Official data current

Des Moines BAH rates

Verified · Effective 2026-01-01 · MHA IA082

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

Press Enter to look it up.

O-3 · With dependents
$2,433per month

$29,196 per year · federal tax-free allowance

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

National position #194 of 338O-3 · with dependents reference
Taxable-pay equivalent$3,119/mo Using the stated 22% comparison rate
Year-over-year change+$162/mo · +7.1%2025 $2,271 → 2026 $2,433
O-3 rate selectedMHA IA082 ZIPs 50007 50009 50021 50023 50032 50035 +70
PCS compare Des Moines · O-3 · with dep. · $2,433/mo
Des Moines $2,433/mo · $29,196/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$2,271
2026$2,433

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

Des Moines — full sheet Tap a row

What this rate means

O-3 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $6,633 / month
Westchester County $6,633
Charlotte $2,472
Bloomington $2,469
Fort Drum $2,469
Fort Worth $2,460
Cleveland $2,457
Lemoore NAS $2,451
Cheyenne $2,442
Grand Rapids $2,439
Ocala $2,439
County Cost Group 790 $2,433
Des Moines $2,433
Fort Knox $2,421
Morehead $2,421
Kings Bay $2,418
Auburn $2,412
Eastern Shore $2,406
Albuquerque $2,397
Fort Leavenworth $2,394
Louisville $2,394
Raleigh $2,391
Marquette $2,385
Anniston $1,686

Des Moines is #194 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 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

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

Moving from Des Moines to Westchester County at O-3 is worth $4,200 a month — about 15 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…