San Diego Rental Research › BAH vs rent
In Coronado (ZIP 92118), the 2026 military housing allowance falls short of HUD's fair market rent at every one of the 9 pay grade and home size benchmarks the Defense Department uses to set it, by $255 to $1,287 a month. An E-5 with dependents receives $3,975 against a two-bedroom fair market rent of $4,230. In the 6 other ZIP codes we compared around San Diego Bay, from Point Loma to National City and Imperial Beach, the same allowance covers the fair market rent at every benchmark.
Key numbers: BAH against rent
- $3,975monthly BAH for an E-5 with dependents in 2026, the same anywhere in the San Diego housing area's 161 ZIP codesDefense Travel Management Office, 2026 BAH rates
- $4,230HUD fair market rent for a two-bedroom in Coronado, rent plus utilities, the highest in San Diego County (shared with 3 other ZIP codes)HUD, fiscal year 2027 Small Area Fair Market Rents
- $255 to $1,287monthly shortfall in Coronado across the Defense Department's 9 housing benchmarksOur calculation from the two sources above
- $5,586highest BAH with dependents (O-7 and above), still below Coronado's three-bedroom fair market rent of $5,6102026 BAH rates; HUD fiscal year 2027
- $1,755left over for an E-5 with dependents against the two-bedroom fair market rent in National City ($2,220)Our calculation, 2026 BAH and HUD fiscal year 2027
BAH: Department of Defense, 2026 rates for the San Diego military housing area, effective January 1, 2026. E-5 with dependents is DoD's anchor grade for a two-bedroom townhouse or duplex. Fair market rents: HUD, FY2027, effective October 1, 2026.
One allowance, very different rents
Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) is set for a military housing area, not for a neighborhood. San Diego's housing area covers 161 ZIP codes, and a service member at a given pay grade receives the same amount whether the family rents in Coronado, Point Loma or National City. Rents across those ZIP codes are far apart. HUD's fair market rent for a two-bedroom ranges from $2,220 in National City to $4,230 in Coronado, and Zillow's typical asking rent in Coronado in September 2026 was $5,122, against $3,004 for the City of San Diego.
So the allowance stretches very differently by ZIP code. An E-5 with dependents receives $3,975, which is $1,755 more than the two-bedroom fair market rent in National City and $805 more than in Ocean Beach ($3,170), but $255 less than in Coronado. The table below compares every benchmark grade with the fair market rent for the same number of bedrooms in each ZIP code.
| Pay grade, housing type and 2026 BAH | Coronado 92118 | Point Loma 92106 | Ocean Beach 92107 | Imperial Beach 91932 | Otay Mesa-Nestor 92154 | Barrio Logan 92113 | National City 91950 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E-4 without dependents, 1-bedroom apartment: $2,763 | −$737 | +$343 | +$143 | +$623 | +$473 | +$913 | +$923 |
| O-1 without dependents, 2-bedroom apartment: $3,351 | −$879 | +$421 | +$181 | +$761 | +$581 | +$1,111 | +$1,131 |
| E-5 with dependents, 2-bedroom townhouse or duplex: $3,975 | −$255 | +$1,045 | +$805 | +$1,385 | +$1,205 | +$1,735 | +$1,755 |
| O-1E without dependents, 2-bedroom townhouse or duplex: $3,972 | −$258 | +$1,042 | +$802 | +$1,382 | +$1,202 | +$1,732 | +$1,752 |
| E-6 with dependents, 3-bedroom townhouse or duplex: $4,404 | −$1,206 | +$524 | +$204 | +$974 | +$734 | +$1,434 | +$1,464 |
| O-3E without dependents, 3-bedroom townhouse or duplex: $4,398 | −$1,212 | +$518 | +$198 | +$968 | +$728 | +$1,428 | +$1,458 |
| W-3 with dependents, 3-bedroom single-family house: $4,521 | −$1,089 | +$641 | +$321 | +$1,091 | +$851 | +$1,551 | +$1,581 |
| O-6 without dependents, 3-bedroom single-family house: $4,494 | −$1,116 | +$614 | +$294 | +$1,064 | +$824 | +$1,524 | +$1,554 |
| O-5 with dependents, 4-bedroom single-family house: $5,493 | −$1,287 | +$793 | +$413 | +$1,343 | +$1,053 | +$1,903 | +$1,933 |
How the allowance is set
The Defense Department builds BAH from local median rents plus average utility costs for six housing types, from a one-bedroom apartment to a four-bedroom single-family house. Each type is tied to an "anchor" pay grade: a one-bedroom apartment for an E-4 without dependents, a two-bedroom townhouse or duplex for an E-5 with dependents, a three-bedroom single-family house for a W-3 with dependents, and so on. Rates for the other grades are set between those anchors. The table above uses the 9 anchor grade and housing type pairs from DoD's BAH Primer.
