Ed Neuhaus 
An E-5 with dependents at Fort Cavazos pulls $1,695 a month in BAH. That same E-5 stationed at Camp Mabry in Austin gets $2,733. That’s a $1,038 difference for bases that are about 70 miles apart, and it changes everything about where you should be looking at houses.
I work with military families PCSing into Central Texas pretty regularly, and the conversation almost always starts in the same place: “Where should I live?” The answer depends on which base you’re reporting to, how long you expect to be here, and whether you plan to keep the house as a rental when you PCS out. According to the Department of Defense BAH rate tables, those 2026 rates jumped 4.2% across the board this year. So your housing dollar actually goes further than it did 12 months ago.
Lets break down the real options by installation, because buying a home near Fort Cavazos looks nothing like buying near Camp Mabry. And if you’re one of those JBSA folks who decided to live up the I-35 corridor (I see you), we’ll cover that too.
Fort Cavazos: The Killeen-Temple-Harker Heights Triangle
Fort Cavazos (still called Fort Hood by literally everyone who’s been there more than a year) is the largest active-duty armored post in the country. About 36,000 soldiers and their families. III Corps headquarters. And the surrounding housing market is one of the most affordable in the entire Army.
The median home price in Killeen sits around $225,000 to $250,000 right now. Harker Heights runs a little higher at roughly $300,000 because the schools are better and the neighborhoods are newer. Copperas Cove is the budget play at $150,000 to $249,000, and Temple or Belton push into the $300,000 to $399,000 range but give you a college town vibe and slightly more distance from the base.
Here’s the thing about buying home near Fort Cavazos that most people don’t think about until it’s too late. The average cost per square foot in this area is about $76. Compare that to Austin at $250 plus. So your BAH of $1,695 (E-5 with dependents) can legitimately cover a mortgage on a $225,000 house with room to spare. Try doing that in Austin.
Which City Should You Pick?
Killeen is the default. Closest to the gates, most inventory, most other military families. The schools are fine (not great, but fine). If your spouse works on post or you want a 10-minute commute, this is it.
Harker Heights is where families go when they want better schools and are willing to add 5-10 minutes to the drive. The neighborhoods east of FM 2410 have seen a lot of new construction in the last few years, and resale values hold better here than in Killeen proper.
Copperas Cove is the quiet option. Smaller town feel, lower prices, decent schools. The commute to the main gate is maybe 20-25 minutes depending on which part of post you’re heading to. I’ve had clients who loved it there specifically because it didn’t feel like a military town.
Temple and Belton are the wild cards. They’re 25-35 minutes from post, which sounds like a lot until you realize there’s no traffic (this isn’t Austin right). Temple has a growing medical corridor, and Belton has the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. If you’re thinking about keeping the house as a rental after you PCS, these two towns have a more diverse tenant pool than Killeen does. Not just military.
Camp Mabry: Military Life in the Middle of Austin
Camp Mabry is a completely different animal. It’s the headquarters of the Texas Military Department and the Texas National Guard, sitting right in the middle of Austin off MoPac near 35th Street. There is no on-post housing. Zero. Everyone lives in the surrounding Austin neighborhoods.
And your BAH reflects it. An E-7 with dependents at Camp Mabry gets $3,039 a month. That sounds generous until you remember the Austin median home price is hovering around $400,000 to $450,000. So the math is tighter than Fort Cavazos, but it still works, especially right now.
Why especially right now? Because Austin is a buyer’s market in 2026. Inventory is up, sellers are negotiating, and you can ask for seller concessions that cover your closing costs. Combine that with a VA loan (zero down, no PMI) and you’re looking at getting into a house with very little cash out of pocket.
The neighborhoods I point Camp Mabry folks toward depend on budget and commute tolerance. South Austin along Manchaca and Slaughter has homes in the $350,000 to $400,000 range with 15-20 minute commutes. If schools are the priority, Round Rock and Georgetown to the north have better ratings but push your commute to 30-40 minutes. And if you want the Hill Country lifestyle, places like Bee Cave or Dripping Springs are beautiful but you’re looking at $500,000 plus. That’s the tradeoff.
The Split Commuter Problem: Georgetown, Round Rock, and the I-35 Corridor
Here’s a situation I run into more than you’d think. One spouse is stationed at Fort Cavazos. The other works in Austin (or goes to school at UT, or works in the tech industry). Where do you live when one person commutes north and the other commutes south?
Georgetown is the answer about 80% of the time.
Georgetown sits roughly halfway between Fort Cavazos and downtown Austin on I-35. The median home price is around $405,000. The schools (Georgetown ISD) are strong. Sun City is there if you have family visiting who love golf. And the town has enough restaurants and retail that it doesn’t feel like a bedroom community.
