U.S. Coast Guard - Sector Boston handles Coast Guard missions on the local waterway, from rescue calls to vessel safety in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. Chelsea, Everett and Somerville are the closest places to look for housing, and this guide lays out the allowance, school and cost figures for the area.
An overseas arrival runs on rails a stateside move never uses. Three things decide how smooth the landing is, and all three are arranged before you fly.
Who lives around the installation, so you know the community you're joining.
Pay, schooling and paperwork all change out here. The essentials are below; the full playbook, moving with pets, shipping a car and the paperwork that gates everything, has its own tab.
For the rank and dependents chosen above. Official 2026 tables; the finance office settles the voucher.
A Military Relocation Specialist replies, usually the same day. No call center, nothing sold.
Book official lodging first: staying on or through the installation is what keeps a stay eligible for the temporary lodging allowances. Confirm current TLE or TLA limits with your finance office and keep every receipt.
Route lines are road routes and the drive times are free-flow, computed with OSRM over OpenStreetMap data. Rush hour and gate queues at 0600 to 0730 add real time; a local pro can tell you which neighborhoods beat the rush.
The star marks the installation, not a gate. Gates differ by ID card and some close nights and weekends, so confirm which gate you are cleared to use with your sponsor before you arrive.
The communities service members actually choose, with typical prices and drive times to the gate.
On-installation family housing: what the wait looks like, who runs it, and how to apply.
Zero down, no mortgage insurance, and no loan limit when you have full entitlement. The county numbers that frame the decision:
Home value: Zillow Home Value Index, county level, updated monthly. Conforming limit: FHFA county loan limits, published each November. No rates and no payments here on purpose; those belong to your lender. The checklist generates with the rank and date set on the Toolkit tab.
Many homes here carry a VA loan from a few years ago, at a rate nobody can get today. A VA loan can be taken over by the buyer, rate and payment included. Finding those listings is your Military Relocation Specialist's job, not the lender's.
38 U.S.C. 3714 (assumption and release of liability) and 38 U.S.C. 3729 (funding fee). Your lender confirms the specifics of any loan you look at.
Arithmetic only, with figures you set. Not a quote, not advice.
Principal and interest on a 30-year schedule for both. Taxes, insurance and the remaining term on the assumed loan are left out to keep the example readable.
Every district around the installation, with enrollment links. Military-connected students may also qualify for DoDEA and school liaison support.
In crisis, right now: dial 988, then press 1, or text 838255. The Veterans & Military Crisis Line is free, confidential, and 24/7 for service members, veterans, and the people who support them.
Your unit chaplain is a confidential first stop in every branch. Military OneSource serves every branch, 24/7: (800) 342-9647.
All support programs by branchWhere you and your dependents can be seen on TRICARE. The military hospitals below are the ones CMS certifies; outpatient clinics are listed on TRICARE's own locator.
The closest VA medical centers, clinics, and Vet Centers, with driving directions. Useful whether you are still serving or already out.
The closest non-military hospitals with an emergency department. Worth knowing before you need one, especially if your household arrives ahead of you.
On the installation: every Child Development Center and school-age care program takes its waitlist through the official DoD system. Waitlists at busy installations run months, and you can join before you arrive, so get on it the day orders are cut, not the week you land.
MilitaryChildCare.com, the official waitlistThis station's Child and Youth Services office: contacts and hours are on the official installation directory.
Off the installation: find state-licensed providers through childcare.gov, the federal finder that routes to your state's licensing search. If the CDC waitlist is long, most branches offer fee assistance for licensed off-base care through Child Care Aware, a program many people never hear about.
Licensing and quality checks belong to your state and the DoD systems above, which is why this page points there rather than listing providers itself.
Tax-free shopping and the morale, welfare, and recreation programs you have earned. These go to the official service for each branch at this installation.
Links go to each branch's own exchange and MWR organization. Hours, on-base store lists, and program offerings are set locally, so check the installation's page for what is open near you.
Bookmark the local National Weather Service office for watches and warnings around this station.
Local NWS forecastNOAA 1991-2020 Climate Normals for the nearest station. Change the month on the Settling In tab; it follows your report date.
Markets, eats, and the things that make the area feel like home between duty days.
The chambers serving the communities around this station: local business directories, relocation guides, and event calendars straight from each community.
The nearest location of each everyday anchor, so you can tell what is actually in reach.
