Rent, Buy, or Post

Every time we pcs we start having the rent, buy, or live on post conversation. The economy, deployment, and Basic allowance for housing seem to be all we can talk about. We have rented, we have lived on post and in housing leased by the government. We have never bought a house.

At my baby shower the ladies and I got into a discussion about renting or buying. It was very interesting that half of the ladies always bought a house when they moved and the other half had never bought a house either renting or living on post. Most of the buyers wanted to build equity and make use of the the Basic Allowance for Housing or BAH. The renters did not want to have to worry about selling a house with frequent pcsing.

I was absolutely positive that I wanted to live on post because my husband is going to be deploying a couple of months after we move. I feel safe living on post particularly when I am without my husband. Then I looked at the floor plans for the housing on post. It is a lot like another house we lived in on post where the living room, dining room, family room are all one room, it was very dark and very small. So now we are thinking about buying a house. We have looked at a lot of great houses that are very affordable, lots of choices. However I love living on post. I love when my husband can come home after PT or come home for lunch. I also like that we can go by his office and say hi, but the fact of the matter is that he is likely to be gone more than he is home. I am not sure what to do.

I want to buy a house that I can paint or landscape. I would love to have a little garden in the back. I am afraid that being away from post will mean that I am isolated from the support that post has to offer. I am afraid that the next time a pcs comes up we will have to be separated because we can't sell the house. Hopefully when we get there it will be obvious, either the perfect house to buy or housing on post will be better than I thought.