BAH 2026Military housing area TX281
Brownsville, TX BAH 2026
DoD’s 2026 housing allowance for every pay grade in the Brownsville, TX military housing area, with and without dependents, and the 52 ZIP codes it covers.
On this page4 sections
- E‑5 with dependents
- $1,503a monthtied for 286th highest of 338
- E‑5 without dependents
- $1,248a month
- O‑3 with dependents
- $2,169a month254th highest of 338
- ZIP codes
- 52in this DoD area
Brownsville, TX pays $1,503 a month for an E‑5 with dependents: the tied for 286th highest of 338 areas. The lowest is Anniston/Fort McClellan, AL at $1,185, the highest San Francisco, CA at $5,127. The three ticks split the 338 areas into four equal groups, at $1,626, $2,064, $2,580.
Monthly BAH by grade, 2026
The 2026 rates for each grade, in whole dollars a month, exactly as DoD’s file lists them for TX281. E‑1 to E‑4 with dependents share one rate here.
| Grade | With dependents | Without dependents |
|---|---|---|
| Enlisted | ||
| E‑1 | $1,413 | $1,125 |
| E‑2 | $1,413 | $1,125 |
| E‑3 | $1,413 | $1,125 |
| E‑4 | $1,413 | $1,125 |
| E‑5 | $1,503 | $1,248 |
| E‑6 | $1,860 | $1,392 |
| E‑7 | $1,971 | $1,479 |
| E‑8 | $2,094 | $1,578 |
| E‑9 | $2,259 | $1,695 |
| Warrant officers | ||
| W‑1 | $1,878 | $1,410 |
| W‑2 | $2,022 | $1,575 |
| W‑3 | $2,172 | $1,698 |
| W‑4 | $2,292 | $1,881 |
| W‑5 | $2,442 | $1,998 |
| Officers with over 4 years of enlisted or warrant service | ||
| O‑1E | $1,992 | $1,500 |
| O‑2E | $2,148 | $1,656 |
| O‑3E | $2,316 | $1,851 |
| Officers | ||
| O‑1 | $1,551 | $1,323 |
| O‑2 | $1,857 | $1,482 |
| O‑3 | $2,169 | $1,728 |
| O‑4 | $2,490 | $1,974 |
| O‑5 | $2,721 | $2,040 |
| O‑6 | $2,742 | $2,151 |
| O‑7 | $2,757 | $2,187 |
| O‑8† | $2,757 | $2,187 |
| O‑9† | $2,757 | $2,187 |
| O‑10† | $2,757 | $2,187 |
E‑5, the grade in the summary above, is highlighted. † DoD’s file has three columns after O‑7, equal to O‑7 in every area; DoD labels its columns only through O‑7, so they are read here as O‑8 to O‑10.
ZIP codes in this area
DoD’s 2026 file puts these 52 ZIP codes in Brownsville, TX (TX281). The BAH calculator looks up any of them and can compare up to three; the buttons below open it at 78501, one ZIP in this area.
Show all 52 ZIP codesAll 52 ZIP codes
- 785xx
- 78501 78502 78503 78504 78505 78516 78520 78521 78522 78523 78526 78535 78537 78538 78539 78540 78541 78542 78543 78549 78550 78551 78552 78553 78557 78558 78559 78560 78562 78563 78565 78566 78567 78568 78570 78572 78573 78574 78575 78576 78577 78578 78579 78583 78586 78589 78592 78593 78595 78596 78597 78599
Other areas in Texas
Areas whose DoD code starts with TX, with the E‑5 with-dependents rate for 2026.
- Abilene/Dyess AFB, TX$1,872
- Austin, TX$2,241
- Beaumont, TX$1,518
- Brownsville, TX$1,503
- College Station, TX$1,758
- Corpus Christi, TX$1,788
- Dallas, TX$2,469
- El Paso, TX$1,809
- Fort Hood, TX$1,695
- Fort Worth, TX$2,118
- Goodfellow AFB, TX$1,578
- Houston, TX$2,193
- Laughlin AFB/Del Rio, TX$1,470
- Lubbock, TX$1,476
- San Antonio, TX$1,869
- Waco, TX$1,755
- Wichita Fls/Sheppard AFB, TX$1,491
How these rates work
- BAH depends on the area, the pay grade and whether the member has dependents; every rate here is a whole-dollar cell of DoD’s 2026 file (BAH-ASCII-2026.zip), not an estimate.
- Rate protection (37 U.S.C. 403(b)(6)): So long as a member retains uninterrupted eligibility for BAH within an area of the United States, the monthly allowance may not be reduced as a result of changes in housing costs in the area or the member’s promotion. This page can’t know a protected rate; the Leave and Earnings Statement shows it.
- ZIP codes outside DoD’s file, and the 214 ZIP codes DoD’s file assigns to XX499 (“UNKNOWN”), have no area page.
Sources
Checked against DoD’s file on October 13, 2026. The data page lists every file’s checksum: BAH data.