Living on Base Vs. Living Off Base Part II

Living on Base Vs. Living Off Base Part II

Martin Howard April 3, 2011 View all blog articles

I thought it was time to revisit the topic of what has turned out to be the most popular post to date.

First, a pep talk of sorts to my 37 registered users: Please post your questions on the blog!

We (meaning I) set this blog up to generate discussion, but most of it is coming to me via email instead of in this forum. I'm getting a lot of emails from people and I'm happy to answer your questions, but I'd really appreciate it if you would post your comments and questions here for all to see. I don't moderate much, aside from deleting attempts to get free advertising or inappropriate or negative comments about the Island (this is my home, if you don't like it here, please leave) I let just about everything else go. So far, those of you who are reading here are only getting my opinion about things. Considering I'm a middle aged retired Marine my ideas may be different from yours. So help me out a little?

Lastly, tell me what you want to hear about and I'll be happy to post something. Send your ideas to [email protected] and I'll get back to you right away.

Now that that's off my chest, onward to today's topic.

We've almost made it to the end of summer and the nature of the housing market has changed quite a bit last year. Mostly, due to the increased OHA rate.

In case you missed the news, in January 2010, DoD increased the OHA rates for Guam pushing everyone from E-5 to 0-4 that has dependents into the same housing market. This has resulted in a big shortage of premium housing on the island. For instance, Paradise Estates, by far the most popular development for military people, is filled to capacity. Instead of a handful of units being available at any given time, families are waiting for vacancies. Just last year it was still possible to get into a 3 bedroom unit at Paradise Estates for $1900 per month. Now, $2450 is the minimum. Same with the more popular condo buildings like Ladera Tower and Alupang Beach Tower, and the rest of the most popular places, there isn't much left. This may change as the summer PCS season passes and more people rotate out and fewer in, I don't know.

As we can free up some time I'll be making a lot of additions to our featured homes section on the website. This will include single family homes and condo / town homes for those of you who hate yard work like me.

So my suggestion, is to start looking early. Meaning, before you arrive. We can exchange some email and have it narrowed down to a few places so you can pull the trigger quickly when you actually get here.