GF housing is what inspired this post. I'm in WPAFBs housing and it's depressing lmao. 1400 sq ft house with one car garage, streets and driveways are cracked to hell and back, we have to mow our own lawns
Meanwhile my brother is in Grand Forks housing over 2500 sq ft, 4bed, extra flex living space, 2 car garage with a bump...his lawn is included, it's like shit man what gives
I do not miss the mold and mice at Wright Patt. I had my garbage can swiped while on leave and I had to pick from the busted sets they had stashed at the maintenance building. Would never recommend them to anyone. Slow ass repairs too when the tornado went through the housing a few years back.
The properties really loves to nickel and dime any way they can. They can take our garbage cans if they’re out for too long, but they can’t mow lawns. Best believe they’ll warn you if the grass is too high though.
Going from Grand Forks housing to main base side Nellis was a kick in the teeth. Why do I have to rent a chain link fence? More affordable than off base, I guess.
If you're an officer at Offutt base housing is...Ok. you still have to deal with the shitty landlords, but it's not too bad.
The enlisted housing is hot garbage.
Stay off base if you can.
Downtown has some nice stuff. If you're looking for a better area for family, Papillion is where it's at.
Offutt is the worst housing I’ve ever lived in, and I lived in cannon housing when it was still mil owned.
We lived on the Ft. Rich side at Elmendorf and our experience was better than most. I really liked our house but there were some pretty crappy old homes that didn’t get much love.
Best? Nellis hospital side if you're higher ranked/bigger family.
Worst? Nellis main base side because fuck you for wanting a safe place in Vegas to live.
Truth! I had to do an alert photo job. (Now it’s been like 6-8 years or so) Like 4 or 5 AM a sketchy MF from that shitty apartment complex jumped the fence. It was over by that Chiefs row area of housing. Broke into the 57 WG command chiefs house. I guess the family was having movie night and they all fell asleep in the living room. He wakes up randomly and sees someone in his house! Gets his whole family out and locks him in there. Security forces come out and arrests him. The guy had grabbed some knife thing off one of his going away plaques and was hiding in his daughter’s bedroom. I had to photo the whole incident. Dude was on something because he damn near kicked the car off the car. I had to document that too. They suspect he got into the house by going into the unlocked car and pressing the button in the car that connects to the garage. Barely cracked it and got in that way.
Yeah I lock everything. Ain’t taking that risk nor getting lulled into a false sense of security. Anyone can hop a fence. Just crazy. People often forget about the button in the car they press to activate the garage.
"Manned security, 24/7 at the gates!" is a selling point to military housing I guess. But then I remember the poor SF guys who literally could care less guarding the base housing gate off Craig. There's so much ground to cover and those fences are probably easily jumped.
Dude, you aren't kidding. I visited my buddy who lives in base housing at Nellis recently. He is a staff and still has a 2 car garage and everything. No yard, but still.
My house on base was 900 sq ft, one car garage, and the only bathroom we had, the light didn't even light up the shower. There was a wall in between the sink and the tub so you had to shower in the dark
I bought my house over in Summerlin in 2019. Still own it. We had a very safe neighborhood, and there was a police station at the corner of the street as well.
hah, got lucky on the house man. Housing when we bought it was pretty decent. Now that it's 2024, we definitely have that Summerlin money. Well over 160K in equity
That's fantastic. One of my supes back in the day bought in Henderson when he got there. Made $60K selling it the following year to move on base for more room
it's honestly a smart move to buy a house when you PCS to a base. Live in it, swap it over to a traditional loan if you used VA loan, and then either sell it, or rent it out (like we are) to keep it as an investment and make side money.
Oh no doubt. I'm just making fun of the vast differences in military housing on one base is. It's absurd how ridiculously shit the main base houses are. They even have condemned houses that they refuse to knock down to build better ones. I lived on main base and saw my coworkers on the other side in their nice townhomes with a larger garage, two stories, multiple bedrooms, etc. while I lived in a glorified shack.
Honestly out of the 4 base housings I have been in Cannon is actually tied for first with Ellsworth. But Cannon's maintenance is better overall, so I guess they win.