BAH is not meant to cover the whole rent. Since 2019 the rates have been set so that members pay about 5% of national average housing costs out of pocket, and the Primer notes that a member who chooses a larger or more costly home than the local median will pay more. Members keep any amount they do not spend on rent, and individual rate protection means a member's BAH does not fall while they stay at the same location, grade and dependency status.
Coronado's fair market rent is at HUD's ceiling
HUD's fair market rent is its estimate of the 40th percentile of gross rents, rent plus utilities, paid by recent movers into standard-quality homes. For ZIP codes, HUD scales the metro figure by how local rents compare with the metro, but no ZIP code can go above 150% of the metro fair market rent. Coronado's two-bedroom figure, $4,230, is 150% of San Diego County's $2,823, rounded to the nearest ten dollars. It is the highest value in the county, shared with 3 other ZIP codes.
That means HUD's Coronado figure may understate local rents rather than overstate them, and the shortfalls above may be larger in practice. Zillow's typical asking rent for Coronado ($5,122, without utilities) is above HUD's two-bedroom figure.
| ZIP code | Studio | 1 bedroom | 2 bedrooms | 3 bedrooms | 4 bedrooms | Zillow ZORI, Sep 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coronado (92118) | $3,280 | $3,500 | $4,230 | $5,610 | $6,780 | $5,122 |
| Point Loma (92106) | $2,270 | $2,420 | $2,930 | $3,880 | $4,700 | $2,875 |
| Ocean Beach (92107) | $2,460 | $2,620 | $3,170 | $4,200 | $5,080 | $2,854 |
| Imperial Beach (91932) | $2,010 | $2,140 | $2,590 | $3,430 | $4,150 | $2,822 |
| Otay Mesa-Nestor (92154) | $2,150 | $2,290 | $2,770 | $3,670 | $4,440 | $2,971 |
| Barrio Logan (92113) | $1,740 | $1,850 | $2,240 | $2,970 | $3,590 | $2,216 |
| National City (91950) | $1,720 | $1,840 | $2,220 | $2,940 | $3,560 | $2,440 |
| San Diego County FMR (FY2027) | $2,192 | $2,335 | $2,823 | $3,743 | $4,526 |
What this means for owners
- In Coronado, most military households will pay part of the rent themselves. At every benchmark grade, BAH is below the fair market rent for the matching home size, and no grade with dependents reaches the three-bedroom figure of $5,610. Price a Coronado rental on the market, not on BAH, and expect some military applicants to compare Coronado with homes across the bay.
- Elsewhere around the bay, BAH covers the fair market rent. In the 6 other ZIP codes, the allowance meets or beats HUD's figure at every benchmark. The closest case is Ocean Beach, where an E-4 without dependents has $143 more than the one-bedroom fair market rent.
- What California fair housing law says. Gov. Code § 12955(a) makes it unlawful for a housing owner to discriminate against or harass a person because of, among other characteristics, "veteran or military status" or "source of income". Our guide to how BAH works for renters and landlords covers the rest.
- Plan for orders. Federal law (the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act) lets service members end a lease early on qualifying military orders. See military tenants and the SCRA and when a military tenant gets PCS orders.
This is general information, not legal or financial advice. Rates for a specific grade and ZIP code are on the official BAH calculator. If you own in Coronado, see our Coronado property management page.