Round Rock is the other option. Slightly closer to Austin, slightly more expensive in some neighborhoods, and Round Rock ISD is one of the top-rated districts in the state. If you have school-age kids and the Fort Cavazos commuter can handle 45-50 minutes on I-35, Round Rock is hard to beat.
The commute math: Georgetown to Fort Cavazos main gate is about 40-45 minutes with no traffic. Georgetown to downtown Austin is about 30-35 minutes. Not perfect, but workable. And honestly, military families are used to imperfect commutes right.
The JBSA Spillover: New Braunfels and San Marcos
I know this article is about the Austin area, but I can’t ignore the JBSA crowd. Joint Base San Antonio has four installations spread across 35 miles of the San Antonio metro, and a surprising number of people stationed there choose to live north along the I-35 corridor.
San Marcos and New Braunfels sit right in the middle of Austin and San Antonio. If you’re stationed at Randolph (the northeast JBSA installation), New Braunfels is about a 25-minute commute. And the median home prices in that corridor are still in the $300,000 to $400,000 range.
I had a client last year who was at Randolph but whose spouse worked in south Austin. They bought in San Marcos and both had 30-minute commutes. Sometimes the middle ground is literally in the middle.
But lets be honest. If you’re firmly JBSA, the closer communities like Schertz, Cibolo, and Universal City are probably the smarter play. The I-35 corridor between San Marcos and Austin is a different conversation, and I cover it in detail in our Kyle vs Buda vs San Marcos comparison.
VA Loans in Austin’s 2026 Market: Your Secret Weapon
Ok lets talk about the thing that gives military buyers a genuine edge in this market. The VA loan.
Zero down payment. No PMI. Ever. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, about 66% of all VA purchase loans in recent years had zero down payment. And VA rates typically run 0.25% to 0.50% lower than conventional rates.
In a market where sellers are already negotiating and inventory is sitting, walking in with a VA loan pre-approval is powerful. I know there’s this old stigma that sellers don’t like VA offers because of the VA appraisal process. And yeah, that was more of an issue in 2021 when sellers had 15 offers on every house. Right now? Sellers are happy to see any qualified buyer.
The VA funding fee is the one cost to plan for. It’s 2.15% of the loan amount on your first VA purchase (so about $8,600 on a $400,000 home). But here’s the thing most people don’t know: you can roll that into the loan. And if you have any service-connected disability rating, even 10%, the fee is waived completely.
Quick math on a $300,000 house near Fort Cavazos with a VA loan at 6.25%:
- Down payment: $0
- Monthly P&I: roughly $1,847
- Property taxes (Bell County): roughly $500/month
- Insurance: roughly $150/month
- Total: about $2,497/month
An E-7 with dependents at Fort Cavazos gets $2,070 in BAH. So you’d be about $427 out of pocket. Drop the price to $250,000 and an E-7’s BAH covers almost everything. An E-5 at $1,695 would need to look in the $200,000 to $225,000 range to stay close to BAH, which is absolutely doable in Killeen and Copperas Cove.
Now compare Austin. A $400,000 home with the same terms runs about $3,247 a month all in. An E-7 at Camp Mabry BAH of $3,039 gets close but not quite. Thats fine though. Most military families expect to cover a small gap, and $200 a month isn’t going to wreck anyone’s budget. Benjamin Graham used to say the intelligent investor thinks about value relative to price, not just price alone. Austin has value that Killeen doesn’t, and vice versa. Know what you’re buying.
PCS Timeline: How to Buy a House When Uncle Sam Decides Your Schedule
The military doesn’t care about your real estate timeline. Orders come when they come. So here’s the realistic game plan I walk military buyers through.
90-120 days out: Get your VA pre-approval done. Not a pre-qualification, a pre-approval. Your lender needs your LES, your orders (even projected), and your credit pulled. Do this before you start looking at houses. I’ve seen too many families fall in love with a house online and then find out they can’t qualify for that price point. Do the boring stuff first.
60-90 days out: Start your house search remotely. Video tours, neighborhood research, school district comparisons. If you’re PCSing to the Austin area, I do virtual walkthroughs with clients all the time. You can narrow your list to 5-8 houses before you ever set foot in Texas.
House hunting trip (PTDY/permissive TDY): Most branches authorize 10 days of house hunting leave. Use them wisely. Don’t try to see 20 houses in 3 days. Pick your top 5-8 from the virtual tours and see those. If you’ve done the homework, you should be able to go under contract during this trip.
30-45 days: Close on the house. VA loans typically close in 30-45 days, which is right in line with conventional loans despite what people say. The VA appraisal adds maybe a week. Plan accordingly and it’s not an issue.
The 3-year rule: If you’re going to be at this duty station for less than 3 years, seriously consider renting. I know that’s weird advice coming from a real estate agent, but I’d rather you make a smart financial decision than buy something you’ll lose money on. Transaction costs on both ends of a purchase need time to be offset by appreciation and equity buildup. Less than 3 years usually isn’t enough. If you’re here for 3 or more, buying almost always makes sense, especially with a VA loan and zero down.