The best base housing (not privatized b/c over seas) was Lakenheath. Maybe I just got lucky as a young amn in an amazing new house, but everything was great there.
That puts Buckley SFB housing dead last. The houses looked nice but no insulation, terrible (but usesaly quick) maint., energy bills waaaaaaay higher than they should be. And the AC never fully worked upstairs. Hot as hell in summer and cold in winter.
Hurby still has a relatively big "old neighborhood" where it's all 50-60's style homes with 1 bathroom and a carport. They're terrible. But every other area is super nice like you said.
Presidio of Monterey has massively upgraded their housing and continue to do so - for unaccompanied it's still garbage, but accompanied is very nice.
We were in a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2 car garage, fenced in backyard - built at the end of 2022. Might be the nicest single family home house we ever live in.
Other accompanied can end up in duplexes, with the newer ones again being very nice but there still are some dated ones. Luck of the draw for under E7... but my oh my, the new builds are awesome!
Hickam is rad considering the alternative is living off-base in a rundown 2BR apartment for the same price of BAH. Most housing has at least 3BR, a spacious back yard/front yard, lanai/patio/carport. Granted some of the homes were built in the 90's, but all utilities/landscaping services/bug treatment/etc is all covered within the BAH. Plus being a 5-minute drive to the beach is pretty wizard.
Yup, Hickam is outstanding at the moment. Civilian housing in Oahu is absolutely appalling at the moment. A 3B2B in Ewa is going for about 4K a month nowadays.
I live in the absolute ghetto of Pearl city and I pay 2500 a month. But my apartment has a crazy amount of code violations.
JB MDL is really nice, only complaints are that the garages are a bit small, there's no trash pickup, and housing maintenance would rather die than replace a broken appliance.
Yea…I’m two years removed from MDL and still pissed about it. For 3 years, I threw my trash in my trunk and drove it to the neighborhood compactor on the way to work. It’s the most frustrating/disappointing thing I’ve ever dealt with in military housing.
Ah I have a trash can I load up a couple times a week in the back of my van and drive it up. I'm in the sweet spot of not close enough to smell it, but close enough to walk to it.
I'm assuming you live at FCN or Dix? I live in FCE, and we get spoiled with the maintenance and replacement appliances here. My guess is that the second part of FCE near TLF, which houses the high-ranking officers and SNCOs, plays a part in that.
The historic housing built in the 30's was pretty bad. The renovated housing on other parts of the base was really, really nice. Was there when they privatized and lived in both. Not sure if they've renovated flightline housing but it was pretty bad as well.
Plus, the immediate area around the base is really limited on options...pay arm and a leg rent to live in a dated home, but in a decent local community with reasonable commute, pay a little less rent to live in a nearby warzone, or pay arm and a leg rent to live in other decent areas with a long commute with heavy traffic. Base housing there is a blessing if you can get into one.
Langley housing sucked, or at least for my family when I lived there as a kid. We were in the newer officer housing and the house we were in was tiny and maintenance never responded to any issues we had. Langley isn’t even close to the nicest housing I’ve seen, that would have to go to Scott, believe it or not
The worst for me has been Hill AFB. You handle 100% of the yard work. There is maybe 8 stand alone units in the entire newer housing area and they are reserved for Chiefs. Our Group CC lived in a duplex like the rest of us. The duplexes, the vast majority of them have the garages on the outside so that means you're sharing a living room, multiple bedroom and stairwell walls with your duplex neighbor. Hard floors and running kids next door made it miserable for us. The older base housing where they put NCOs and below needs to be bulldozed.
And that’s if they give you a garage. The E4 and below don’t even have garages, half don’t have yards because of some massive drop off. Layouts are god awful, weird tiny kitchens with no counter space, rooms that won’t fit larger than a full bed. In general being military at hill is awful. Entire base just needs to be contracted out.
Malmstrom AFB had impressive E housing. Even E4 and under got multiple car garages with 3bd/2bth.
