Pentagon ZIP Code for BAH: 20301, Military Housing Area DC053, and the 2026 Washington, DC Metro Rate by Grade

The ZIP code to type into the BAH lookup for the Pentagon is 20301. That is the Washington, DC ZIP the Department uses for every Pentagon mailing address, from "1000 Defense Pentagon, Washington, DC 20301-1000" for the Secretary to "1400 Defense Pentagon, Washington, DC 20301-1400" for Public Communications. The building itself stands in Arlington, Virginia, "right across the Potomac River from Washington, DC," as the Military OneSource installation page puts it. That is why the search is confusing: the physical address and the mailing address are in different states. For the housing allowance it does not matter. The 2026 Defense Travel Management Office table files the Pentagon under Military Housing Area DC053, "Washington, DC Metro Area," and that is the table you are paid from. The 2026 rates are settled and took effect January 1, 2026. The 2027 table has not been released.

Why the BAH lookup asks for a ZIP code

The DTMO lookup page states the rule in one line: a member is "eligible for BAH, based on the member's rank, dependency status, and permanent duty station zip code." The ZIP is a key, not the unit of pricing. DTMO's own FAQ explains that "An MHA is a collection of zip codes (generally following county lines) surrounding a major military installation or a metropolitan area," and that "BAH is defined for every zip code in the United States, even though some locations may have no military population." Every ZIP inside the DC053 group returns the same rate card. And the duty station, not the home, sets the rate: "Once the duty station is known, the BAH compensation is fixed, regardless of where the member lives." A Pentagon-assigned family renting in Alexandria, Silver Spring or Fairfax draws the same DC053 figure.

Five installations in our 2026 table share DC053 under the 20301 key: the Pentagon, Fort Belvoir, Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Joint Base Andrews and Walter Reed. A move between any two of them changes the BAH line on your LES by $0. Our Pentagon BAH page carries the full 24-grade card, and the BAH comparison tool sets DC053 next to any other duty station.

What Military Housing Area DC053 pays in 2026

These are the 2026 DTMO rates for DC053 as carried in our data, effective January 1, 2026. BAH is not taxed, so the annual column is take-home housing money.

Two features of the DC053 card stand out. E-1 through E-4 with dependents all draw $3,096, and E-5 with dependents draws only $36 more at $3,132; the first real step is E-6 at $3,759, a $627 jump. Without dependents the E-4 to E-5 step is $423, from $2,409 to $2,832. The Department sets each grade's rate from a housing profile, so the steps do not track the basic pay table; our basic pay calculator shows how the two lines combine.

The Pentagon against Quantico and Fort Meade

Marine Corps Base Quantico sits in Military Housing Area VA296, "Quantico/Woodbridge, VA," and Fort Meade in MD133, "Fort G. G. Meade, MD." Both are separate rate cards from DC053. The table shows the 2026 with-dependents rates and the monthly gap.

The gap is the duty station's doing, not the home's. A Pentagon-assigned E-7 with dependents and a Quantico-assigned E-7 with dependents can rent on the same Woodbridge street and the Pentagon family will draw $627 more each month, $7,524 over a year. The reverse is also true: moving your lease from Arlington to Woodbridge while staying assigned to the Pentagon changes nothing on the LES.

If your orders show an Arlington address

Because the building is in Arlington County, Virginia, a set of orders, a unit letterhead or a lease may show a Virginia ZIP rather than 20301. Enter the ZIP printed on your orders in the DTMO lookup. If it returns "Washington, DC Metro Area," you are in DC053 and the table above applies. We could not find a Department document that lists which Arlington ZIPs fall inside DC053, so we do not print them here; the DTMO lookup is the only official arbiter for a ZIP that is not 20301.

For mail, the four digits after 20301 are an office code, not a location. The Secretary's suffix is 1000, the Deputy Secretary's is 1010, and Public Communications is 1400. The BAH lookup only needs the first five digits.

Rate protection and the 2027 table

The 2026 table raised rates "by an average of 4.2 percent," per the Department's release, and the Pentagon's card moved more than the average: E-5 with dependents went from $2,952 in 2025 to $3,132 in 2026, up $180 or 6.1 percent, and O-3 with dependents from $3,783 to $4,020, up $237 or 6.3 percent. If the 2027 DC053 card comes in lower, DTMO's rule is that "members currently receiving BAH for a location will be rate protected at the previous year's BAH rate (if higher)," so long as there is no reduction in grade or change in dependency status. If it comes in higher, the new 1 January rate applies to everyone. Until the 2027 table posts, the 2026 figures on this page and in our BAH rates index are the only official ones.