Resale Value: Will the Next PCS Buyer Be Military Too?
This is the question smart military buyers ask. And it matters.
Near Fort Cavazos, yes. Your buyer pool is overwhelmingly military. That’s not a bad thing (consistent demand as long as the base stays active, and Fort Cavazos isn’t going anywhere), but it does mean your home value is somewhat tied to BAH rates and base activity. When BRAC talks start, Killeen gets nervous. When BAH goes up 6.3% like it did this year, everybody’s happy.
In Austin, your buyer pool is much more diverse. Tech workers, remote employees, retirees, investors. A home in Georgetown or Round Rock will attract both military and civilian buyers, which means less concentration risk. If you’re thinking of this house as a long-term investment (and military families who move every 3-4 years should absolutely be thinking about building a portfolio), Austin-area homes give you more flexibility.
I’ve worked with military families who PCS out and keep their Central Texas home as a rental. It’s actually a great strategy. You bought with a VA loan at a low rate, the home appreciates, and a property manager handles the tenants while you’re in your next assignment. When you retire, you’ve got a paid-off (or nearly paid-off) house waiting for you. Or a cash-flowing rental. Ryan Holiday talks about the obstacle being the way. The PCS cycle that feels like an obstacle to homeownership can actually be the path to building a portfolio if you play it right.
On-Post vs Off-Post Housing: The Real Tradeoff
Fort Cavazos has privatized on-post housing managed by Lend Lease. Your BAH goes directly to the housing company. You get a maintained home, you’re close to everything on post, and you don’t deal with a mortgage.
But you also build zero equity. None.
That BAH money disappears every month with nothing to show for it when you leave. If you buy off post, that same money is going toward a mortgage. Yes you have maintenance costs and property taxes and all the stuff that comes with owning a home (and yeah sometimes the AC quits on you in August, which in Central Texas is basically a medical emergency). But you’re building equity. You own something.
Camp Mabry doesn’t have this dilemma since there’s no on-post housing. It’s off-post or nothing.
My take: if you’re going to be at Fort Cavazos for 3 or more years and your credit is in reasonable shape, buy off post. Use that VA loan. Start building something. The on-post housing is fine, but fine isn’t building wealth.
Military-Friendly School Districts
Schools matter, especially for military families who have already put their kids through one or two (or five) school transitions. Here are the districts I recommend most.
Near Fort Cavazos:
- Harker Heights area schools (Killeen ISD) are the strongest near the base
- Belton ISD is solid if you’re willing to commute from the south side
- Temple ISD has some standout magnet and STEM programs
Austin Corridor:
- Georgetown ISD is excellent and has programs specifically for military-connected students
- Round Rock ISD is consistently rated one of the top 10 districts in Texas
- Leander ISD (covers parts of Cedar Park and northwest Austin) is another strong choice
I-35 Corridor:
- New Braunfels ISD has a small-town feel with good academics
- San Marcos CISD is improving rapidly and the cost of living there is very reasonable
Most of these districts participate in the Military Interstate Children’s Compact, which makes enrollment and credit transfers smoother during PCS moves. Ask the registrar specifically about the compact when you enroll. Don’t assume they know the process because sometimes they don’t.
Temporary Lodging and Your House Hunting Trip
Quick practical notes because I know this stuff matters when you’re in the middle of a move.
Fort Cavazos has on-post temporary lodging facilities (IHG Army Hotels). Book early during PCS season (May through August) because they fill up. Off-post, Killeen and Harker Heights have plenty of extended-stay options.
For Camp Mabry, lodging is available for DoD ID cardholders at 512-782-5500. But honestly, most people end up in an Austin hotel or short-term rental during their house hunting trip. If you’re looking at the Georgetown or Round Rock area, stay up there. Don’t commute from downtown Austin to look at houses in Georgetown. I’ve watched people waste half their house hunting trip sitting in I-35 traffic. Don’t do that.
And use your permissive TDY wisely. Have your agent (hi, that’s me) set up all the showings before you arrive. Narrow the list online first. Tour 5-8 homes max. Make a decision. You don’t have time to be casual about this.
Frequently Asked Questions
PCSing to Central Texas? Lets Talk.
I work with military buyers every day and I know the timeline pressure you’re under. PCS orders don’t wait for the perfect house to hit the market, and you don’t have months to casually browse listings. What you need is someone who knows which neighborhoods work for your budget, your commute, and your BAH, and who can move fast when you find the right one.
Whether you’re heading to Fort Cavazos, Camp Mabry, or somewhere in the I-35 corridor between Austin and San Antonio, I can walk you through the options. Virtual tours before your PTDY, showings dialed in when you arrive, and a closing timeline that works with your report date.
Reach out to me directly and lets figure out your game plan. Be safe, be good, and be nice to people.
