GI Bill housing allowance in California
The Post-9/11 GI Bill Monthly Housing Allowance for every military housing area in California, using the official DoD rates effective January 1, 2026.
Your rate follows your school, not your state
People search for this by state, so here it is by state. But the honest answer is that the VA sets your housing allowance from the ZIP code of the campus you attend, using the military BAH rate for an E-5 with dependents there. That means two schools in California can pay very different amounts: $1,563.00 a month in China Lake versus $5,127.00 in San Francisco, a difference of $3,564.00 every month.
2026 rates by housing area
Full-time enrollment at 100 percent eligibility. Scale it down if your GI Bill percentage or rate of pursuit is lower.
| Housing area | Monthly MHA | At 70% | ZIP codes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barstow/Fort Irwin | $2,001.00 | $1,400.70 | 11 |
| Beale AFB | $2,967.00 | $2,076.90 | 79 |
| Bridgeport | $2,085.00 | $1,459.50 | 20 |
| Camp Pendleton | $3,963.00 | $2,774.10 | 21 |
| China Lake | $1,563.00 | $1,094.10 | 6 |
| Edwards AFB/Palmdale | $2,658.00 | $1,860.60 | 26 |
| El Centro | $1,986.00 | $1,390.20 | 19 |
| Fresno | $2,439.00 | $1,707.30 | 113 |
| Humboldt County | $1,827.00 | $1,278.90 | 38 |
| Lemoore NAS | $2,139.00 | $1,497.30 | 49 |
| Los Angeles | $3,882.00 | $2,717.40 | 632 |
| Marin/Sonoma | $3,303.00 | $2,312.10 | 91 |
| Monterey | $3,465.00 | $2,425.50 | 54 |
| Oakland | $3,759.00 | $2,631.30 | 121 |
| Riverside | $3,351.00 | $2,345.70 | 91 |
| Sacramento | $2,904.00 | $2,032.80 | 158 |
| San Bernardino | $3,288.00 | $2,301.60 | 78 |
| San Diego | $3,975.00 | $2,782.50 | 161 |
| San Francisco | $5,127.00 | $3,588.90 | 73 |
| San Luis Obispo | $3,198.00 | $2,238.60 | 43 |
| Santa Clara County | $4,659.00 | $3,261.30 | 123 |
| Stockton | $2,553.00 | $1,787.10 | 71 |
| Twenty Nine Palms MCB | $1,980.00 | $1,386.00 | 22 |
| Vallejo/Travis AFB | $3,369.00 | $2,358.30 | 30 |
| Vandenberg SFB | $3,333.00 | $2,333.10 | 15 |
| Ventura | $3,537.00 | $2,475.90 | 73 |
The national average across all 51 states and D.C. is $2,289.81 a month. San Francisco sits above it.
Get your exact number
Enter your school's ZIP code, your GI Bill percentage, and your rate of pursuit, and the calculator shows the math step by step.
Open the GI Bill housing calculatorWhat changes the number
- Your eligibility percentage. The rates above assume 100 percent. At 70 percent you receive 70 percent of the figure shown. The tiers are 100, 90, 80, 70, 60, and 50; there is no 40 percent tier.
- Your rate of pursuit. You must be enrolled at more than half time to receive any housing allowance at all.
- Online-only study. If every class is online, you get a flat national rate instead of the local one, regardless of where you live.
- Partial months and breaks. The first and last months of a term are prorated by day, and nothing is paid between terms.
Other states
Informational only. Rates are the published DoD Basic Allowance for Housing tables effective January 1, 2026, applied to the published Post-9/11 GI Bill rules. GI Bill housing has its own effective-date rules and the official amount is always what the VA states and pays. MusterVault is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the Department of Defense.