Army · Leesville, LA

Fort Polk: BAH and housing

Fort Polk is an Army post in Leesville, Louisiana (formerly Fort Johnson). An E-5 with dependents receives $1,218 a month in BAH here, the lowest of the 119 bases we track, $122 less than the $1,340 HUD fair-market rent for a 3-bedroom in ZIP 71446. Leesville is one of the most affordable markets on the list (2nd-lowest of 114): the median home is worth $118,600 and the median rent is $894. It gets 59 inches of precipitation in a normal year, the 5th-wettest of the bases we track.

Data: DTMO 2026 BAH for MHA LA115, HUD rents for ZIP 71446, Census ACS for Leesville city, NOAA normals at Leesville, LA. Jump to sources · Methodology

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

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

Pay grade

Dependents

$1,128/mo

Monthly BAH at E-5 pay grade without dependents.

Fort Polk: $1,128

Typical 2-bedroom rent nearby: $1,050/mo
BAH vs that rent: $78/mo left over

Key facts for living at Fort Polk

Key facts for living at Fort Polk
Host state	Louisiana
State income tax	Top listed rate 3.0%
Top state income-tax rate	3.0%
Average sales tax (state + local)	10.11%
Average property tax (real estate)	0.55%
Personal property tax (vehicles)	Yes — 0.10% effective
Median home value	$215,842
Military housing area	LA115 — FORT POLK, LA
Climate (annual high / low)	78° / 54°F
Annual precipitation	59.3 in
Official site	Fort Polk

More about living in Louisiana

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PCS checklist for Fort Polk

Update DEERS and your page-2 / dependency status before BAH starts at the new MHA (LA115).
Look up your exact BAH for rank and dependents on the DTMO BAH lookup (ZIP 71459).
Off-base 2-bedroom HUD FMR in Vernon Parish is $1,041/mo. On-base housing is separate.
Get an LA driver license within 30 days and title the car within 30 days. See Louisiana.
Confirm reporting instructions on the official Fort Polk site.

How Fort Polk compares

E-5 with-dependents BAH is higher at Fort Hamilton ($5,070 vs $1,218).

Use the picker above for any other compatible installation. Published PCS pages that include Fort Polk 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 Polk (LA115). Confirm current rates on the DTMO BAH lookup.
2-bedroom Fair Market Rent. HUD FY2026 FMR — Vernon Parish $1,041.
Off-base ZIP rent (HUD Small Area FMR). FY2026 ZIP 2- and 3-bedroom 40th-percentile rents from the HUD Small Area FMR tables: 71446 (Leesville) $1,050 / $1,340.
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 Leesville city, Louisiana ($118,600, $894/mo). Owner-reported values, not transaction prices.
Climate normals (1991–2020). NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals — Leesville, LA (USC00165266).
Host-state wage tax. Statewide listed rates for Louisiana 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 Louisiana. 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 Louisiana. On-base housing is not in this figure.
Vehicle title tax and new-resident clocks. Louisiana motor-vehicle agency (license 30 days, title 30 days; title tax 4.45%). 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 Louisiana. 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 Louisiana. Backdrop for off-base purchase prices; on-base housing and BAH are separate.

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