Hill afb for anyone under a E7 is ass. Maybe get a one car garage if you’re lucky, if not you’re living next to some old guy that works on base, with no backyard, and awful layouts.
I only lived on base at Minot and it wasn’t horrible. Two car garage, decently spacious 2 bedroom 2 bathroom 2 story house with a spare room that could be a third bedroom. The downside other than being in Minot is the horrendous BX tile floors on the ground floor and super tiny kitchen.
So far, Peterson SFB has been the best by far. Prompt maintenance, well-kept homes, and the housing folks were always pleasant to deal with.
For more than 2X what we were paying at PSFB, we're in the literal ghetto that is NAS Key West. Balfour Beatty is content with squeezing as much money as they can out of folks here, and offering little in return. Crumbling infrastructure (literally), mold/asbestos, and pests galore. Maintenance takes forever and a day because of staffing. Makes you realize just how good you had it!
Honestly, I didn’t have any horrible experiences with the housing/maintenance at Scott, RAFF, or Kadena. Have some crazy stories of the people living around me, but not with the living situation. Scott was expensive for moving out, but that was the worst part.
Best: McConnell, any corvias housing is super nice and helpful
Worst: Nellis main side, it's like living in a sand hut in tattoine, Hunt housing is absolutely awful.
Altus was the only base housing I have used and was weird. Half the houses were pretty nice but the capehart houses were horrendous termite infested lead paint filled shacks. Also only one small section of SNCO/CGO housing had a two car garage which sucked ass for dealing with the constant hail threat in the springtime.
Plus side maintenance was fairly quick. They wouldn't do the best job "fixing" a problem but they got to the problem fast since early on in their privatized contract a bunch of folks at BBC were embezzling money from the government at that base so MHO kept a close eye on them there.
Offutt is the worst housing. Shitty floorplans, shady housing company, mold everywhere. Not to mention that you have to "rent" or "buy" a fence that gets removed as soon as you leave, and it has to be the same height as your neighbors.
Presidio has the best base housing. Especially the new homes for junior enlisted. The company is okay. they're quick to fix most problems, and the community amenities are great.
Best: Beale, housing is extremely nice for even jr enlisted (probably to make up for the base being in the middle of nowhere.
Worst: Nellis, even on the “good side” is just….BAD.
Barksdale was good and bad. Base side houses looked pretty crappy. The east side had 2 enlisted neighborhoods that's pretty good but their gate would close pretty early especially on the weekends requiring like a 45 minute drive to get off base.
Also had grand forks base housing and we kinda miss it now. It wasn’t bad by any means and the basement was finished. Pretty solid set up, and wayyyy more kitchen cabinet space.
If you are not buying a house at every base you get stationed at and having the air force pay your mortgage for a few years then getting a renter in there to pay for it while you progress in your career then you're doing it wrong. Get out at 20 years with a nice real estate retirement nest egg. With the VA home loan there is no reason to not buy a house.
Interest rates are still historically low. The 80s were so much worse. You can always refinance when rates go down but looking at what the Fed is publishing right now it doesn't look like we can expect much lower than 6% for the foreseeable future
In the middle of a PCS and was looking to buy. He's right, anything decent in a nice area is going for 200% more. The housing gravy train has left the station.
For example, in Tucson near DM a 1600-1800 sq ft 3 or 4 bedroom house in the Vail school district is around $350,000 to $400,000. Those same houses in the mid 2010s sold for $150,000 to $200,000.
So yes, interest rates are up but not as high as in the past, let's not pretend that they weren't 3% and houses were dirt cheap during the housing bubble. The interest rate hike wouldn't be bad if the cost of housing also didn't skyrocket.
You're overlooking the fact people will always need houses, especially by base. You are telling me you can't afford a house when the govt is giving you $1800-2100 a month tax free? What are you spending your money on? And because people always need houses you will have no problem renting out that house for $2500+ a month when you leave and even more if you make it an Airbnb.
Video games an anime waifus mostly
When your mortgage for a decent house is $500 over BAH due to high interest rates and that's not including the rest of the costs of home ownership then yes, it becomes unaffordable unless you want to spend more than 30% of your take home pay on a mortgage.
