Fort Sam Houston sits just north of downtown San Antonio. The 2026 allowance is the San Antonio table, the same dollars as Lackland, because DTMO puts both gates in one housing area. The drive is not the same.
The base and the drive
The City of San Antonio places Fort Sam Houston just north of downtown and calls it the oldest installation in Joint Base San Antonio. The city page names Brooke Army Medical Center there, along with Army medical and headquarters units. It is inside the city, not on the outer southwest edge.
That location is the commute. Downtown is the reference the city uses. JBSA-Lackland is the southwest corner of the same city and the same housing area. Families who shop near downtown are closer to this gate than to Lackland. The San Antonio VA page is VA loans in San Antonio.
2026 BAH for this duty station
Housing area TX285, San Antonio, TX. DTMO's 2026 ZIP map sends 78234 (Fort Sam Houston) and 78236 (Lackland) to that same code. Rank titles differ by service on a joint base, so the table uses pay grades.
| Pay grade | With dependents | Without dependents |
|---|---|---|
| E-5 | $1,869 | $1,500 |
| E-6 | $2,094 | $1,596 |
| E-7 | $2,112 | $1,731 |
| O-3 | $2,127 | $2,007 |
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. Texas is on that list.
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
- City of San Antonio, military installations
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