on post vs off post housing

There are pros and cons to living on post or living off post. We have been stationed at 3 different posts and this is my experience. Well first of all you may not even have a choice. Most posts have a wait list for on post housing so you are stuck with living off post. Which may not be a bad thing, depending on the location. If you can get a place on post there are its advantages. Hubby gets to sleep a little longer b/c he is closer to work. Might even get to come home for lunch if they have a long enough lunch. You live by other military families! Live in a safe neighborhood. Don't have to worry about a bad landlord that wont get things fixed in the house. You have a problem with the house maintenance comes out the next day to fix it! Close to the PX and Commissary. Most large post offer fun classes, have cheap hourly child care and have a free gym (sometimes with free child care). But there are it's disadvantages. You are qualified for a certain house on post depending on your rank and how many children you have. They many have a few different houses in your range, but you don't get to pick the one you like the best. You get which ever one is available. In our situation right now we would get a 2 bedroom house b/c we have 1 child. Well we are trying to get prego again and I don't want to move into a 2 bedroom house onpost and then once I get prego we then qualify for a 3 bedroom, wait for one to come available and move again to a 3 bedroom. What a pain. If you live off post you get housing allowance which depends on your rank and location on how much you get. And from there you find a house to rent or buy. Sometime you come out ahead and find a place for cheaper than you BAH depending on the location and your rank. But usually around any post the prices of houses go up b/c they know soldiers need housing. But if you live off post you can choose how many bedrooms, which style house you like better, you are the ultimate decision maker in finding a house. And when you live on post to get to anything off post like restaurants, movie theater, shopping, wal-mart, etc you have to drive off post for that and that could take 15-30 mins depending on where you live. When you live off post you can live right by everything. If you need to run to Target, it is right there. If you want some fast food, it is right around the corner. You get to learn the city more and experience the city more when you live off post! When you live on post you usually stick to the things they have on post with the occasional trip to wal-mart and shopping off post. I have done both and each time it depended on the post and area if living on post or off post was better. But for right now I enjoy living off post. We got lucky and found a nice 3 bedroom house, a little above our price range, in a great location next to everything! I love having the extra bedroom for my scrap room and hopefully soon to be baby's room!