During his 11 years as a Marine, Brenden Taylor and his family have moved several times. But when they left Okinawa, Japan, in 2022 for Camp Pendleton in Southern California, finding an affordable home to rent using his military housing allowance became an almost impossible challenge. Finally, they found something they could afford in Murietta, a 45-minute drive from the base.
Rising rents are a problem for many families. From 2021 to 2023, the median U.S. rent increased 25%, adjusted for inflation, according to research from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. During the same period, renters’ median household incomes rose only 5%, the study found.
Rising costs are especially hard on active-duty service members’ families, who receive an allowance from the Defense Department to cover the costs of owning or renting privately managed housing. Although the department has increased the allowances in recent years, they remain insufficient for most active-duty families, according to a new survey conducted by Blue Star Families, a nonprofit organization founded in 2009 by military spouses.
Only 26% of active-duty families responding to the survey said the allowance covered their monthly housing costs last year; just four years earlier, 42% had said it covered their costs. Seventy percent of active-duty service members and their families live off base, the organization said.
Concerned about the price hikes, 15 Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee, led by ranking member Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ruben Gallego of Arizona, want the Defense Department to investigate what’s driving them.
In a letter Monday, the lawmakers asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to determine whether higher costs faced by service members’ families are a result of what they call profiteering by landlords using the rent-pricing system offered by RealPage Inc., a private equity-backed property management software company. Last summer, federal prosecutors and eight state attorneys general sued RealPage, contending its system allows rival landlords to align rents with one another and inhibit competition that benefits renters. Two more attorneys general have joined the suit.
“Services provided by RealPage may enable landlords to raise rents even more aggressively to the detriment of military families,” the lawmakers wrote.
They asked the Defense Department to determine whether service members’ landlords are using RealPage’s system, driving up rents, and to answer a list of questions outlining its strategy to shield service members from improprieties.
“The Department of Defense has a responsibility to protect military families from predatory private housing companies and ensure that taxpayer dollars meant for military families are not being pocketed by unscrupulous landlords,” the letter said.
A Defense Department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Last year’s federal and state lawsuit contended RealPage’s system was behind outsized price increases in many areas surrounding military bases across the country. They include Houston, parts of Florida, San Diego and Spokane, Washington.
RealPage strenuously denies the prosecutors’ allegations, calling them baseless. Its system “is purposely built to be legally compliant” and “enhances competition throughout the rental housing ecosystem,” it says.
In early December, RealPage moved to dismiss the lawsuit, saying a previous court had rejected the argument that the landlords’ use of its system amounted to a price-fixing conspiracy. The Justice Department and state attorneys general filed an amended complaint last month adding six landlords who they said had worked with RealPage in its “anticompetitive scheme.” RealPage is scheduled to respond to the complaint this week.
A RealPage spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about the senators’ letter.
In a statement, Warren said: “Secretary Hegseth should investigate — and protect — military families from predatory private housing companies.” Gallego said in a statement: “Our military families already sacrifice so much to serve our nation, often having to relocate every few years. The Basic Housing Allowance is meant to support military families — not line the pockets of corporate landlords.”
Because so many active-duty service members’ families live off base, area rents have a big impact on them. In setting its housing allowance, the Defense Department collects data on rental housing costs for 300 military housing areas in the United States and monitors the Consumer Price index, Census Bureau surveys and other information.
As housing costs for active-duty service members have risen, the department has increased the stipend it provides. On Jan. 1, the allowance rose an average of 5.4%, following the same increase last year and 12.1% in 2023. The department estimates it will pay almost $30 billion in housing allowance funds to 1 million service members this year.
Housing costs are “particularly stressful in San Diego County,” said Renee Villaman, whose husband, Louis, is stationed at Camp Pendleton.
The family of five is fortunate to live on the base, she said, but she noted that rents on base seem to rise alongside rents in nearby neighborhoods off base. Given that the government owns the land on which the base sits, Villaman is puzzled by the dynamic.
“When the rent in Oceanside goes up, where is the pressure on government land that the rent has to go up here?” she asked.
Many factors contribute to rising housing costs. Elevated interest rates, for example, mean more people rent because they cannot afford mortgages, driving up rental costs. The supply of housing has not kept up with demand in recent years, and research shows that increased purchases of single-family rental homes and apartment complexes by corporate and private equity-backed landlords have raised rents significantly in some regions.
Another problem: As out-of-pocket housing costs increase, active-duty families are less likely to recommend military service to others, Blue Star Families’ research shows.
“Military families’ financial stability is absolutely key, not only for the families living it but for our overall national security,” said Lindsay Knight, chief impact officer at Blue Star Families. “The more we can shore up military family security, the more resilient and robust our all-volunteer force is going to be.”
