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On or Off Base Housing: Why I Love Living on Base!

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About Guest Blogger! Sara is a Marine Corps wife, new mom to Emma Kate and lives with her family currently the beautiful Aloha state of Hawaii. She is a social media specialist by trade and avid writer. Her personal blog is www.howfarweroam.com. You can find her on Instagram as @saraecarey. 

There are so many decisions that a military family will face over the course of their tours and even more so during a PCS. Do we have the military move us? Do we DITY? Do we drive or do we fly? Do we hire babysitters for packout? Do we feed the packers? How much money should we have saved? Etc. However, one of the questions that I come across more often than not is: On or Off base housing? 

Over the years as a military family we have lived off base three times and on base three times during my husband’s service. I always remember that one person’s experience with base housing will vastly differ from another. There are plenty of problems with base housing that need to fixed per the recent news. However, I can confidently say that I have enjoyed living on base more so than off base.

Here Is My Why

Cost of Living

My active duty service member has been stationed in some of the highest cost of living areas in the entire United States during his career. Southern California and Hawaii being two of them. Lucky us, right?! Well these duty stations do come at a price…literally. 

When we were searching for housing options in both of these locations, one thing that we noticed was base housing would give us much more square footage for our money and a fenced in yard versus out in town. We decided that even though we were relinquishing all of our BAH we would be doing the same thing for a small apartment in town. More space was worth it to us in the long run. 

Pets

If you are a military family with pets, you know the struggle to find housing ANYWHERE that will take a dog. Make that not just a dog, but a 105 lb German Shepherd. A breed that is banned from many places for renters but not on base. Base housing would happily take our dog with no pet rent or pet deposit needed. We were all happy campers. The times we did live off base, I found myself paying $1000 pet deposits just so my dog could live in a tiny apartment with no yard. My dog and I were both displeased. 

Safety

Now, I am well aware that bad things happen everywhere. Yes, even on base. No place is truly immune to safety issues. However, there is an overwhelming sense of security when you live on one of the United States of America’s Defense Department installations. There is nothing scarier to a criminal in my mind than thousands of eager Marines ready to take on a fight a moment’s notice! 

When we lived in town, I made the mistake of pulling up a registered sex offenders map and truly wished I could “unsee” the results. However, like a beautiful little halo of security was the base on that map, void of single marked area. 

No Desire to Buy

I’ve heard it a thousand times – “Don’t give your money away to Lincoln!” or “What a waste of your BAH!” While I completely understand where this logic comes from, I usually remember this is preached as gospel by local realtors trying to make a buck. We don’t view living in base housing as throwing our money away. We have financial goals for ourselves and one of them is to wait to buy a home until my husband out of the service and we have saved enough for a hefty down payment. I understand that this is a wonderful decision for some families, but we have no desire to be absentee landlords, fix home repairs ourselves or buy in the high cost areas we have been stationed. A 1,200 square foot home with no air conditioning in Hawaii for a million dollars? No thank you! 

Off Base Housing Has Problems Too

You hear all the horror stories about on-base housing: mold, broken appliances, long wait times. However, living off base will not always escape you from a host of housing problems as a renter. Having a nightmare property manager out in town will make anyone sit on the front door of the Lincoln housing office begging for a home on base. We have dealt with mold, cockroach infestations, leasing problems and plumbing issues in one of our experiences living off base. I could not get out of the place we rented fast enough. 

Community

This brings me to my last and final point. I have also heard a million times. “I don’t want to live on base because I can’t escape work.” While I believe this is very much true for many families, we have personally never felt this way. I actually enjoy knowing my neighbors and having bbqs in our front driveway on the weekends. There is nothing better than being able to walk to all of your friends’ homes at a moment’s notice. During deployments, this has been key to saving my sanity and making me feel less lonely. Having a newborn and easy access to help and support from my community saved me from drowning in postpartum anxiety. Living on base for the community will always be my number one reason. Plus, walking to the beach from base housing in Hawaii is a pretty big plus too! 

You Have Options!

So the next time you PCS, don’t write base housing off completely. Give it a shot! You never know and it may end up being better than you imagined. And if you don’t like it? Guess what…leases on base are WAY easier to get out of than leases out in town.

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Hi! Welcome to Mrs. Navy Mama.

I’m Noralee- a military wife of over 10 years, mother of three (soon to be 4) under 5, and lover of southern comfort food, my planner and chocolate. Military life is hard, no question.

Mrs. Navy Mama is a place where new military girlfriends, fiancees, or spouses can get tips and an honest perspective about military challenges.