Shaw Air Force Base: BAH and housing

Shaw Air Force Base is an Air Force base in Sumter, South Carolina. E-5 BAH with dependents is $1,503 a month, the 12th-lowest of the 119 bases we track, $67 less than the $1,570 HUD fair-market rent for a 3-bedroom in ZIP 29150. In Sumter, the median home value is $199,100 and the median rent is $1,076, a lower-cost market among the bases we cover (29th-lowest of 114). Normal daily temperatures run from 53°F to 76°F on average, with 46 inches of precipitation a year.

Data: DTMO 2026 BAH for MHA SC263, HUD rents for ZIP 29150, Census ACS for Sumter city, NOAA normals at Wedgefield, SC. Jump to sources · Methodology

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

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

Pay grade

Dependents

$1,290/mo

Monthly BAH at E-5 pay grade without dependents.

Shaw Air Force Base: $1,290

Typical 2-bedroom rent nearby: $1,310/mo
BAH vs that rent: $20/mo short

Key facts for living at Shaw Air Force Base

Key facts for living at Shaw Air Force Base
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	SC263 — SUMTER/SHAW AFB, SC
Climate (annual high / low)	76° / 53°F
Annual precipitation	46.2 in
Official site	Shaw Air Force Base

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PCS checklist for Shaw Air Force Base

Update DEERS and your page-2 / dependency status before BAH starts at the new MHA (SC263).
Look up your exact BAH for rank and dependents on the DTMO BAH lookup (ZIP 29152).
Off-base 2-bedroom HUD FMR in Sumter County is $1,276/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 Shaw Air Force Base site.

How Shaw Air Force Base compares

E-5 with-dependents BAH is higher at Hanscom Air Force Base ($4,188 vs $1,503).

Use the picker above for any other compatible installation. Published PCS pages that include Shaw 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 Shaw Air Force Base (SC263). Confirm current rates on the DTMO BAH lookup.
2-bedroom Fair Market Rent. HUD FY2026 FMR — Sumter County $1,276.
Off-base ZIP rent (HUD Small Area FMR). FY2026 ZIP 2- and 3-bedroom 40th-percentile rents from the HUD Small Area FMR tables: 29150 (Sumter) $1,310 / $1,570.
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 Sumter city, South Carolina ($199,100, $1,076/mo). Owner-reported values, not transaction prices.
Climate normals (1991–2020). NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals — Wedgefield, SC (USC00389039).
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