Joint Base Charleston: BAH and housing

Joint Base Charleston is a joint base shared by the Air Force and Navy in Charleston, South Carolina. E-5 BAH with dependents is $2,385 a month (43rd-highest of 119 among the bases we track), $285 more than the $2,100 HUD fair-market rent for a 3-bedroom in ZIP 29406. In Charleston, the median home value is $509,700 and the median rent is $1,722, a higher-cost market among the bases we cover (17th-highest of 114). Normal daily temperatures run from 56°F to 77°F on average, with 53 inches of precipitation a year.

Data: DTMO 2026 BAH for MHA SC259, HUD rents for ZIP 29406, Census ACS for Charleston city, NOAA normals at Charleston International Airport, SC. Jump to sources · Methodology

What is my BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing) at Joint Base Charleston?

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

Pay grade

Dependents

$1,941/mo

Monthly BAH at E-5 pay grade without dependents.

Joint Base Charleston: $1,941

Typical 2-bedroom rent nearby: $1,690/mo
BAH vs that rent: $251/mo left over

Key facts for living at Joint Base Charleston

Key facts for living at Joint Base Charleston
Host state	South Carolina
State income tax	Top listed rate 6.0%
Top state income-tax rate	6.0%
Average sales tax (state + local)	7.49%
Average property tax (real estate)	0.49%
Personal property tax (vehicles)	Yes — 2.33% effective
Median home value	$307,843
Military housing area	SC259 — CHARLESTON, SC
Climate (annual high / low)	77° / 56°F
Annual precipitation	52.5 in
Official site	Joint Base Charleston

More about living in South Carolina

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PCS checklist for Joint Base Charleston

Update DEERS and your page-2 / dependency status before BAH starts at the new MHA (SC259).
Look up your exact BAH for rank and dependents on the DTMO BAH lookup (ZIP 29404).
Off-base 2-bedroom HUD FMR in Charleston County is $1,787/mo. On-base housing is separate.
Get an SC driver license within 90 days and title the car within 45 days. See South Carolina.
Confirm reporting instructions on the official Joint Base Charleston site.

How Joint Base Charleston compares

E-5 with-dependents BAH is higher at Hanscom Air Force Base ($4,188 vs $2,385).

Use the picker above for any other compatible installation. Published PCS pages that include Joint Base Charleston 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 Joint Base Charleston (SC259). Confirm current rates on the DTMO BAH lookup.
2-bedroom Fair Market Rent. HUD FY2026 FMR — Charleston County $1,787.
Off-base ZIP rent (HUD Small Area FMR). FY2026 ZIP 2- and 3-bedroom 40th-percentile rents from the HUD Small Area FMR tables: 29406 (Charleston) $1,690 / $2,100.
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 Charleston city, South Carolina ($509,700, $1,722/mo). Owner-reported values, not transaction prices.
Climate normals (1991–2020). NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals — Charleston International Airport, SC (USW00013880).
Host-state wage tax. Statewide listed rates for South Carolina 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 South Carolina. 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 South Carolina. On-base housing is not in this figure.
Vehicle title tax and new-resident clocks. South Carolina motor-vehicle agency (license 90 days, title 45 days; title tax 6.00%). 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 South Carolina. 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 South Carolina. Backdrop for off-base purchase prices; on-base housing and BAH are separate.

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