Mountain Home Air Force Base is an Air Force installation in Mountain Home, Idaho. This guide covers 2026 BAH rates for every paygrade, TRICARE region, state tax treatment, on-base amenities, and PCS planning tools.
Rates last verified August 2026 against the published source tables.
Mountain Home Air Force Base is an Air Force installation in Mountain Home, Idaho.
Housing here is priced in the Mountain Home AFB military housing area. 2026 BAH for an E-5 with dependents is $1,605 a month, against HUD's FY2026 fair market rent of $1,658 for a three-bedroom — close enough to the rent that the two effectively cancel. BAH is paid on top of base pay and is not taxed, and the rate is the same whether you rent or buy.
ID exempts pay earned while stationed outside Idaho. Care here falls under the TRICARE West region. Families living off post are served by Mountain Home School District #193.
| Pay grade | With dependents | Without dependents |
|---|---|---|
| E-1 | $1,563 | $1,521 |
| E-2 | $1,563 | $1,521 |
| E-3 | $1,563 | $1,521 |
| E-4 | $1,563 | $1,521 |
| E-5 | $1,605 | $1,524 |
| E-6 | $2,187 | $1,641 |
| E-7 | $2,238 | $1,680 |
| E-8 | $2,292 | $1,725 |
| E-9 | $2,418 | $1,899 |
| W-1 | $2,208 | $1,656 |
| W-2 | $2,259 | $1,722 |
| W-3 | $2,328 | $1,920 |
| W-4 | $2,451 | $2,196 |
| W-5 | $2,610 | $2,250 |
| O-1 | $1,680 | $1,527 |
| O-1E (Prior Enlisted) | $2,244 | $1,686 |
| O-2 | $2,181 | $1,683 |
| O-2E (Prior Enlisted) | $2,316 | $1,860 |
| O-3 | $2,325 | $1,977 |
| O-3E (Prior Enlisted) | $2,478 | $2,181 |
| O-4 | $2,658 | $2,232 |
| O-5 | $2,901 | $2,259 |
| O-6 | $2,925 | $2,304 |
| O-7+ | $2,943 | $2,343 |
Mountain Home Air Force Base draws its rates from the Mountain Home AFB military housing area. In 2026 an E-5 with dependents receives $1,605 a month and an E-5 without dependents $1,524. An E-7 with dependents receives $2,238. The rate depends on the housing area, your paygrade and whether you have dependents — not on your ZIP code, and not on whether you rent or buy.
For an E-5 with dependents, it lands within about $53 of a three-bedroom at the local benchmark, so there is very little margin. The benchmark is HUD's FY2026 fair market rent of $1,658 — a 40th-percentile gross rent, so it includes tenant-paid utilities and half the local market rents for more. Anything above that benchmark comes out of pocket, and anything below it you keep: BAH pays the same rate whatever your actual rent turns out to be.
No. BAH is a non-taxable allowance, so it does not appear as taxable wages on your W-2 and no federal or state income tax is withheld from it. That makes a dollar of BAH worth noticeably more than a dollar of base pay, which is why comparing a civilian salary against base pay alone understates military compensation.
Mountain Home School District #193 serves families living off post at Mountain Home Air Force Base. Enrollment normally needs the previous school's records, immunizations and proof of address, and the installation's School Liaison Officer can start that before you arrive.
Mountain Home Air Force Base falls in the TRICARE West region. The region determines which contractor administers your care and where referrals are authorized, so a PCS that crosses regions means transferring your enrollment — Prime enrollment does not follow you automatically, and letting it lapse drops you to TRICARE Select with its cost shares.
Idaho taxes an Idaho resident's active-duty pay unless it is earned while stationed outside Idaho for at least 120 consecutive days. Pay earned in Idaho is taxable. Being stationed in a state does not by itself make you a resident of it: state income tax follows your state of legal residence, and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act protects that against an involuntary PCS.
Most of it is reimbursed rather than paid. A PCS to Mountain Home Air Force Base normally pays a dislocation allowance, a mileage allowance for driving your own vehicle, per diem for you and each dependent while you travel, and temporary lodging once you arrive. Choosing a personally procured move pays you the government's cost for the same shipment, so the profit — and the tax on it — depends on your weight and the distance. The PCS calculator estimates all of those for this destination.