Updated October 2026
Orders to Fort Belvoir usually arrive with a short clock and a long list. What will the housing allowance pay? Is there a home on post? And if not, which Alexandria address actually makes sense?
We work with military and relocating families, and the first conversation almost always starts with those three questions. This guide answers them for Fort Belvoir specifically. For the wider picture across Northern Virginia, start with our federal and military relocation guide for Northern Virginia.
What does BAH pay at Fort Belvoir in 2026?
Fort Belvoir sits in the Washington, DC Metro Area military housing area. The Defense Travel Management Office, the Defense Department office that publishes BAH rates, lists the official 2026 Basic Allowance for Housing rates for that area by pay grade and dependency status. Here is a slice of its table, in monthly dollars.
Pay grade | With dependents | Without dependents |
|---|---|---|
E4 | $3,096.00 | $2,409.00 |
E5 | $3,132.00 | $2,832.00 |
E6 | $3,759.00 | $3,057.00 |
E7 | $3,855.00 | $3,099.00 |
E8 | $3,957.00 | $3,261.00 |
E9 | $4,128.00 | $3,447.00 |
W1 | $3,780.00 | $3,096.00 |
W2 | $3,894.00 | $3,258.00 |
W3 | $4,023.00 | $3,471.00 |
W4 | $4,167.00 | $3,777.00 |
W5 | $4,350.00 | $3,876.00 |
O1E | $3,870.00 | $3,129.00 |
O2E | $4,002.00 | $3,405.00 |
O3E | $4,197.00 | $3,753.00 |
O1 | $3,213.00 | $3,054.00 |
O2 | $3,753.00 | $3,126.00 |
O5 | $4,692.00 | $3,909.00 |
O6 | $4,731.00 | $3,999.00 |
Two more lines from the same table: an O3 with dependents receives $4,020.00 a month, and an O4 without dependents receives $3,855.00.
Dependency status moves the number. An E5 with dependents receives $3,132.00 and an E5 without receives $2,832.00, a $300 monthly difference by our math.
Before you sign a lease or a contract, confirm your own rate with the Defense Travel Management Office's BAH calculator. Enter your duty-station ZIP code, not the ZIP of the house you've fallen for. Questions about government quarters, rate protection, or a family situation that doesn't fit the table belong with your finance office.
One note for civilian federal employees. BAH is a uniformed-service allowance, and this table doesn't apply to a civilian move. Your relocation benefits come through your agency, so start with its relocation or HR office.
BAH is a budget line, not a verdict on a house
The allowance tells you what the government pays toward housing at your duty station. It doesn't tell you whether a particular lease or mortgage works for your family.
In our experience, the families who feel best about a Belvoir move build the whole monthly picture first: rent or mortgage, utilities, insurance, HOA or condo fees, and what the commute costs in time and gas. Then they see where BAH lands against it. Sometimes it covers everything. Sometimes it covers part. Either answer is fine, as long as you know it before you commit.
If you end up in privatized housing on post, ask how the allowance is handled for your home before you count any of it as spending money.
Can you live on post at Fort Belvoir?
Yes, if you qualify and a home is available. According to Military OneSource's Fort Belvoir government-housing page, Fort Belvoir homes are available to all military families assigned to the Military District of Washington, and the villages range from new construction to historic homes. Housing on post is privatized under the Army's Residential Communities Initiative.
For advance applications and wait times, the page points families to the family housing welcome center at 888-740-9851 or 703-619-3877. Military members with families are required to report to the Housing Services Office as part of in-processing, and that office can be reached at 703-805-3019.
When you call, ask three things: the current wait for your home size, how rent and utilities are handled, and what paperwork they want from you before you arrive.
Getting through the gate, and the commute behind it
The garrison's Installation Access/Gates page lists Tulley Gate as open 24/7. For every other gate and for the Visitor Center, check that page the week you report.
If family is coming to help with the move, plan their passes early. Visitors pick up a pass inside the Visitor Center and present their ID, and a secondary ID may be required depending on REAL ID rules.
The commute itself is personal. It depends on which building you report to, which gate serves it, and what hour you leave the house. Our advice is simple: drive the route on a weekday at your real reporting time before you commit to an address. If transit is part of the plan, run trip plans through WMATA, Fairfax Connector, and VRE, and check the Virginia Department of Transportation's traffic information for the roads you'd use.
Our guide to Alexandria neighborhoods by commute and our Kingstowne commute guide to Metro, the interchange, and drive times walk through those trade-offs for specific parts of the map.
Alexandria addresses: City or Fairfax County?
An Alexandria mailing address doesn't always mean the City of Alexandria. The 22307 ZIP code, which includes Belle Haven and New Alexandria, carries an Alexandria label but sits in Fairfax County, outside the independent city.
That line decides two things you'll feel every month: which tax rate applies and which school system you're in. Our comparison of City of Alexandria and Fairfax County schools covers the school side. If you're leaning toward the Fairfax County side of Alexandria, our Fort Hunt and Mount Vernon guide is a good next read.
People ask us for the best place to live near Fort Belvoir. There isn't one answer. The right place is where your gate, your budget, your school system, and your tolerance for the drive all line up, and that's different for every set of orders.
