Where to live

[Chelle1991]

My fiance (will be my husband in 4 1/2 weeks!!!! YAY!!!) wants to live in housing when boot camp and everything else is done and over with. I was wondering if its cheaper to live in housing or not. And I was also hoping that someone would explain to me how all the housing stuff works. Im sorry. I am so new to this and I am not sure how to proceed or how to even start. Thank you!

[abuon18]

First of all, congratulations!

Has he already left for bootcamp?

Most likely you will not be able to live with him during A school.... I say most likely because there are some rates that have A schools that are 20+ weeks and then the Navy will move you. So you still have awhile before you need to worry about housing. In my experience cost of housing depends on where you are stationed. Typically military housing takes all or most of your BAH... In some areas it can be cheaper to find an off base apartment and rent that.

If you decide to go with the military housing, once you have a hard copy of his orders you can contact the housing office on that base. They will get you on the wait list (there are usually wait lists... The length of time depends, again, on which base you're going to). I think you don't need to worry about housing quite yet because it seems like you're still pretty far away from being there, if he still has to go through boot camp &A school. But I hope I was able I answer some of your questions!

[emmie<3]

Congratulations on getting married! As far as housing I can really only vouch for Norfolk but I'm guessing that ita similar if not the same on ither bases. Housing is not actually on the base ita set up in diffrent little sub-divisions. Thr waiting list here takes months especially if its just the two of you. I've heard that housing isint always worth it unless you have kids. However it will make it easier for you to meet other wives and families. If you choose housing you dont get BHA, which is a basic housing allowance that is dependant on what area you live in. Its to pay rent and utilities. In housing they automatically pay that for you. My husband and I were able to find a cute 3 bdrm house a mile from the gate and 500$ cheaper then what we get for bha. Plus I live two doors down from a navy wife that I've become really close with. And theres alot of other navy families in my neighborhood. However parts of my neighborhood arent amazing but the part we live in is great and I love it. I suggest you do a lot of research for the area hes based in and make your decision that way.

[meagan5220]

I live in VA too and the housing wait is def ridiculous sometimes! I know one wife that waited 18 months!

[meagan5220]

I personally do not like living in housing. Depending on what you need its not always cheaper. My husband and I lived in WA for 6 months without my big pup so we lived in town. BAH was 1199 and rent was $655. Our bills weren't even $100 a month and then we paid our car payment, car insurance, and most of our cell phone bill with the left over BAH. Now we have moved to VA and have to have a house but cant live on base because of my pup's breed. I had to look really hard but I found a place that is under BAH and with our bills we are just at the amount our BAH is every month. I dont like living in housing mostly because my husband and I like a break from military. and there was enough drama with my husbands ship as it was so I was seperating myself from it as much as possible.

[Jenn_NicksWifey]

Congrats!  Good luck!  LoL, I'm working on arranging our first PCS from IL to San Diego.  I think I have most of it worked out, but a good start for me was going to About.com and reading about military moves.  We're doing a PPM (personally procured move - doing it ourselves) but a lot of people say to just have the military pack your stuff and move you.  I'm not so keen on having them pack for me, plus I am getting rid of a ton of stuff as I go through things.  "Oh, I haven't used that in the 3 years we've lived here....  Garage sale!"  lol, having a sale tomorrow and what doesn't sell, goes to Goodwill.

I have found the online moving info stuff on move.mil sucks.  The website is less than helpful. 

If you have questions, I can try to answer them.  I've gotten a lot of help on the Facebook pages for military wives, especially Moving House for the Military Spouse (lots of pics of the housing in lots of areas, not just Navy though), and I also joined the Facebook group for the San Diego wives. 

[sailorwifenmom]

We've lived in housing at a lot of our duty stations, and we've also lived off base as well. A lot of it is going to depend on what base you're at. Some have nice housing and or a short waiting list, some have crappy housing and a longer waiting list.

I don't know if they authorize this for your first duty station (it's something your Sailor can ask about though) but I know for sure that every other duty station after that you are authorized to live in temp. lodging (often a hotel) for a certain number of days (usually 10), up to a certain cost per day (that amount will depend on a lot of things - paygrade, duty station, etc...). This will give you time to talk to housing, check out what's available, and talk to them about your off base options. Do NOT - I stress NOT - sign a lease anywhere without talking to housing first - even if you want to live off base. The Sailors can get in trouble if you do (some places can be black listed by the military - for various reasons, even if it looks ok - and you aren't going to be allowed to live there). This will give you time to look around and pick a place. (Also a good reason to not move yourself - they store your stuff while you pick, not you paying for a uhaul at the hotel parking lot...)

Some places, especially for Junior Enlisted, you really are much better off in housing, because the amount you get for Bah is based in a large part on paygrade, so the housing will end up being nicer, in a safer neighborhood, and often bigger than what you can rent. Plus, most bases, your utilities are included (or you get part of your Bah back to apply towards utilities). Your "rent" on your base house is your Bah - no matter what your paygrade is or how many bedrooms you have (determined by paygrade and family size). Off base, of course you have utilities and you pay for what you get - if it's more than your Bah, you pay out of pocket. Less than Bah, you keep th3 difference, and the number if bedrooms isn't determined by family size but by wallet size.

When we were in WA, it was better for us to live out in town. My husband is Senior Enlisted and we have 2 kids that were at home at the time. We could get a really nice place for our Bah and still had money to apply towards utilities. When we lived in FL (in Jacksonville, we were at Mayport), we were off base waiting for an on base house. There, we saved more money living in housing, with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths and our utilities paid, biking distance from thw beach, than we did living off base, 2 bedrooms 1 1/2 baths, smaller living space and worse neighborhood, and farther from the beach (and we paid utilities).

Your best bet will be to, once you know the duty station, look up the BAH rates for that base, then start looking online at what's available in your price range. Give the housing office a call and tell them you're moving there and see what they say. Then, when you get there, go in, talk to them again, see what they have to offer, look at what's available off base, then decide. (And do this at each duty station.)

Good luck!

[meagan5220]

oh yea I totally forgot about sending your lease to the housing office. If you go onto AHRN.com you can look at houses in an area and they have a link to email the housing office too. the account has to be made through your sailor though but you can use it when you are about to move. They will email you back or ask you to call them and they can explain any parts of your lease. Like for instance I sent my lease and the guy had me call him. In the lease we signed away one right we are afforded as military. but it was like if we broke our lease and didnt fix it and ignored our landlord then they didnt have to give us 90 days to move out or something. But I dont break my lease so that doesnt matter lol. But they explained what it meant so it helped a lot. Also, if you email the housing office they have a list of companies that participate in the RPP. Which is the rental partnership program. Thats a good program to get in too if you are looking at apts. And you definitely do not want your sailor caught in a place that is blacklisted in the area.