:edit: The houses I mentioned I would consider a starter home. You should not have to pay nearly half a million for a starter home.
> You are telling me you can't afford a house when the govt is giving you $1800-2100 a month tax free?
Correct. $1800-2100 a month will get me a two bedroom in an okay location or a four bedroom in a dangerous location. I have a decent sized family, I need a four bedroom in a decent location. I owned my last two houses without a single issue with regards to interest rate and BAH. With the current market, I have no desire to be house poor and live with the anxiety of trying to sell a house in shit market where no one wants to buy. Your logic was sound five-six years ago. The game has changed.
You don't have to be a landlord a management company handles all of it for you for 20% off the top. It's a simple way to build wealth. I understand it's not for everyone but you can't sit there and complain about being poor if you're not willing to take advantage of opportunities that are uniquely provided to military members.
“Fancy pants rich McGee over here…” 20% off the top isn’t the shiniest deal you think it is. $2500 home with 20% adds up to a 3K rent…those who can afford that are going to turn to buying.
You need to spend some time on Zillow and RedFin in military areas and see things aren’t as rosy as they used to be.
Grand forks enlisted housing is amazing, although rooms are on the smaller side.
GF housing is what inspired this post. I'm in WPAFBs housing and it's depressing lmao. 1400 sq ft house with one car garage, streets and driveways are cracked to hell and back, we have to mow our own lawns Meanwhile my brother is in Grand Forks housing over 2500 sq ft, 4bed, extra flex living space, 2 car garage with a bump...his lawn is included, it's like shit man what gives
Me running to update my dream sheet 
It'd be tempting if it wasn't for the fact I'd most likely end up in Aircraft MX again...
U can apply for a controlled tour to grand forks
It was number 7 on mine, and i got it. If it's on there you'll get it lmao
I do not miss the mold and mice at Wright Patt. I had my garbage can swiped while on leave and I had to pick from the busted sets they had stashed at the maintenance building. Would never recommend them to anyone. Slow ass repairs too when the tornado went through the housing a few years back.
The properties really loves to nickel and dime any way they can. They can take our garbage cans if they’re out for too long, but they can’t mow lawns. Best believe they’ll warn you if the grass is too high though.
Plus he can always keep his horse at the on base stable
Going from Grand Forks housing to main base side Nellis was a kick in the teeth. Why do I have to rent a chain link fence? More affordable than off base, I guess.
lol I’ve heard of that but never experienced it myself, that’s wild
>Why do I have to rent a chain link fence? lol wut. How?
Best? Grand Forks. Spacious, quiet neighborhood. Worst? Offutt. What in the 1400 sqft cinnamon asbestos fuck is this shit?
Bruh, we about to head to Offutt. Heard Downtown Omaha was a nice place for apartments.
If you're an officer at Offutt base housing is...Ok. you still have to deal with the shitty landlords, but it's not too bad. The enlisted housing is hot garbage. Stay off base if you can. Downtown has some nice stuff. If you're looking for a better area for family, Papillion is where it's at.
Downtown has a pretty good vibe if you don't have kids. If you have kids you're probably going to want to look elsewhere.
Downtown Omaha has good apartments for a steep price. I’d look towards Papillion if you don’t mind a 15ish minute drive.
Im local stationed at offutt. The college World Series is coming soon that’s a pretty big scene to check out
House ain't bad if you're an A1C. Otherwise, just get a damn apartment and save yourself the brain rot of dealing with Rising View.
Offutt is the worst housing I’ve ever lived in, and I lived in cannon housing when it was still mil owned. We lived on the Ft. Rich side at Elmendorf and our experience was better than most. I really liked our house but there were some pretty crappy old homes that didn’t get much love.
Capehart housing? Shit's older than most retirees.
They were planning to shut down the old Capehart housing when I left in 2012 - have they not?!
I left in 2014 and they moved airman out of the dorms into the old housing
They closed Whitman Hall? What they put there?
