47,448 a year, untaxed.

    Every pay grade at Charleston0 – $3,081 / month
    E-1$2,220
    E-2$2,220
    E-3$2,220
    E-4$2,220
    E-5$2,385
    E-6$2,616
    E-7$2,652
    E-8$2,694
    E-9$2,769
    W-1$2,634
    W-2$2,667
    W-3$2,724
    W-4$2,790
    W-5$2,880
    O-1E$2,655
    O-2E$2,712
    O-3E$2,802
    O-1$2,421
    O-2$2,613
    O-3$2,721
    O-4$2,904
    O-5$3,039
    O-6$3,060
    O-7$3,081

    Promoting to O-2 here adds $192 a month. The pay chart moves this allowance far less than the map does.

    01

    Where you are stationed outweighs what you are paid. Moving from Charleston to San Francisco at O-1 is worth $2,751 a month — about 14 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $192 per grade here.

    02

    Dependency status is worth 18% here. That is a status your finance office determines, not a box you tick — and it is the single largest lever on this page that is not a change of address.

    03

    None of it is taxed. $2,421 a month of BAH takes more than $2,421 of basic pay to match, which is why comparing a civilian salary against military base pay alone understates the gap.

    Ad slot — in-content, after the answerPlaced below the number, never above it. VA-loan and PCS-move advertisers bid here.

    Things the rate table doesn't tell you

    01

    “With dependents” is a dependency status, not a marital status. A single member paying child support can be authorized BAH-Diff; a married dual-military couple with no children is not automatically the with-dependents rate for both. If your situation is unusual, your finance office decides — not this table.

    02

    O-8, O-9 and O-10 draw the same BAH as O-7. The table stops there for a reason, not because it is missing rows.

    03

    This is CONUS BAH only. Overseas is OHA, which works differently — it reimburses actual rent up to a cap, with separate utility and move-in allowances. Alaska and Hawaii are BAH; Germany, Japan and Korea are OHA.