Fort Bragg BAH 2026: What Your Allowance Buys, and What to Do With the House When You Leave

Fort Bragg and Pope Army Airfield fall under MHA NC182. Rates effective January 1, 2026:

Across all grades, rates run from $1,341 (E-1, no dependents) to $2,646 (O-7, with dependents). NC182 ranks 209th of 299 housing areas, just below the national median.

Rates barely moved this year. The E-5 with-dependents rate rose 1.2%, from $1,785 to $1,806, against a national average increase of 4.2%. The without-dependents rate held flat. If you were expecting the national bump, you didn't get it here.

Confirm your exact figure with the BAH calculator. This table covers selected grades only.

Keep the O-7 figure in mind: $2,646 is the ceiling for anyone at this installation, regardless of where they choose to live.

BAH is tax-free. A $1,806 allowance is worth more than $1,806 of salary. When you compare it to a mortgage payment, you're comparing untaxed money against a real bill.

Prices vary substantially by county. Homes in the $200,000 to $250,000 range are readily available in the Fayetteville market. In Moore County, median values run considerably higher, roughly $519,000 in Southern Pines and $542,000 in Pinehurst.

Property taxes depend on where the house sits. Cumberland County's base rate is 49.9 cents per $100 of assessed value, held flat for FY2027 after being cut 30 cents in the FY2026 budget following the 2025 revaluation. Homes inside Fayetteville city limits add a municipal rate of 44.95 cents per $100, putting the combined county-and-city rate near 0.95%. Unincorporated properties don't pay the city tax, but some also have recreation or fire-district taxes, so the actual rate varies by address.

Moore County's tax rates are lower than Fayetteville's, but the advantage is modest compared with the difference in home prices. Southern Pines and Pinehurst also have municipal taxes layered on top of the county rate, so the exact effective rate varies by address.

VA loan at zero down, 30-year fixed at 6.5%.

Here's where it gets tighter than the “affordable market” framing suggests.

An E-5 with dependents at $1,806 covers the in-city payment with $56 to spare. An E-4 with dependents at $1,722 doesn't cover it. They'd be $28 short every month, or need to shop outside city limits, where the same house clears with $56 of room.

That $84 monthly tax difference is the whole margin for a junior enlisted buyer.

Two things this leaves out. The VA funding fee is 2.15% on first use with nothing down, $4,838 here, typically financed into the loan, which adds about $31 to the payment. And maintenance, which isn't in PITI and isn't optional.

For comparison, the 2026 HUD Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom in the Fayetteville metro is $1,251, although ZIP-level rents vary substantially. The E-5 with-dependents rate sits well above that benchmark, so renting fits inside the allowance with real room left over.

Below the local median, same loan terms.

An O-3 with dependents receives $2,175, short by roughly $1,074 a month.

Moving up the ranks doesn't close it. Even the O-7 with-dependents ceiling of $2,646 leaves a gap of about $603. At current rates and median prices, there isn't a pay grade at this installation whose allowance covers a median Moore County home outright.

That isn't an argument against buying there. Families who choose Southern Pines and Pinehurst are generally aware they're paying above BAH and have decided the schools, the community, or the commute trade is worth it. But it's worth going in knowing you'll be covering the difference from base pay rather than from the allowance.

Renting is a different picture. Three-bedrooms in Southern Pines commonly run in the $2,000 to $2,250 range. An O-3 at $2,175 lands squarely inside that. In Moore County, BAH tends to rent comfortably and buy poorly.

The purchase decision is only half the equation. For a military family, the more important question may be what happens to the house when the next PCS arrives.

Say you bought three years ago with zero down, and orders drop. At 2% annual appreciation, a more conservative assumption for these markets than the 3% most calculators default to, here's how each looks.

The Cumberland County owner

Bought at $225,000. Balance is roughly $216,900, having paid down about $8,100. House would be worth roughly $239,000.

Three years of ownership, and you walk away with about five thousand dollars.

Look at where it came from: $8,100 of principal paydown plus $14,000 of appreciation, minus $16,730 in selling costs. Selling costs consumed more than your entire appreciation.

Had the market been flat instead of appreciating 2% annually, you'd be bringing roughly $8,000 to closing.

Rent covers the mortgage payment exactly. It doesn't cover management or reserves, which is why cash flow is negative, and those aren't optional when you're managing a property from three time zones away.

The Moore County owner

Bought at $450,000. Balance is roughly $433,900, having paid down about $16,100. House would be worth roughly $477,500.

Twice the house, roughly twice the proceeds. Proportionally the same outcome, closing costs absorbing most of what appreciation produced.

That gap is the whole story. The Cumberland County owner is out about $725 in year one. The Moore County owner is out roughly $12,200.

The reason is that rents in Moore County don't scale with prices there. A home worth twice as much rents for perhaps 20% more. That's an unfavorable ratio for a landlord, and it means the market that's hardest to buy into is also the hardest to hold.

A note on appreciation. I've deliberately left it out of both tables. At 2%, appreciation would add roughly $4,780 in the Cumberland County case and roughly $9,550 in Moore County, enough to flip the first positive and substantially narrow the second's loss. But appreciation is a projection, not income, and neither of these is a market where you should bank on it. Fayetteville's housing market is heavily influenced by the military presence, and values don't necessarily move in lockstep with higher-cost markets. If your case for holding depends on appreciation, it's a weaker case than it looks.

At the 2026 standard county limit of $832,750, your total guaranty capacity is $208,188. VA charges 25% of your original loan amount against it.

Keep the Fayetteville house and you retain roughly $607,750 of zero-down purchasing power, enough for most markets you'd be sent to.

Keep the Southern Pines house and you're closer to $382,750, which may not stretch far at San Diego, the DC metro, or Honolulu without bringing a down payment.

So the Moore County purchase carries a second cost beyond cash flow: it consumes substantially more of your benefit.

Two caveats. Renting it out doesn't restore entitlement, since the loan stays open, so the guaranty stays committed. And your funding fee on the next purchase goes to 3.3% for subsequent use with nothing down, though putting 5% or more down drops it to 1.5% regardless. Veterans with a service-connected disability rating are exempt entirely.

The full entitlement breakdown covers the mechanics.

Buying in Cumberland County: BAH covers a typical home at E-5 and above, though the margin is thin inside city limits. E-4 buyers may want to look at unincorporated addresses, where the tax burden can be substantially lower. Renting also fits comfortably inside the allowance. This isn't a market where buying is the obvious answer.

Buying in Moore County: at current median prices, no pay grade at this installation has an allowance that covers the payment outright. Plenty of families make that work and consider it worth it, but you'd be covering the gap from base pay. Renting there, by contrast, fits the allowance closely.

Leaving with a Cumberland County house: close call. Selling nets modest proceeds, holding is near break-even on real money, and it barely touches your entitlement. If you can manage a rental remotely, holding is defensible.

Leaving with a Moore County house: the math leans considerably harder toward selling. Holding produces roughly a $12,000 first-year cash-and-equity deficit and cuts your next zero-down purchase by a substantial margin. Unless you expect to return to Bragg or have another specific reason to keep it, selling is likely the cleaner answer.

The variable that decides it is which county you bought in and how long you held, which is why a single rule of thumb about “Fort Bragg” doesn't hold up.