JBSA Neighborhoods

Decision guide · TX285 · 36 months

Rent or buy when the tour is three years

Three years is short for a purchase. A VA loan can put a buyer in a house with nothing down, but the funding fee, the interest-heavy early payments, and the cost of selling all land inside those 36 months. Renting keeps the exit cheap. Buying only wins if the house gains value, the owner stays longer, or the plan is to keep it as a rental after the next set of orders.

This page is general information, not advice on a specific purchase or a loan quote. Every number has a source and a date at the bottom.

The allowance is the same; the house is not

Lackland 78236, Randolph 78150, Fort Sam Houston 78234, and Camp Bullis 78257 all map to housing area TX285, so a renter and a buyer at the same grade start with the same monthly allowance. What changes is how much of it is tied up in a house when the next orders arrive.

2026 BAH with dependents, TX285, beside HUD three-bedroom benchmarks for nearby ZIPs
FigureMonthly
BAH E-5, with dependents$1,869
BAH E-6, with dependents$2,094
BAH O-3, with dependents$2,127
HUD FY2026 Small Area FMR, 3 bedrooms, 78148 (Universal City)$1,770
Same, 78150 (Randolph)$1,810
Same, 78109 (Converse)$2,230
Same, 78154 (Schertz)$2,330
Same, 78108 (Cibolo)$2,750

The HUD figures are Fair Market Rents that the federal voucher program sets by ZIP for the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro. They are a dated public benchmark, not an average of current listings and not a quote for any home.

BAH: DoD BAH 2026, rates checked 2026-10-03, ZIP crosswalk checked 2026-10-04. Rents: HUD FY 2026 Small Area FMRs, checked 2026-10-04.

Worked example: a $300,000 house held for 36 months

The $300,000 price is a round illustration, not a price for any neighborhood. For scale, the Guadalupe appraisal district's 2026 mean market value for Category A single-family accounts is $280,791 in Schertz and $334,411 in Cibolo. Those are means of appraised values, not sale prices or medians.

Illustration only: first-use VA loan, no down payment, 36 months of ownership
StepFigure
Price (assumed)$300,000
VA funding fee, first use, under 5% down: 2.15%$6,450, financed
Loan amount$306,450
Rate used (Freddie Mac 30-year average, week of Oct 1, 2026)7.28%
Principal and interest, 30 years$2,096.77 a month
Property tax, Universal City and SCUC ISD units, after the $140,000 school homestead exemption onlyAbout $462 a month ($5,544 a year)
Payment before insurance, HOA, and upkeepAbout $2,559 a month
Interest paid in 36 months$65,955
Principal paid in 36 months$9,529
Loan balance at month 36$296,921

How the tax line was built: the 2025 rates per $100 on the Bexar appraisal district chart for Road and Flood (0.023668), San Antonio River Authority (0.018300), Alamo Colleges (0.149150), University Health (0.276235), Bexar County (0.276331), Universal City (0.530000), and Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD (1.076900) add up to 2.350584. The school rate was applied to $160,000 (the $300,000 value minus the chart's $140,000 school homestead exemption) and the rest to the full $300,000. Other homestead exemptions on the chart would lower it, and an address may sit in different or extra units, so treat it as a rough ceiling. The Freddie Mac rate is a national conventional average, used here as a stand-in. A VA lender's rate will differ.

Fee: VA funding fee and closing costs, page updated 2026-09-22, checked 2026-10-04. Rate: Freddie Mac PMMS, 2026-10-01, checked 2026-10-04. Tax rates: Bexar Appraisal District tax rate chart, as of 2025-12-05, checked 2026-10-04. Means: Guadalupe CAD 2026 certified totals, Supplement 28, checked 2026-10-04.

What the 36 months add up to

If the house is worth exactly $300,000 when the orders come, the owner owes $296,921 against it. That leaves about $3,079 before any cost of selling. Every 1% of sale-side cost on a $300,000 sale is $3,000. So with flat prices, roughly one percentage point of selling cost erases what three years of payments built. Every 1% the value rises or falls moves the result by the same $3,000.

Now the renter. Thirty-six months at the $1,770 HUD benchmark for 78148 is $63,720. The owner in the example paid $65,955 in interest and about $16,632 in property tax over the same stretch, before insurance or repairs. The shape is the point: early payments are mostly interest, and the funding fee starts the loan above the price.

The tradeoff, stated plainly

Renting buys flexibility. A servicemember who signs a residential lease and later gets permanent change of station orders, or deployment orders of at least 90 days, can end that lease under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. With written notice and a copy of the orders, a monthly lease ends 30 days after the next rent payment is due. There is no house to sell.

Buying buys a chance at appreciation and the option to hold the house as a rental later, at the price of a harder exit. The VA purchase loan requires that you plan to live in the home. What happens when you move out is a separate decision covered in selling or renting out when orders come.

Lease rights: DOJ, Financial and Housing Rights, updated 2025-05-12, checked 2026-10-04. Occupancy: VA purchase loan, updated 2026-01-07, checked 2026-10-04.

What changes the answer

Exemptions and down-payment tiers: VA funding fee page, checked 2026-10-04. Sale rules: IRS Publication 523 (2025), checked 2026-10-04.

Sources and dates