Own your residence on base? I never heard of that.🇺🇸

Thanks for reading! Yes, some bases have such long wait lists or limited housing that you have to live off base. You can talk to the Housing office and they can give you info about local neighborhoods and Realtors, but they won’t really set up off-base arrangements for you. The earlier you call and the more research you do, the better it will go for you.

If my husband is to leave to a certain base in a couple months lets say, I call and ask what the wait is for housing and they say 1-year, what happens then, its not our choice that we have to find off base housing so do they help with situations like that?
Sorry I know I am late to the thread.

Yes, there are a few companies that help with that! PCS Grades gives you reviews of base housing and local housing options from other military families have lived there before. Millie is another company that has milspouse volunteers around the country. A Millie Scout will be your eyes and ears if you are house hunting from another state. They can visit homes, take video footage, and answer questions about the area. I hope those are helpful!

Trey, what’s this about “essentially free housing”? My husband is active duty Air Force and we live in 1950s unimproved base housing on the Air Force Academy. The duplex has tiny bedrooms and bathrooms, leaky pipes and faucets, tiny kitchen sink and refrigerator, no garage, no air conditioning, no fenced yard and no grass or landscaping (all yards are sand and weeds), not to mention it’s just plain ugly and very outdated housing in general. We pay $1,642 per month for rent to live here and pay all utilities on top of that, but it’s cheaper than living off base in a decent area near the Academy and we do appreciate the security of the base and most of all the high ranked schools for our kids, so to us it’s worth the many downsides of the house itself. We’ve lived in nicer base housing in the past, so it’s not bad across the board, but I’m curious if you are in the military yourself and how it is you think you know all about living in base housing.

It really depends on the base, the neighborhood you desire, and the service member’s rank. Some areas have a 1-year wait list. Others none at all! Call the Housing office for your base to get the most up-to-date info.