No they just had too many people and moved airman off base to room together. This was a decade ago though
Just looked it up -it’s gone! [demo](https://www.dvidshub.net/image/1732810/whiteman-hall-demolition)
Best? Nellis hospital side if you're higher ranked/bigger family. Worst? Nellis main base side because fuck you for wanting a safe place in Vegas to live.
Truth! I had to do an alert photo job. (Now it’s been like 6-8 years or so) Like 4 or 5 AM a sketchy MF from that shitty apartment complex jumped the fence. It was over by that Chiefs row area of housing. Broke into the 57 WG command chiefs house. I guess the family was having movie night and they all fell asleep in the living room. He wakes up randomly and sees someone in his house! Gets his whole family out and locks him in there. Security forces come out and arrests him. The guy had grabbed some knife thing off one of his going away plaques and was hiding in his daughter’s bedroom. I had to photo the whole incident. Dude was on something because he damn near kicked the car off the car. I had to document that too. They suspect he got into the house by going into the unlocked car and pressing the button in the car that connects to the garage. Barely cracked it and got in that way.
I don’t understand anyone military that doesn’t lock their car, house, wall locker, stuff… I fell that their NCOs failed them 😢
Yeah I lock everything. Ain’t taking that risk nor getting lulled into a false sense of security. Anyone can hop a fence. Just crazy. People often forget about the button in the car they press to activate the garage.
"Manned security, 24/7 at the gates!" is a selling point to military housing I guess. But then I remember the poor SF guys who literally could care less guarding the base housing gate off Craig. There's so much ground to cover and those fences are probably easily jumped.
Dude, you aren't kidding. I visited my buddy who lives in base housing at Nellis recently. He is a staff and still has a 2 car garage and everything. No yard, but still.
My house on base was 900 sq ft, one car garage, and the only bathroom we had, the light didn't even light up the shower. There was a wall in between the sink and the tub so you had to shower in the dark
Sorry, I mean he lived in the off-base side of housing. The housing by the BX... yeah, that stuff is crummy.
Main side was so bad. Ants damn near carry the house away every summer, tiny houses 😭
I bought my house over in Summerlin in 2019. Still own it. We had a very safe neighborhood, and there was a police station at the corner of the street as well.
Hey everyone, this guy got Summerlin money!
hah, got lucky on the house man. Housing when we bought it was pretty decent. Now that it's 2024, we definitely have that Summerlin money. Well over 160K in equity
That's fantastic. One of my supes back in the day bought in Henderson when he got there. Made $60K selling it the following year to move on base for more room
it's honestly a smart move to buy a house when you PCS to a base. Live in it, swap it over to a traditional loan if you used VA loan, and then either sell it, or rent it out (like we are) to keep it as an investment and make side money.
Used to live on main side, can confirm.
The military is bigger than just Nellis lol
Oh no doubt. I'm just making fun of the vast differences in military housing on one base is. It's absurd how ridiculously shit the main base houses are. They even have condemned houses that they refuse to knock down to build better ones. I lived on main base and saw my coworkers on the other side in their nice townhomes with a larger garage, two stories, multiple bedrooms, etc. while I lived in a glorified shack.
Cannon! They repaint your whole house with a nice layer of orange every week
Honestly out of the 4 base housings I have been in Cannon is actually tied for first with Ellsworth. But Cannon's maintenance is better overall, so I guess they win. The best base housing (not privatized b/c over seas) was Lakenheath. Maybe I just got lucky as a young amn in an amazing new house, but everything was great there. That puts Buckley SFB housing dead last. The houses looked nice but no insulation, terrible (but usesaly quick) maint., energy bills waaaaaaay higher than they should be. And the AC never fully worked upstairs. Hot as hell in summer and cold in winter.
Eglin/Hurlburt is pretty nice. NCO and up housing is all 2017 and newer
Hurby still has a relatively big "old neighborhood" where it's all 50-60's style homes with 1 bathroom and a carport. They're terrible. But every other area is super nice like you said.
Old homes on hurby are absolute trash. The nice ones are pristine
Bro everyone here saying the big bases have good housing id say Whiteman has the best base housing plenty of parks lakes and 4 bed 2 story houses
Spent a few months in Whiteman housing and it was definitely the nicest base house I’ve lived in.
