Official data current

Charleston BAH rates

Verified · Effective 2026-01-01 · MHA SC259

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O-3 · With dependents
$2,721per month

$32,652 per year · federal tax-free allowance

Official DoD / DTMO rate · CONUS BAH, not an estimate

National position #143 of 338O-3 · with dependents reference
Taxable-pay equivalent$3,488/mo Using the stated 22% comparison rate
Year-over-year change+$15/mo · +0.6%2025 $2,706 → 2026 $2,721
O-3 rate selectedMHA SC259 ZIPs 29401 29402 29403 29404 29405 29406 +53
PCS compare Charleston · O-3 · with dep. · $2,721/mo
Charleston $2,721/mo · $32,652/yr
CURRENT

Pick a station below to see what the move is worth a year, before tax. Orders rarely arrive as one option — add several and rank them.

Comparison uses with-dependents rates. Differences are annual and untaxed. Rate protection is not applied — a PCS resets you to the new location's current-year rate.

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Rate history

How updates work
2025$2,706
2026$2,721

Verified official history. With-dependents rate shown; use the dependency switch above for its exact comparison.

Charleston — full sheet Tap a row

What this rate means

O-3 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $6,633 / month
Westchester County $6,633
Patuxent River $2,769
Eugene $2,766
Richmond $2,760
St. Louis $2,760
Rochester $2,757
Barstow $2,748
Atlanta $2,745
Savannah $2,745
Salt Lake City $2,742
County Cost Group 820 $2,730
Charleston $2,721
Panama City $2,709
Salem $2,709
Yakima $2,703
Houston $2,700
Coos Bay $2,697
Gainesville $2,697
Norfolk $2,694
College Station $2,685
Elizabeth City $2,667
El Centro $2,664
Anniston $1,686

Charleston is #143 of 338. The spread between the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $4,947 a month — $59,364 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

The pay chart moves this allowance far less than the map does.

Moving from Charleston to Westchester County at O-3 is worth $3,912 a month — about 21 promotions at this grade. Where you are stationed outweighs rank, by a lot.

What the rate table does not 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.

Source: DoD Defense Travel Management Office, effective 01 JAN 2026. How these rates are sourced and checked.

Source record

Where these numbers come from

Official fields remain unchanged. Years are aligned by DTMO's MHA code; no missing value is interpolated.

2026 official releaseDTMO source archive
Effective
2026-01-01
Retrieved
2026-09-05
Last verified
2026-09-07
SHA-256
5446fed831e1…
2025 official releaseDTMO source archive
Effective
2025-01-01
Retrieved
2026-09-07
Last verified
2026-09-07
SHA-256
32d18c4220e8…