Official data current

Columbia BAH rates

Verified · Effective 2026-01-01 · MHA SC260

Don't know your pay grade? Use a rank name
Rank name

Press Enter to look it up.

W-3 · With dependents
$2,235per month

$26,820 per year · federal tax-free allowance

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

National position #234 of 338W-3 · with dependents reference
Taxable-pay equivalent$2,865/mo Using the stated 22% comparison rate
Year-over-year change+$42/mo · +1.9%2025 $2,193 → 2026 $2,235
W-3 rate selectedMHA SC260 ZIPs 29002 29006 29009 29016 29020 29021 +60
PCS compare Columbia · W-3 · with dep. · $2,235/mo
Columbia $2,235/mo · $26,820/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.

Open full comparison

Rate history

How updates work
2025$2,193
2026$2,235

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

Columbia — full sheet Tap a row

What this rate means

W-3 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $6,654 / month
Westchester County $6,654
Rock Island $2,301
County Cost Group 770 $2,283
Lincoln $2,283
Malmstrom SFB $2,274
Pensacola $2,274
Shreveport $2,271
Fort Rucker $2,268
Greensboro $2,262
Fort Gordon $2,253
Whiteman AFB $2,247
Columbia $2,235
Fort Huachuca $2,235
Baton Rouge $2,232
Huntsville $2,229
Seymour Johnson AFB $2,229
Scott AFB $2,211
County Cost Group 760 $2,208
Fort Wayne $2,208
Greenville $2,208
Lexington $2,208
Fort Bliss $2,205
Anniston $1,689

Columbia is #234 of 338. The spread between the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $4,965 a month — $59,580 a year, untaxed.

Every pay grade at Columbia0 – $2,760 / month
E-1 $1,812
E-2 $1,812
E-3 $1,812
E-4 $1,812
E-5 $1,878
E-6 $2,121
E-7 $2,160
E-8 $2,202
E-9 $2,310
W-1 $2,136
W-2 $2,175
W-3 $2,235
W-4 $2,340
W-5 $2,475
O-1E $2,163
O-2E $2,223
O-3E $2,361
O-1 $1,914
O-2 $2,118
O-3 $2,232
O-4 $2,517
O-5 $2,724
O-6 $2,745
O-7 $2,760

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

Moving from Columbia to Westchester County at W-3 is worth $4,419 a month — about 42 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…