Military base housing

Both Brian and I grew up as military brats (thanks to our Dads) and spent much of our youth traveling and living all around the US and the world.  In all those years, living on base for my family was just the norm.  Looking back, the military housing wasn’t always the greatest (California wins the “worst” award), but sometimes we had luck on our side and lived in a fairly nice home (Colorado comes out on top).  Either way, it was all part of the adventure and my sister and I didn’t know any different as we grew up. 

Fast forward a few decades…

This is our first experience living in base housing. Brian and I decided to live in base housing this time around for several different reasons – we didn’t want the commute that we had living in Florida; we weren’t sure how bad the winters would be up here and how traveling on the roads would be; we would be living as a one-income family for this first year and needed to tighten our belts a bit and make sure we were living within our new family budget; lastly, we wanted to try something different.

 Many bases today have "civilian owned" military family housing. Civilian companies, also known as privatized housing, are contracted to build, operate, and maintain family housing, and "rent" it only to military members, in exchange for their housing allowance.  Aurora Housing (the company who runs Elmendorf AFB and Ft. Richardson) is considered one of the most successful privatized housing management teams in the Air Force today.

Our current home is a 2-story, 4 bedrooms, and 2 bath house, with about 2200 sq. feet. Not too shabby for military housing. Housing has actually come a LONG way since my parents’ day.

There are definite pros to living in military housing:

• All utilities (water, electric, gas) is paid for through your BAH (basic allowance for housing) that is taken out of your paycheck. It’s a definite pro for this area because utilities can run so high, especially in the winter.
• Brian works about 4.5 miles away – shorter commute to and from work AND he comes home for lunch each day.  Bonus, Bonus.
• Free Renter’s Insurance
• Connections to all the base happenings.  Not only do I almost exclusively use the commissary for my grocery shopping, but I’m using so many facilities (hospital, indoor playground, BX, etc) that you can’t help but know what is going on.
• Street snow removal (and these guys usually have it done within the same day the snow stops falling)
• Living amongst people who know what you’re going through is such a nice thing. It’s easy to strike up a conversation with people at the neighborhood playground because all you have to ask is, “Where did you all live before here?” We’re all military and in housing, and we all know we moved here from somewhere else.
• Easy access to downtown (less than 5 miles).

·         Clean and Air Force Protected

·         Fenced Yards and Heated Garages

• Round the clock maintenance. Everything is taken care of here…they even provide light bulbs and filters, ice melt (an essential item in the winter), and fertilizer/grass seed for the warmer months.  Additionally (and almost as good), the Free U-Fix-It Store filled with no cost items to help maintain your home.  This equates to HUGE savings.

Where there are pros to any situation, there are also cons:

• Not getting “away” from work (although that can also be seen as a plus… no stressful drive).
• Living much closer to your neighbors.  We live in a duplex, which means we have one neighbor to our left whose house is adjoined by the wall.  With this closeness, we can occasionally hear the guitar playing, the loud snoring and all that comes with having neighbors with four boys ages 19 to 8.

Overall, though, the pros certainly outweigh the cons.  I’ve been extremely happy with the decision to live on base while we are here in beautiful Alaska.  In almost 8 years of marriage, Brian and I have lived in 5 different residences and this is certainly just as spacious and nice as the others… it even gives the house we still own a run for its money.