Columbus Air Force Base: BAH and housing

Columbus Air Force Base is an Air Force base in Columbus, Mississippi. An E-5 with dependents receives $1,398 a month in BAH here, the 8th-lowest of the 119 bases we track, roughly equal to the $1,410 HUD fair-market rent for a 3-bedroom in ZIP 39705. Columbus is one of the most affordable markets on the list (3rd-lowest of 114): the median home is worth $125,700 and the median rent is $897. It gets 57 inches of precipitation in a normal year, tied for the 7th-wettest of the bases we track.

Data: DTMO 2026 BAH for MHA MS169, HUD rents for ZIP 39705, Census ACS for Columbus city, NOAA normals at Columbus, MS. Jump to sources · Methodology

What is my BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing) at Columbus Air Force Base?

This calculator uses 2026 DTMO (Defense Travel Management Office) rates for selected pay grade and dependent status.

Pay grade

Dependents

$1,158/mo

Monthly BAH at E-5 pay grade without dependents.

Columbus Air Force Base: $1,158

Typical 2-bedroom rent nearby: $1,030/mo
BAH vs that rent: $128/mo left over

Key facts for living at Columbus Air Force Base

Key facts for living at Columbus Air Force Base
Host state	Mississippi
State income tax	Top listed rate 4.0%
Top state income-tax rate	4.0%
Average sales tax (state + local)	7.06%
Average property tax (real estate)	0.58%
Personal property tax (vehicles)	Yes — 3.42% effective
Median home value	$196,428
Military housing area	MS169 — COLUMBUS AFB, MS
Climate (annual high / low)	77° / 54°F
Annual precipitation	56.6 in
Official site	Columbus Air Force Base

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PCS checklist for Columbus Air Force Base

Update DEERS and your page-2 / dependency status before BAH starts at the new MHA (MS169).
Look up your exact BAH for rank and dependents on the DTMO BAH lookup (ZIP 39710).
Off-base 2-bedroom HUD FMR in Lowndes County is $872/mo. On-base housing is separate.
Get an MS driver license within 30 days and title the car within 30 days. See Mississippi.
Confirm reporting instructions on the official Columbus Air Force Base site.

How Columbus Air Force Base compares

E-5 with-dependents BAH is higher at Hanscom Air Force Base ($4,188 vs $1,398).

Use the picker above for any other compatible installation. Published PCS pages that include Columbus Air Force Base are listed here.

Sources

Housing figures below are for the installation (MHA, HUD rent, climate). Host-state tax rates are statewide averages — not a tax return. County add-ons can differ, and wage tax on military pay follows legal residence, not the duty station.

BAH (with and without dependents). DTMO CY2026 BAH tables for Columbus Air Force Base (MS169). Confirm current rates on the DTMO BAH lookup.
2-bedroom Fair Market Rent. HUD FY2026 FMR — Lowndes County $872.
Off-base ZIP rent (HUD Small Area FMR). FY2026 ZIP 2- and 3-bedroom 40th-percentile rents from the HUD Small Area FMR tables: 39705 (Columbus) $1,030 / $1,410.
Off-base city home value and rent. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year 2020–2024 tables B25077 (median value of owner-occupied homes) and B25064 (median gross rent) for Columbus city, Mississippi ($125,700, $897/mo). Owner-reported values, not transaction prices.
Climate normals (1991–2020). NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals — Columbus, MS (USC00221880).
Host-state wage tax. Statewide listed rates for Mississippi from the Tax Foundation 2026 individual income-tax tables. On this page they describe the host state, not automatically the tax on a military LES (legal residence can stay put). BAH is untaxed.
Combined sales tax near the installation. Tax Foundation January 2026 state-and-local sales-tax averages for Mississippi. Used as an off-base shopping stand-in; city and county add-ons vary.
Effective property tax if you buy off-base. Tax Foundation 2026 property taxes by state for Mississippi. On-base housing is not in this figure.
Vehicle title tax and new-resident clocks. Mississippi motor-vehicle agency (license 30 days, title 30 days; title tax 7.00%). These are host-state motor-vehicle rules, not BAH.
Vehicle personal-property tax on the host-state snapshot. WalletHub 2026 vehicle property-tax table for Mississippi. This is a statewide car-tax flag, not real-estate tax and not BAH.
Statewide median home value on the host-state snapshot. Experian / Zillow March 2026 state medians for Mississippi. Backdrop for off-base purchase prices; on-base housing and BAH are separate.

Data last updated: September 2026. How the data is compiled