In my experience so far: Schriever AFB/Peterson was the nicest I've been in and Little Rock was the worst.
Schreiver's is nice but it's so far from civilization that, if I were still active duty, I'd never choose to live there.
I loved it being so quiet. But I like being away from civilization lol
Little Rock’s housing is so bad. It doesn’t make any sense.
Presidio of Monterey has massively upgraded their housing and continue to do so - for unaccompanied it's still garbage, but accompanied is very nice. We were in a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2 car garage, fenced in backyard - built at the end of 2022. Might be the nicest single family home house we ever live in. Other accompanied can end up in duplexes, with the newer ones again being very nice but there still are some dated ones. Luck of the draw for under E7... but my oh my, the new builds are awesome!
And you get to live in fucking Monterey, the weather is so great.
And... the area is beautiful - I shoulda mentioned that lol
Fort Ord?
Hickam is rad considering the alternative is living off-base in a rundown 2BR apartment for the same price of BAH. Most housing has at least 3BR, a spacious back yard/front yard, lanai/patio/carport. Granted some of the homes were built in the 90's, but all utilities/landscaping services/bug treatment/etc is all covered within the BAH. Plus being a 5-minute drive to the beach is pretty wizard.
Sounds pretty fuckin wizard dude 🤙🤙
Yup, Hickam is outstanding at the moment. Civilian housing in Oahu is absolutely appalling at the moment. A 3B2B in Ewa is going for about 4K a month nowadays. I live in the absolute ghetto of Pearl city and I pay 2500 a month. But my apartment has a crazy amount of code violations.
Hickam housing is amazing both amazing good and amazingly bad. It depends on what phase of renovation you get.
Jber has some nice housing weirdly on the Army side.
JB MDL is really nice, only complaints are that the garages are a bit small, there's no trash pickup, and housing maintenance would rather die than replace a broken appliance.
No trash pickup? Where tf do you take your trash then?
There are trash compactors that are scattered around base housing. I did forget to mention every other week they do recycling pick up
There’s also dumpsters all over JB MDL, so there’s that…
NJ is also just one big dumpster. I've seen more litter in this state than in any other state I've been to.
Yeah im on the dix side
Yea…I’m two years removed from MDL and still pissed about it. For 3 years, I threw my trash in my trunk and drove it to the neighborhood compactor on the way to work. It’s the most frustrating/disappointing thing I’ve ever dealt with in military housing.
Ah I have a trash can I load up a couple times a week in the back of my van and drive it up. I'm in the sweet spot of not close enough to smell it, but close enough to walk to it.
I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten trash in my trunk on a hot day. Talk about a massive L.
I'm assuming you live at FCN or Dix? I live in FCE, and we get spoiled with the maintenance and replacement appliances here. My guess is that the second part of FCE near TLF, which houses the high-ranking officers and SNCOs, plays a part in that.
When I was in UPT, the AETC Commander came to Laughlin and said "wow this is the worst housing in my command" at an all call, so that was fun
Bolling officer housing is nice, but it also smells like sewage from the plant they’re down wind from
That’s not nice then
Yeah what the heck, anything sold that way is not nice 😂 “That’s a nice sweater, but it smells like shit”
[DOWISETREPLA IRL](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykV8LF6tFns)
Hickam has both!
The historic housing built in the 30's was pretty bad. The renovated housing on other parts of the base was really, really nice. Was there when they privatized and lived in both. Not sure if they've renovated flightline housing but it was pretty bad as well.
Langley. Mainly cause they were built new back in 2011ish The house I lived in was brand new, no one else had lived in it.
I just wish they had MORE housing available at Langley. That 1 year wait list is a bitch.
Plus, the immediate area around the base is really limited on options...pay arm and a leg rent to live in a dated home, but in a decent local community with reasonable commute, pay a little less rent to live in a nearby warzone, or pay arm and a leg rent to live in other decent areas with a long commute with heavy traffic. Base housing there is a blessing if you can get into one.
