Fort Riley is in the Flint Hills of northeastern Kansas. The Army names Junction City, Ogden, and Manhattan as the closest towns. This page lists 2026 BAH for that housing area. It is not a VA quote.
The base and the drive
The Fort Riley page places the post in the Central Flint Hills, about one hour west of Topeka and about two and a half hours west of Kansas City. It names Junction City, Ogden, and Manhattan as the closest communities. A federal list of installations also places Fort Riley at Junction City, Kansas.
Those three towns are the commute, because the Army named them. The drive times to Topeka and Kansas City are the Army's figures. Kansas City sits on a state line. The sentence below is about which side Jeff can originate on.
2026 BAH for this duty station
DTMO calls the housing area FORT RILEY, KS, code KS100. ZIP 66442 in the 2026 ZIP map is KS100. The pay-grade names are Army titles.
| Pay grade | With dependents | Without dependents |
|---|---|---|
| E-5 (Sergeant) | $1,314 | $1,158 |
| E-6 (Staff Sergeant) | $1,782 | $1,338 |
| E-7 (Sergeant First Class) | $1,845 | $1,383 |
| O-3 (Captain) | $1,953 | $1,611 |
With dependents is one rate. It does not rise for each additional dependent. Without dependents is the other column. BAH follows the duty station in the DTMO file, not the ZIP code of the house you buy.
Rate protection can leave a member on an older, higher rate when the published rate falls, as long as eligibility at that location does not change. The Department of War described that rule in its December 11, 2025 release. Confirm the figure your finance office is paying before you write an offer.
These amounts are from DTMO files bahw26.dat (with dependents) and bahwo26.dat (without dependents) inside BAH-ASCII-2026.zip, downloaded November 1, 2026. For these housing areas the same pay grades in the December 2025 copies in that zip (bahw26.txt and bahwo26.txt) match the figures above. The May 2026 update in the zip is the Abilene, Texas temporary increase. It does not change these four housing areas.
Turn BAH into a home price
The table is a housing allowance, not a mortgage payment. Open the BAH calculator, enter the monthly figure for your pay grade, and add taxes and insurance if you know them. Leave them blank and the estimate says so. The result is a planning estimate, not a VA quote.
Where the loan can be written
Jeff Shin is licensed to originate residential mortgage loans in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, New Jersey, and Texas. Kansas is on that list. Junction City, Ogden, and Manhattan are in Kansas. Missouri is not on the list, so a house on the Missouri side of Kansas City is outside the states where Jeff can originate.
VA loan basics
A VA home loan is for eligible veterans, service members, and some surviving spouses. The VA sets eligibility, the Certificate of Eligibility, and the funding fee. Read the VA home loans page and the funding fee and residual income notes before you treat a rule as settled.
Barrett Financial Group, L.L.C. (NMLS #181106) is the broker and can price one VA file across several wholesale lenders.
Sources
- Defense Travel Management Office, BAH rate lookup
- DTMO 2026 BAH ASCII file (BAH-ASCII-2026.zip)
- Department of War, 2026 BAH rates release, December 11, 2025
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, VA home loans
- U.S. Army Fort Riley, things to do (location and closest towns)
- eCFR, list of military installations (Fort Riley, Junction City, KS)
BAH figures checked November 1, 2026 against the DTMO file linked above.
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Jeff Shin · NMLS #1041652 · Barrett Financial Group, L.L.C. NMLS #181106