2026 BAH rates for San Diego
| Pay grade | With dependents | Without dependents |
|---|---|---|
| E-1 to E-4 | $3,666 | $2,763 |
| E-5 | $3,975 | $3,147 |
| E-6 | $4,404 | $3,387 |
| E-7 | $4,446 | $3,678 |
| E-8 | $4,488 | $4,065 |
| E-9 | $4,671 | $4,188 |
| W-1 | $4,425 | $3,564 |
| W-2 | $4,464 | $4,062 |
| W-3 | $4,521 | $4,206 |
| W-4 | $4,731 | $4,410 |
| W-5 | $4,992 | $4,455 |
| O-1E | $4,449 | $3,972 |
| O-2E | $4,506 | $4,161 |
| O-3E | $4,770 | $4,398 |
| O-1 | $4,032 | $3,351 |
| O-2 | $4,401 | $3,873 |
| O-3 | $4,518 | $4,248 |
| O-4 | $5,082 | $4,440 |
| O-5 | $5,493 | $4,458 |
| O-6 | $5,541 | $4,494 |
| O-7 | $5,586 | $4,575 |
Method and limits
- BAH. We read the Defense Travel Management Office's 2026 rate files for every location and pay grade, in the version updated in May 2026. San Diego's rates are identical in the original release of December 2025. All 7 ZIP codes in this study are in the San Diego military housing area. Rates for O-7 through O-10 are the same.
- Benchmarks. The 9 pairs of pay grade and housing type come from the anchor point chart in DoD's BAH Primer (January 2026). Several grades share a housing type: for example, a two-bedroom townhouse or duplex is the anchor for both an E-5 with dependents and an O-1E without dependents.
- Fair market rents. HUD's Small Area Fair Market Rents for fiscal year 2027, which began October 1, 2026. San Diego is not among the areas where a reevaluation request kept the previous year's figures in effect. HUD's page also lists a revised fiscal year 2027 file, which was not yet available on November 12, 2026.
- Like for like, mostly. Both BAH and fair market rents include utilities. But BAH benchmarks name a housing type (apartment, townhouse, single-family house) while fair market rents are by number of bedrooms for any type, and a fair market rent is a 40th percentile figure while BAH is built from medians. For houses in particular, fair market rents are likely lower than what a comparable house rents for.
- ZIP codes. We chose Coronado and the 6 mostly residential ZIP codes nearest the Navy installations on San Diego Bay. Results for other parts of the county will differ.
- Zillow figures are context only. ZORI is Zillow's smoothed typical asking rent across all home sizes, without utilities, so it is not directly comparable with either BAH or HUD's figures.
- Individual rents vary. Fair market rents describe a market, not a particular home. Members' actual BAH can differ from the published rate because of rate protection and other rules.
Every figure on this page was calculated by a script from the downloaded source files and checked by a second script on November 12, 2026 against DoD's separate Excel release of the BAH rates and HUD's published fair market rent schedules.
Sources
- Defense Travel Management Office, 2026 BAH rates, all locations and pay grades (ASCII files), 2026 rates, file updated May 2026: www.travel.dod.mil/Allowances/Basic-Allowance-for-Housing/BAH-Rate-Lookup/
- Defense Travel Management Office, 2026 BAH rates (PDF and Excel release), used for the independent check, 2026 rates, file updated May 2026: www.travel.dod.mil/Allowances/Basic-Allowance-for-Housing/BAH-Rate-Lookup/
- Defense Department, A Primer on the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) for the Uniformed Services, January 2026: media.defense.gov/2022/Jun/23/2003023204/-1/-1/0/BAH-PRIMER.PDF
- HUD, FY2027 Small Area Fair Market Rents (data file and schedule), fiscal year 2027, published August 2026: www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr.html
- HUD, FY2027 Fair Market Rents, county level data and schedule, fiscal year 2027, published August 2026: www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr.html
- HUD, Small Area Fair Market Rents Methodology, FY2027, September 2026: www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr/fmr2027/FY27-Public-SAFMR-Methodology.pdf
- HUD, Reevaluation Requests for FY2027 Fair Market Rents, October 2026: www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr/fmr2027/Reevaluation-Requests-FY27-FMRs.pdf
- Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI), all homes, smoothed, by city and ZIP code, through September 2026: www.zillow.com/research/data/
Cite this study
McKee Properties. (2026). Does BAH Cover the Rent? Coronado and San Diego Bay ZIP Codes, 2026. https://mckeecompany.com/research/bah-vs-rent-coronado-san-diego/
The data behind this study is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: download the CSV. Please credit McKee Properties and link to this page.
Questions about the data, or press inquiries: call (619) 435-7780 or email info@mckeecompany.com.
