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
    With $1,830Without $1,413

    O-1 at Des Moines draws $1,830 per month with dependents in 2026, $1,413 without

    Permalinkbahratedesk.com/des-moines-ia/o-1/ExcelCSVDownloads cover this station.
    Des Moines, IA
    O-1 · with dependents
    $1,830/ month
    $21,960 / year
    At O-1, this is #230 of 338 stations loaded · high San Francisco $5,172 · low Youngstown $1,218
    MHA IA082 · ZIPs 50007 50009 50021 50023 50032 50035 +70 more
    Your grade is calledARMY2LTUSMC2ndLtNAVYENSUSAF2d Lt
    Untaxed — matching it with taxable pay takes$2,346 / mo gross
    Without dependents here$1,413 / mo
    In government quarters, no dependents$50.10 / mo partial
    Des Moines — full sheetTap a row
    PCS compareDes Moines · O-1 · $1,830/mo
    Aberdeen Proving Grounds$2,517/mo · $30,204/yr
    ▲ RAISE+$687+$8,244/yr · like +$10,569 of salary

    What this rate means

    O-1 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,172 / month
    San Francisco$5,172
    Huntsville$1,839
    College Station$1,836
    Lansing$1,836
    Lincoln$1,833
    Des Moines$1,830
    Fayetteville$1,821
    Robins AFB$1,818
    Waco$1,803
    County Cost Group 770$1,797
    Youngstown$1,218

    Des Moines is #230 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 Des Moines0 – $2,943 / month
    E-1$1,593
    E-2$1,593
    E-3$1,593
    E-4$1,593
    E-5$1,770
    E-6$2,208
    E-7$2,292
    E-8$2,379
    E-9$2,511
    W-1$2,229
    W-2$2,328
    W-3$2,436
    W-4$2,538
    W-5$2,667
    O-1E$2,304
    O-2E$2,418
    O-3E$2,559
    O-1$1,830
    O-2$2,205
    O-3$2,433
    O-4$2,706
    O-5$2,904
    O-6$2,925
    O-7$2,943

    Promoting to O-2 here adds $375 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 Des Moines to San Francisco at O-1 is worth $3,342 a month — about 9 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $375 per grade here.

    02

    Dependency status is worth 30% 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. $1,830 a month of BAH takes more than $1,830 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.