Service members will get an average increase of 5.4% in their Basic Allowance for Housing for 2025, defense officials announced Friday. The new rates take effect Jan. 1.
The average increase, which is the same percentage bump as the 2024 version, does not mean everyone will see the same amount of money hitting their accounts.
For example, an E-5 with dependents in the Copperas Cove area near Fort Cavazos, Texas, will see a 12.8% increase in BAH, a rate that equates to $180 a month more than 2024. An E-5 without dependents, meanwhile, will see a 9.8% increase, or $129 more each month than last year.
On the other side of that coin, for any areas subject to decreases in BAH, troops who continue to be stationed in those areas will not penalized and will instead continue to receive the same amount that was issued in 2024.
Troops can view the new 2025 BAH rates by plugging in their ZIP code and rank in the Defense Department BAH tool.
For service members who live in privatized housing, rent will remain equal to BAH, so privatized housing landlords will receive the added money.
Defense officials said an estimated $29.2 billion will be paid in housing allowances for about 1 million service members in 2025.
The increased housing costs over the last few years have hit many service members hard. In 2023, defense officials increased BAH rates by an average of 12.1%, the largest year-over-year jump in BAH in at least the previous 15 years.
BAH rates are determined based on rental housing cost data for various types of residences, collected each year for 299 military housing areas throughout the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii.
Setting BAH rates requires gathering data and input from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index, commercial subscription rental markets, industry-leading online rental listing websites, military services and local military installation housing offices.
The BAH computations include the median current market rent and average utilities cost for six different types of dwellings in each of the housing areas. BAH rates are also calculated for each pay grade, both with and without dependents, based on the housing choices of civilians with comparable income to troops in those pay grades.
The Government Accountability Office has reported that the Pentagon needs to improve the way it calculates troops’ housing allowances. Defense officials are in the process of reviewing those procedures.
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book “A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families.” She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
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