Latest military housing listings & guides

Updated October 2026. Rates and office hours come from the Defense Travel Management Office, Military OneSource and Fort Hood Public Affairs. Confirm current figures with the housing office before you sign anything.

Fort Hood housing is the most-searched topic on this site, and for good reason: the post outside Killeen, Texas is one of the largest Army installations in the world, home to III Armored Corps and the 1st Cavalry Division, and tens of thousands of Soldiers and families move here every year. This guide walks through your two real options, on-post family housing run by Cavalry Family Housing and off-post rentals in Killeen, Harker Heights and Copperas Cove, with the 2026 BAH rates you will budget against.

A note on the name. The post was renamed Fort Cavazos in 2023 and officially became Fort Hood again in 2025, this time honoring World War I artillery officer Col. Robert B. Hood. You will still see both names on leases, school forms and listings, which is why our installation page is Fort Hood (Cavazos).

Fort Hood housing at a glance

• Location: Killeen, Texas, in Bell and Coryell counties, about an hour north of Austin. The cantonment and training area covers roughly 340 square miles.
• On-post family housing: privatized under the Army's Residential Communities Initiative. Cavalry Family Housing, a Lendlease company formerly called Fort Hood Family Housing, manages more than 5,000 homes across a dozen villages. A separate 300-home village of two-bedroom homes, Liberty Village, is run by Universal Services.
• Rent on post: set to your with-dependents BAH, with electricity, water and gas included and no security deposit for active-duty families.
• Off-post commute: 10 to 15 minutes from Killeen, Harker Heights and Copperas Cove; about 30 minutes from Temple, Belton, Gatesville and Lampasas.
• Housing office: Housing Services Office, Copeland Soldier Service Center, Building 18010, T.J. Mills Blvd, Fort Hood, TX 76544. Phone 254-285-2313, Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Step one: in-process with the Housing Services Office

Whatever you decide, start at the Housing Services Office (HSO) in the Copeland Soldier Service Center. Per Fort Hood regulation, in-processing through the HSO is mandatory before you rent, lease or buy in the local area, and the office does more than stamp a form. Staff keep a list of registered rental agencies, review leases, help with tenant-landlord disputes and discrimination complaints, and run the waitlist for on-post housing.

Timing matters. If you apply for on-post housing within 30 days of arriving, your eligibility date is backdated to the day you left your last duty station. Apply later and the clock starts on the day you submit the application. On a waitlist that can run from two weeks to 12 months depending on rank, bedroom count and occupancy, those weeks of seniority are worth having. Families enrolled in the Exceptional Family Member Program should bring the EFMP medical memo with the housing requirement form so the HSO can match the right home or help with off-post options.

On-post neighborhoods at Fort Hood

Cavalry Family Housing assigns homes by rank band and bedroom need, so you will not pick an exact address, but it helps to know what the villages look like. Here are the neighborhoods you will hear about most:

• Heritage Heights is the newest neighborhood on post, replacing the 1960s-era Chaffee Village. Homes are single-family three-bedroom, two-bath designs with two-car garages, built for junior enlisted Soldiers and certified Energy Star. Hundreds were completed in 2024 and construction continues through 2027 as part of a $420 million community development plan.
• Comanche I, II and III are established villages of two- and three-bedroom single-story and two-story homes near the Exchange, Commissary and Clear Creek golf course. Comanche I has had recent window, door, siding and privacy-fence upgrades.
• McNair is known for larger homes, some with basements and hardwood floors, close to Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center.
• Kouma and Venable offer three- and four-bedroom two-story homes for enlisted families, near basketball courts, a fitness center and a community pool.
• Patton Park holds ranch-style homes of about 2,000 square feet reserved for senior warrant officers and field-grade officers.
• Wainwright shares a neighborhood community center with Heritage Heights, Patton and McNair, where residents handle applications, payments and work orders.
• Liberty Village is the 300-home village of two-bedroom homes operated by Universal Services under a separate ground lease. Apply through the Liberty Village website or ask the HSO.

