Official data current

Houston BAH rates

Verified · Effective 2026-01-01 · MHA TX282

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O-4 · With dependents
$3,039per month

$36,468 per year · federal tax-free allowance

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

National position #135 of 338O-4 · with dependents reference
Taxable-pay equivalent$3,896/mo Using the stated 22% comparison rate
Year-over-year change+$363/mo · +13.6%2025 $2,676 → 2026 $3,039
O-4 rate selectedMHA TX282 ZIPs 77001 77002 77003 77004 77005 77006 +317
PCS compare Houston · O-4 · with dep. · $3,039/mo
Houston $3,039/mo · $36,468/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$2,676
2026$3,039

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

Houston — full sheet Tap a row

What this rate means

O-4 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $7,470 / month
Westchester County $7,470
Dover AFB $3,078
Patuxent River $3,075
Pittsburgh $3,075
Abilene $3,063
Norfolk $3,054
Coastal Maine $3,051
Spokane $3,048
St. Louis $3,048
Dallas $3,045
Helena $3,039
Houston $3,039
Syracuse $3,039
Savannah $3,036
County Cost Group 820 $3,033
Gainesville $3,033
Nashville $3,033
Richmond $3,030
Rochester $3,027
Wilmington $3,018
Yakima $3,015
Fort Collins $3,012
Youngstown $1,809

Houston is #135 of 338. The spread between the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $5,661 a month — $67,932 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 Westchester County at O-4 is worth $4,431 a month — about 18 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…