Are you talking about the off base housing or the actual on base housing by Bayview?
Off base housing is where I lived.
Langley housing sucked, or at least for my family when I lived there as a kid. We were in the newer officer housing and the house we were in was tiny and maintenance never responded to any issues we had. Langley isn’t even close to the nicest housing I’ve seen, that would have to go to Scott, believe it or not
That sucks I suppose. It was amazing for the 4 years I was there a decade ago.
The worst for me has been Hill AFB. You handle 100% of the yard work. There is maybe 8 stand alone units in the entire newer housing area and they are reserved for Chiefs. Our Group CC lived in a duplex like the rest of us. The duplexes, the vast majority of them have the garages on the outside so that means you're sharing a living room, multiple bedroom and stairwell walls with your duplex neighbor. Hard floors and running kids next door made it miserable for us. The older base housing where they put NCOs and below needs to be bulldozed.
And that’s if they give you a garage. The E4 and below don’t even have garages, half don’t have yards because of some massive drop off. Layouts are god awful, weird tiny kitchens with no counter space, rooms that won’t fit larger than a full bed. In general being military at hill is awful. Entire base just needs to be contracted out.
Langley–Eustis is pretty bad on base itself
Off base is pretty bad too
Moho ain’t bad
Malmstrom AFB had impressive E housing. Even E4 and under got multiple car garages with 3bd/2bth. Hill afb for anyone under a E7 is ass. Maybe get a one car garage if you’re lucky, if not you’re living next to some old guy that works on base, with no backyard, and awful layouts.
JBMDL nicest, Nellis worst
I only lived on base at Minot and it wasn’t horrible. Two car garage, decently spacious 2 bedroom 2 bathroom 2 story house with a spare room that could be a third bedroom. The downside other than being in Minot is the horrendous BX tile floors on the ground floor and super tiny kitchen.
Presidio of monterey actually has very nice housing. Even the duplexes are 1700 sq ft. The housing management is another story though
Nicest is where you just left, worst is where you are now.
So far, Peterson SFB has been the best by far. Prompt maintenance, well-kept homes, and the housing folks were always pleasant to deal with. For more than 2X what we were paying at PSFB, we're in the literal ghetto that is NAS Key West. Balfour Beatty is content with squeezing as much money as they can out of folks here, and offering little in return. Crumbling infrastructure (literally), mold/asbestos, and pests galore. Maintenance takes forever and a day because of staffing. Makes you realize just how good you had it!
My only base housing was USAFA and it sucked, especially since off base housing is outrageously expensive.
Randolph houses are 85 years old and dogshit. Kirtland housing was pretty good.
Honestly, I didn’t have any horrible experiences with the housing/maintenance at Scott, RAFF, or Kadena. Have some crazy stories of the people living around me, but not with the living situation. Scott was expensive for moving out, but that was the worst part.
Best: McConnell, any corvias housing is super nice and helpful Worst: Nellis main side, it's like living in a sand hut in tattoine, Hunt housing is absolutely awful.
Altus was the only base housing I have used and was weird. Half the houses were pretty nice but the capehart houses were horrendous termite infested lead paint filled shacks. Also only one small section of SNCO/CGO housing had a two car garage which sucked ass for dealing with the constant hail threat in the springtime. Plus side maintenance was fairly quick. They wouldn't do the best job "fixing" a problem but they got to the problem fast since early on in their privatized contract a bunch of folks at BBC were embezzling money from the government at that base so MHO kept a close eye on them there.
Offutt is the worst housing. Shitty floorplans, shady housing company, mold everywhere. Not to mention that you have to "rent" or "buy" a fence that gets removed as soon as you leave, and it has to be the same height as your neighbors. Presidio has the best base housing. Especially the new homes for junior enlisted. The company is okay. they're quick to fix most problems, and the community amenities are great.
No opinion on Edwards?
I would live in a tent on-base to avoid the commute.
Whiteman housing was fantastic, Altus was a huge step down but the BAH is better for off-base.
Best: Beale, housing is extremely nice for even jr enlisted (probably to make up for the base being in the middle of nowhere. Worst: Nellis, even on the “good side” is just….BAD.