Across the villages, families get 24-hour maintenance, a two-pet limit with breed restrictions, community centers, pools, playgrounds and dog parks. On-post students attend Killeen ISD schools, including seven elementary schools and two middle schools located on post; high school students are zoned to Killeen High School or Shoemaker High School. Read our base housing explainer for how assignments, inspections and move-out work in a privatized community.

2026 BAH rates for Fort Hood (Killeen, TX)

Fort Hood sits in military housing area TX286. The 2026 rates below took effect January 1, 2026. On post, your rent is the with-dependents column; off post, it is the budget you have for rent plus utilities. Use the DoD BAH lookup for your exact grade and our BAH guide for how the allowance works.

Pay grade	With dependents	Without dependents
E-1 to E-4	$1,662	$1,374
E-5	$1,695	$1,530
E-6	$1,920	$1,626
E-7	$2,070	$1,668
E-8	$2,238	$1,746
W-2	$2,139	$1,743
O-1	$1,731	$1,623
O-3	$2,340	$1,833
O-4	$2,577	$2,076
O-5	$2,748	$2,169

For context, HUD's fiscal year 2026 fair market rents for the Killeen area run roughly $875 for a one-bedroom, $1,050 for a two-bedroom, $1,375 for a three-bedroom and $1,700 for a four-bedroom. Newer homes in Harker Heights and south Killeen list above those figures, older apartments below them. Either way, most grades can rent a three-bedroom house off post and keep part of their BAH, which is the main reason Soldiers choose to live outside the gate.

Off-post: Killeen, Harker Heights, Copperas Cove and beyond

Most Fort Hood families who live off post choose one of three cities that border the installation. Each has a different feel:

• Killeen wraps around the main gate and has the deepest rental inventory and the lowest prices. Newer subdivisions on the south side, near Stan Schlueter Loop, are popular with families; the north side offers the cheapest apartments and the shortest drive to the gate.
• Harker Heights, to the east, is the suburban choice: larger homes, retail along Highway 190, Stillhouse Hollow Lake close by and a short run to the east gates. It is popular with NCOs and junior officers and rents accordingly.
• Copperas Cove, to the west, is quieter and family-oriented with its own school district, Copperas Cove ISD, and quick access to the west side of post.
• Nolanville, Belton and Temple add a 20 to 30 minute commute in exchange for newer construction, Belton ISD and Temple ISD schools and the Baylor Scott & White medical campus in Temple.
• Gatesville, Lampasas and Salado are the small-town options about half an hour out.

The HSO lists registered agencies, but you will also find homes through the base's housing referral tools and ordinary listing sites. Our guide to finding off-base housing covers how to vet a landlord from a distance and what a deposit should look like. Before you sign, make sure the lease carries a military clause or cites the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act so you can break it on orders; our SCRA guide explains the notice process step by step.

On post or off post: how Fort Hood families decide

Living on post trades flexibility for simplicity. Rent, utilities and maintenance are bundled into your BAH, you are minutes from your unit, and neighbors understand deployments. Living off post lets you keep whatever BAH you do not spend, pick your school district and own pets without a breed list, but you take on utilities, yard work and the risk of a lease you cannot easily leave. The renting versus buying guide adds the ownership math, which looks better at Fort Hood than at most posts because home prices in Killeen remain well below the Texas average.

Whichever way you go, document the home. Our move-in inspection checklist is built for both privatized housing and civilian rentals, and the PCS moving checklist keeps the rest of the move on schedule. If you are bringing a dog or cat, read PCSing with pets first: Cavalry Family Housing allows two pets with breed restrictions, and many Killeen landlords charge non-refundable pet deposits.

Other Texas installations

Orders to another Texas post? We also cover housing at Joint Base San Antonio, where Hunt Military Communities and Balfour Beatty run family housing at Fort Sam Houston, Randolph and Lackland, and at Fort Bliss in El Paso. Browse every installation we cover or jump straight to all listings.

Fort Hood housing FAQ