And the decision is not all based on the $$ in front of you. Saving one and a half hours a day on travelling to/from work has to be worth something. Only you can decide what that is.

saseboy said:Are there tax advantages to staying in the house off base, with it being my primary residence? I want the better financial choice!

Being in the military for 13 years, I can tell you one thing for sure. The money you receive living off-base, (BAH and BAS), is non-taxable income. Your taxes will not change either way.

What is the quality of life like, living on base vs. living in your own home? I've never been on a base before so I really have no idea.

We drive a Hyundai Entourage mini van. Gas is around 3.50 here. The base is 40 miles away, and he works normally 6 days a week- sometimes 7 on a duty weekend. I thought about getting a hybrid for him, but seems like we could save money moving closer vs. another monthly bill.
We wish we could sell our home in Jacksonville Florida, but the market is fairly stale right now. We could just break even if we sold it ourselves with no realty company, but how would I show it and be available from so far away? There is no one there we could ask to help us.

Thanks for all of the responses so far!

VEry bad gas mileage. Can he drive in a better gas milage car? Could save hundreds a month.
What is life quality for you and kids here vs base? How long will he be at this base in a year will you be somewhere else?
Cost of moving/ renting house over time could be recouped but not for months.

OP do you plan on retiring in the OK house? As for tax advantages living off-base, did you see your recently filed tax form? How much mortgage interest did you pay? On base there are usually many available family-friendly activities, usually in town not so much. Check with others on base to see how they like the housing, there could be a dealbreaker there. Are houses actually available now? Often there's a waiting list. I'd also consider getting rid of the albatross home in FL, even if it means taking a slight loss to rid you of the burden. However, since you're renting it it may not be as urgent. I'd still put it on the market thru an agent if it were me.

I'm not familiar with the details of living on a military base, but what about all the less-acknowledged home-owner costs? Things like home owner's insurance, repairs (particularly HVAC, plumbing, appliances), costs associated with external home maintenance (landscaping), etc....does the base cover the cost of/provide those things?

Then, as others have mentioned, there are the quality of life issues. If your husband is commuting 45 minutes each way, that's 9+ additional hours a week you'll be seeing him. What's the value to you and him for getting to see him for an additional half a day? Will living on-base negatively impact your family? Are the places for the kids to play? Do you get a back yard? Are you the type who feels the need to rennovate their home on a reoccuring basis in order to personalize it?

As for renting your home, that's a route that has additional costs too, not to mention the possibility of less-than-ideal tenants to put up with. It would be cleaner to just sell your home, assuming you can do that without a loss (i.e. market conditions).

- Cail

Why not sell the house in the little hamlet and rent/buy alot closer to base? I personally would choose not to live on base if I had the option to live off base just because I always wanted/needed a break from military life. Of course I wouldn't live 40 miles from work either though. 1.5hrs*6days= 9hrs a week if he typically works 50 hrs a week that would be like a ~20% pay raise.

As far as the tax advantages there probably aren't any unless you currently itemize... 520/month is only 6k/year (not all of which may be tax deductible) and married filing jointly has ~10k standard deduction so even if you're loan is interest only you would need 4k in other deductions to get any tax benefits from the current property. I don't think the second house factors into the equation because the interest/expenses go against revenue from rent.

saseboy said:In short, my husband is Active Duty Navy. We are in Oklahoma. We bought our second home here in a small town about 40 miles away from base. My husband is spending around $120.00 week on gas driving to the base daily. My question is should we rent out our home and move on base to save money in gas?
We receive 847.00 a month housing allowance. If we move on base they take all of this- but we have no utility bills.
Our current mortgage is only 520.00 a month. Our utilities run around 200.00. Figure in gas at 480.00 a month and living off base we are spending 1285.00. It looks obvious, but I wonder if there will be a tax advantage to living in our home off base that will offset this in my favor?(We have another home in Florida that we rent as well. Not sure if this adds to the equation)
In our small town, homes rent for no more than 600.00. (we bought here, because there has NEVER been any crime. EVER. Seriously, never any crimes!)
The other positive to living on base is time. My husband is on the road for 45 minutes each way. If we lived on base, he would have more time with us..
Help me weigh the financial pro's and con's!!
Thank You

Financially:
Current situation
$520 mortgage
$480 gas
$200 utils
= $1200/month - 847 housing allowance = $353 out of pocket

Live on base
$847 all to rent/utils
$520 mortgage
$0 gas
= 520/month - 520? rent = perhaps $0 out of pocket

If you can find renters who pay their own utils, you'd be better off financially on the base. This of course assumes that you save the full $480/month on gas--if you end up driving into town several times a week, you may only save part of that. The maintenance on the house is mostly a wash--since as the landlord or the owner, you're paying either way (though renters might not care for the house as well as you would, resulting in higher maintenance costs--and 80 mile round trips to deal with issues).

As many others have suggested, getting a more fuel efficient car for your husband's commute could also save lots of money, perhaps enough to make staying put equivalent financially (disregarding the commute time factor).

edit: Tax considerations are likely not a factor here. You can check by looking at your last tax return. If you took the standard deduction, then your mortgage interest saved you $0 in taxes. If you itemized, then having the mortgage interest helped you some. To find out how much, just run the numbers again replacing your itemized amount with the standard deduction, and see how much more your taxes would have been. That's your tax benefit.

--For myself and the wife last year, with a $700/month mortgage payment, we only exceeded the standard deduction by several hundred dollars, netting us a $75 lower tax bill. When you include the state tax savings, it was a bit over $100.