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.
O-1 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,172 / month
San Francisco$5,172
Fort Collins$2,307
Hampton$2,301
County Cost Group 830$2,295
Asheville$2,265
Buffalo$2,262
Coastal Maine$2,259
Rochester$2,259
Brunswick$2,253
Dahlonega$2,250
Knoxville$2,247
Houston$2,241
Albuquerque$2,235
Spokane$2,235
Eugene$2,229
Grand Haven$2,223
Charlotte$2,211
County Cost Group 820$2,208
Panama City$2,202
Jacksonville$2,196
Rome$2,190
Grand Rapids$2,184
Youngstown$1,218
Houston is #141 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 Houston0 – $3,336 / month
E-1$1,974
E-2$1,974
E-3$1,974
E-4$1,974
E-5$2,193
E-6$2,517
E-7$2,583
E-8$2,655
E-9$2,796
W-1$2,535
W-2$2,610
W-3$2,703
W-4$2,829
W-5$2,988
O-1E$2,592
O-2E$2,688
O-3E$2,856
O-1$2,241
O-2$2,514
O-3$2,700
O-4$3,039
O-5$3,288
O-6$3,312
O-7$3,336
The pay chart moves this allowance far less than the map does.
Moving from Houston to San Francisco at O-1
is worth $2,931 a month — about 11 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.