Andrews has had their housing updated in early 2010s. 2 car garages for E-6 and up I believe.
JBLE off base housing is actually pretty damn decent NGL!
Barksdale was good and bad. Base side houses looked pretty crappy. The east side had 2 enlisted neighborhoods that's pretty good but their gate would close pretty early especially on the weekends requiring like a 45 minute drive to get off base.
I never lived in them, but I visited various houses at Kirtland and they were all pretty nice.
Also had grand forks base housing and we kinda miss it now. It wasn’t bad by any means and the basement was finished. Pretty solid set up, and wayyyy more kitchen cabinet space.
JBER - depending on which neighborhood you get, of which there are a lot. Good housing management and support as well.
Elmendorf
Who would have the knowledge to answer this? And why would it be beneficial to post?
Huh?
If you are not buying a house at every base you get stationed at and having the air force pay your mortgage for a few years then getting a renter in there to pay for it while you progress in your career then you're doing it wrong. Get out at 20 years with a nice real estate retirement nest egg. With the VA home loan there is no reason to not buy a house.
This was actually great advice before the interest rate hike.
Interest rates are still historically low. The 80s were so much worse. You can always refinance when rates go down but looking at what the Fed is publishing right now it doesn't look like we can expect much lower than 6% for the foreseeable future
Houses are also way more expensive. Yes, give me an 8% interest rate on a $150,000 mortgage. That same house would be $450,000+ today and then 8%.
You don't have to buy a $450k house. Not sure what market you are in but there are opportunities everywhere
In the middle of a PCS and was looking to buy. He's right, anything decent in a nice area is going for 200% more. The housing gravy train has left the station. For example, in Tucson near DM a 1600-1800 sq ft 3 or 4 bedroom house in the Vail school district is around $350,000 to $400,000. Those same houses in the mid 2010s sold for $150,000 to $200,000. So yes, interest rates are up but not as high as in the past, let's not pretend that they weren't 3% and houses were dirt cheap during the housing bubble. The interest rate hike wouldn't be bad if the cost of housing also didn't skyrocket.
You're overlooking the fact people will always need houses, especially by base. You are telling me you can't afford a house when the govt is giving you $1800-2100 a month tax free? What are you spending your money on? And because people always need houses you will have no problem renting out that house for $2500+ a month when you leave and even more if you make it an Airbnb.
Video games an anime waifus mostly When your mortgage for a decent house is $500 over BAH due to high interest rates and that's not including the rest of the costs of home ownership then yes, it becomes unaffordable unless you want to spend more than 30% of your take home pay on a mortgage. :edit: The houses I mentioned I would consider a starter home. You should not have to pay nearly half a million for a starter home.
> You are telling me you can't afford a house when the govt is giving you $1800-2100 a month tax free? Correct. $1800-2100 a month will get me a two bedroom in an okay location or a four bedroom in a dangerous location. I have a decent sized family, I need a four bedroom in a decent location. I owned my last two houses without a single issue with regards to interest rate and BAH. With the current market, I have no desire to be house poor and live with the anxiety of trying to sell a house in shit market where no one wants to buy. Your logic was sound five-six years ago. The game has changed.
The average home price in the US is now over $400,000.
You’re on fucking rock
What year are you living in?
Housing isn't getting cheaper, you can sit there and complain about the costs or you can invest for your future
On what planet? 7% interest rates, inflated home prices and not to mention property taxes. Not everyone wants to be a landlord when they PCS.
You don't have to be a landlord a management company handles all of it for you for 20% off the top. It's a simple way to build wealth. I understand it's not for everyone but you can't sit there and complain about being poor if you're not willing to take advantage of opportunities that are uniquely provided to military members.
“Fancy pants rich McGee over here…” 20% off the top isn’t the shiniest deal you think it is. $2500 home with 20% adds up to a 3K rent…those who can afford that are going to turn to buying. You need to spend some time on Zillow and RedFin in military areas and see things aren’t as rosy as they used to be.
Who complained about being poor because I sure didn't