San Diego BAH rates for 2026, and what they actually rent

If you are on PCS (Permanent Change of Station) orders to San Diego, your Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) is the number that decides what you can rent. Below are the official 2026 rates for the San Diego Military Housing Area (MHA), the zone the Pentagon uses to set the rate, plus what that money rents according to HUD and Zillow data published this fall.

2026 San Diego BAH by rank (MHA CA038)

"With dependents" is one rate no matter how many dependents you have. A sailor with one child and a sailor with four children at the same grade get the same amount.

How 2026 compares with 2025

Nationally, 2026 BAH rose an average of 4.2 percent. San Diego was nearly flat. The Coronado Times reported that county rents were down about 0.5 percent year over year when the 2026 rates came out, and the BAH math follows local rents.

Which bases use the San Diego rate

Naval Base San Diego, MCAS Miramar and the Coronado installations all use the San Diego MHA, CA038, so they share the table above. Camp Pendleton is different. It has its own housing area, Camp Pendleton, CA (CA024), and its 2026 rate for an E-5 with dependents is $3,963, $12 less than San Diego. If you are not sure which area your command falls in, enter your duty station ZIP code in the official Defense Travel Management Office (DTMO) lookup. See Living near Camp Pendleton and Living near MCAS Miramar.

What that BAH rents in San Diego

The two rent sources measure different things. HUD's Fair Market Rent is its estimate of the 40th percentile rent, including tenant-paid utilities, for recent movers across the whole metro area, so it sits below the middle of the market. HUD's FY2027 figures dropped from FY2026 (the 2-bedroom fell 5.9 percent, from $3,001 to $2,823). Zillow's numbers are median asking rents for the city of San Diego only, and Zillow showed them flat over the past year. Read the table this way: an E-5 with dependents can afford a typical 3-bedroom in cheaper parts of the county, but a typical city listing at about $4,200 is out of reach without paying out of pocket.

How BAH works, in plain terms

• —Based on where you're assigned. Under most circumstances you receive BAH for your duty location, not for where you live. Live in Chula Vista on a Miramar rate and you still get the San Diego rate.
• —Yours to keep. BAH is not a reimbursement. Rent something cheaper and you keep the difference; rent something pricier and you cover the gap.
• —Tax-free. BAH is excluded from gross income and is not subject to federal or state income tax or Social Security and Medicare taxes. It does not appear in Box 1 of your W-2.
• —Built on rentals, not mortgages. Rates come from local rental data, not homeownership costs like mortgage payments or property tax.
• —Set once a year. New rates take effect every January 1.

Before you sign a lease

Make sure the lease covers early termination on PCS or deployment orders: Military clauses in California leases. California caps most annual rent increases; see How much can rent go up in San Diego in 2026. For the full move, start with the PCS to San Diego checklist.