Generous military allowances distort local overseas housing markets

Evidence

For families as a whole, living overseas is also financially advantageous. In addition to the regular salary earned by a member of the military, personnel generally receive an overseas cost-of-living adjustment. (The adjustment is also given in Hawaii and Alaska.) The average adjustment is about 300 per month; worldwide, the adjustments total around 2 billion annually. … Because military personnel lose any money from their housing allowances that they don’t use, most rent the largest and most expensive home their allowance will buy. … In places like Guam, nineteenand twenty-year-olds will sometimes pool their money to live in luxurious beachside homes that are out of reach for most locals. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 445

Categorization

• XREF: The housing-allowance market distortion parallels the reader’s graft/trees material about infrastructure creating downstream costs, and echoes base-burden readings on how local renters pay for foreign bases.