What August sales looked like in the 22307 ZIP code
For buyers looking at the Fairfax County side of Alexandria, the 22307 ZIP code, which includes Belle Haven, is one area where we can show recent closed sales. According to our analysis of Bright MLS closed-sale data, 10 homes closed in the ZIP in August 2026, compared with 17 in August 2025.
Chart 1. Closed sales in the 22307 ZIP code, August 2025 and August 2026. Source: Bright MLS closed-sale data, Alexandria 22307, August 2025 and August 2026, pulled September 27, 2026.
The median sale price in the 22307 ZIP code was $1,187,500 in August 2026, against $610,000 in August 2025. Median days on market was 17 days in August 2026, compared with 27 days a year earlier.
Read those medians carefully. With 10 and 17 sales behind these medians, differences in the homes sold could affect the comparison. These figures alone do not establish a value trend.
Figures are our analysis of individual closed-sale records for all residential property types in the 22307 ZIP code, which includes Belle Haven and New Alexandria, in Fairfax County. They are not Bright MLS published statistics and may differ from published reports for the same area. The ZIP is not the City of Alexandria, and it doesn't stand in for Fort Belvoir or Northern Virginia as a whole.
If you're buying: what to set next to BAH
A sale price isn't a monthly cost. Here are the pieces we'd put on the page beside your allowance.
Property tax. According to Fairfax County, the Board of Supervisors lowered the real estate tax rate from $1.1225 to $1.12 per $100 of assessed value for FY2027, in a budget adopted May 5, 2026. That rate applies to Fairfax County homes with Alexandria addresses, such as those in 22307. It doesn't apply inside the City of Alexandria, and it doesn't include special-district charges.
As a rough illustration, take the August 2026 median sale price in the 22307 ZIP code from our Bright MLS analysis, $1,187,500, and treat it as an assessed value. At $1.12 per $100, that comes to $13,300 a year by our math. Your actual bill depends on your parcel's assessment.
Mortgage rate. Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey put the average 30-year fixed rate at 7.28% for the week of October 1, 2026. A year earlier it averaged 6.34%. The 15-year fixed averaged 6.60%. Those are national survey averages, not a quote, and your lender sets your rate.
VA funding fee. A VA loan is a separate benefit from BAH, and the funding fee is its own line. The VA's funding-fee page lists, for a first-use purchase loan, 2.15% with less than 5% down, 1.5% with 5% or more down, and 1.25% with 10% or more down. After first use, the fee with less than 5% down is 3.3%. Some borrowers don't pay it at all, including veterans receiving or eligible for service-connected disability compensation, surviving spouses receiving Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, service members with a pre-discharge rating, and active-duty Purple Heart recipients.
This is general information and is not legal or tax advice. For your own numbers, talk with a lender and a CPA.
How we'd start a Fort Belvoir search
- Confirm your BAH with the Defense Travel Management Office calculator, using your duty-station ZIP code.
- Call the family housing welcome center before you rule on-post housing in or out.
- Find out which building you report to and which gate serves it, then drive it at your reporting hour.
- Decide between the City of Alexandria and Fairfax County, because taxes and schools follow that line.
- Price the full monthly cost of a home, then set BAH next to it.
Working with us
Elizabeth Lucchesi and the LizLuke Team at LONG & FOSTER REAL ESTATE INC help military and relocating families find their footing in Alexandria and Northern Virginia. Elizabeth is licensed in Virginia and Washington, D.C. We work the whole market, small condos through the high end. Most of our business comes from referrals and repeat clients. If Belvoir orders are on your desk, meet the team and tell us where you're reporting. It all starts with a conversation.
The LizLuke Team at LONG & FOSTER REAL ESTATE INC. 110 N Royal St, Ste 300,
Alexandria, VA 22314. Office 703.683.0400. The LizLuke Team (703) 868-5676. Virginia License #0225069250.
Equal Housing Opportunity.
All information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
Sources
- Defense Travel Management Office, "2026 BAH Rates, All Locations and All Pay Grades" (ASCII rate files), Washington, DC Metro Area military housing area (DC053), retrieved October 7, 2026: https://www.travel.dod.mil/Portals/119/Documents/BAH/BAH_Rates_All_Locations_All_Pay_Grades/ASCII/BAH-ASCII-2026.zip
- Defense Travel Management Office, BAH Rate Lookup (BAH calculator): https://www.travel.dod.mil/Allowances/Basic-Allowance-for-Housing/BAH-Rate-Lookup/
- Military OneSource MilitaryINSTALLATIONS, Fort Belvoir Government Housing, retrieved October 7, 2026: https://installations.militaryonesource.mil/military-installation/fort-belvoir/housing/government-housing
- U.S. Army Garrison Fort Belvoir, Installation Access/Gates, retrieved October 7, 2026: https://home.army.mil/belvoir/about/Garrison/DES/physical-security/installation-accessgates
- Fairfax County Department of Management and Budget, "Board of Supervisors Adopts FY 27 Budget, Reduces Real Estate Tax Rate," May 2026: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/budget/board-supervisors-adopts-fy-27-budget-reduces-real-estate-tax-rate
- Freddie Mac, Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week of October 1, 2026: https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, VA funding fee and loan closing costs, retrieved October 7, 2026: https://www.va.gov/housing-assistance/home-loans/funding-fee-and-closing-costs/
- Bright MLS closed-sale data, Alexandria 22307, August 2025 and August 2026, pulled September 27, 2026
