Army · Barstow, CA

Fort Irwin: BAH and housing

Fort Irwin is an Army post in Barstow, California. For an E-5 with dependents, the housing allowance comes to $2,001 a month (65th-highest of 119 among the bases we track), $819 less than the $2,820 HUD fair-market rent for a 3-bedroom in ZIP 92312. Homes in Barstow have a median value of $245,000 (median rent $1,091), which makes it a mid-range market among the bases we cover (71st-highest of 114). It gets only 4 inches of precipitation in a normal year, tied for the 2nd-driest of the bases we track.

Data: DTMO 2026 BAH for MHA CA028, HUD rents for ZIP 92312, Census ACS for Barstow city, NOAA normals at Barstow Daggett Airport, CA. Jump to sources · Methodology

What is my BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing) at Fort Irwin?

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

Pay grade

Dependents

$1,695/mo

Monthly BAH at E-5 pay grade without dependents.

Fort Irwin: $1,695

Typical 2-bedroom rent nearby: $2,130/mo
BAH vs that rent: $435/mo short

Key facts for living at Fort Irwin

Key facts for living at Fort Irwin
Host state	California
State income tax	1%–12.3%, plus 1% over $1M (13.3% top)
Top state income-tax rate	13.3%
Average sales tax (state + local)	8.99%
Average property tax (real estate)	0.70%
Personal property tax (vehicles)	Yes — 0.65% effective
Median home value	$778,217
Military housing area	CA028 — BARSTOW/FORT IRWIN, CA
Climate (annual high / low)	82° / 54°F
Annual precipitation	3.8 in
Official site	Fort Irwin

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PCS checklist for Fort Irwin

Update DEERS and your page-2 / dependency status before BAH starts at the new MHA (CA028).
Look up your exact BAH for rank and dependents on the DTMO BAH lookup (ZIP 92310).
Off-base 2-bedroom HUD FMR in San Bernardino County is $2,201/mo. On-base housing is separate.
Get a CA driver license within 10 days and title the car within 20 days. See California.
Confirm reporting instructions on the official Fort Irwin site.

How Fort Irwin compares

E-5 with-dependents BAH is higher at Fort Hamilton ($5,070 vs $2,001).

Use the picker above for any other compatible installation. Published PCS pages that include Fort Irwin 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 Fort Irwin (CA028). Confirm current rates on the DTMO BAH lookup.
2-bedroom Fair Market Rent. HUD FY2026 FMR — San Bernardino County $2,201.
Off-base ZIP rent (HUD Small Area FMR). FY2026 ZIP 2- and 3-bedroom 40th-percentile rents from the HUD Small Area FMR tables: 92312 (Barstow) $2,130 / $2,820.
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 Barstow city, California ($245,000, $1,091/mo). Owner-reported values, not transaction prices.
Climate normals (1991–2020). NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals — Barstow Daggett Airport, CA (USW00023161).
Host-state wage tax. Statewide listed rates for California 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 California. 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 California. On-base housing is not in this figure.
Vehicle title tax and new-resident clocks. California motor-vehicle agency (license 10 days, title 20 days; title tax 7.25%). 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 California. 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 California. Backdrop for off-base purchase prices; on-base housing and BAH are separate.

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