PCS toolkit
What house does my BAH carry?
By Kyle Melvin · NMLS #1486450 · REV Mortgage
Everyone asks it backwards — 'can I afford this house' — when the first question on orders is what payment the new station's BAH supports. Type your numbers; nothing here is stored.
Home price this BAH carries
The loan amount with no down payment — with full entitlement, roughly the purchase price.
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Enter your BAH and a rate.
A budget, not a pre-approval. Lenders qualify on your whole income and debts, on residual income, and on the actual tax bill for the house — which in a metro district, a Mello-Roos community or a CDD can be far above the county average. The base guides say where that applies.
Refine the estimateTax rate, insurance, HOA and how much of BAH to spend. Defaults are national placeholders; arrive from a base page and they become the local figures.
How to use it honestly
Get the BAH for the new station from the lookup in the calculator — it holds the official Defense Travel Management Office table for every ZIP — not from memory. The tax rate and insurance default to the base's county and state from sourced, dated tables when you arrive from a base page; use the rate for the specific neighborhood where you can — the base guides flag where metro districts, Mello-Roos and CDD fees push it well above the county average — and a real insurance quote in flood or wind markets. The BAH page covers how lenders count and gross up the allowance; the buy versus rent page is the next question once you have a number.
Apply with Kyle
Want the real number, not the estimate?
Send Kyle the orders and an LES to start. The pre-approval that follows uses your BAH, the actual tax bill and residual income — and it is a letter a seller will take.