Pets can absolutely make this move, but overseas the timeline is the whole game: microchip, rabies vaccine, and in many countries a rabies titer test with a waiting period that can run six months or more. Start the day you have orders, not the month you fly.
Where shipment is authorized, the government ships one privately owned vehicle at its expense. Booking runs through the official PCSmyPOV portal and a Vehicle Processing Center; host-nation rules decide what your destination will accept, so check before you assume your car qualifies.
100 = U.S. average. Anything under 100 means your money goes further here.
With BAH at $—/mo and typical rents near $—, many E-5 and above can build equity instead of paying a landlord. A local pro can run your exact numbers with a VA loan, $0 down.
What a PCS here pays you, from the CY2026 tables the finance office uses. The voucher is theirs to settle; this is so nothing on it surprises you.
DLA: PDTATAC MAP 72-25(I), CY2026. MALT: MAP-CAP 73-25(I), $0.205 per mile per car. Per diem: JTR flat rate, standard CONUS $178. Road miles are estimated at 1.17 times the straight-line distance; finance uses the Defense Table of Official Distances. These are the official tables, not a promise of payment.
Temporary Lodging Expense covers hotel and meals around U.S. Coast Guard - Sector Boston while you find a place: up to 21 days CONUS, capped at $290 a day. What it reimburses tracks the local per diem.
. Lodging and M&IE: GSA FY2026 per diem. Cap and days: JTR ch. 5. Your daily TLE is computed from your household size and what you actually spend.
JTR Table 5-37, CY2026. The bar is your allowance against the 18,000 lb maximum. The Weight Allowance Checker estimates your load room by room.
BAH: DoD DTMO 2026 for this station's housing area. Rent: Zillow Observed Rent Index, county level, updated monthly.
Where to spend the 96-hour pass. The best of the outdoors within reach of this station.
Same phases as the PCS Countdown Planner. Your checkmarks and date are saved on this device and shared with the planner; the email link carries them to any other device.
A service member who is a legal resident of another state and is stationed here on orders does not pay this state's income tax on military pay. Income from a job, a business or property in the state is still taxed here. (Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, 50 U.S.C. 4001) A spouse may elect to keep the service member's state of legal residence for income tax, so a job here can be taxed by the home state instead of this one. (Military Spouses Residency Relief Act and the Veterans Benefits and Transition Act of 2018, 50 U.S.C. 4001(a)(2)) State-specific detail for MA is being verified against its revenue department and will appear here when it has been.
The same six checklists and four calculators as the Toolkit page, already set to this station. Set your date and rank once; every PDF below generates with your figures in it.
Every milestone from 180 days out to arrival week, due dates from your report date, plus this station's BAH table and school districts.
Download for U.S. Coast Guard - Sector BostonThe arrival playbook: in-processing, housing office, schools, TRICARE, vehicles, week by week.
Download for U.S. Coast Guard - Sector BostonCredit, your Certificate of Eligibility, the documents every lender asks for, and when to call a specialist. No rates, no pitch.
Download for U.S. Coast Guard - Sector BostonOn post, rent or buy: your BAH and real quotes on one sheet, so you walk into the decision with the numbers done.
Download for U.S. Coast Guard - Sector BostonEight tabs of documents that ride with you, never in the truck, with a separator page for each.
Download for U.S. Coast Guard - Sector BostonFor 2026, Basic Allowance for Housing at U.S. Coast Guard - Sector Boston is $4,791 a month for an E-5 with dependents and $3,615 without dependents. U.S. Coast Guard - Sector Boston sits in the Boston, MA military housing area. Rates are set by the Department of Defense and vary by rank, so check your own pay grade on the station guide.
In Suffolk County, Massachusetts, the typical home value is $750,961 according to the Zillow Home Value Index, updated monthly. Median rent is $3,280 a month. Compare that against your BAH to see what buying or renting looks like on your pay grade.
The cost of living index near U.S. Coast Guard - Sector Boston (Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH) is 110, where the national average is 100, so costs run above the U.S. average. This comes from Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities.
U.S. Coast Guard - Sector Boston is served by Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Boston among others. Enrollment, school counts, and grade spans come from the National Center for Education Statistics. District boundaries decide school assignment, so confirm the boundary for any specific address before you sign anything.
The nearest civilian hospital with an emergency department is Massachusetts General Hospital, about 0.9 miles away, phone (617) 726-2000. Military hospital data comes from the CMS Hospital General Information file. Outpatient clinics are listed on the TRICARE locator.
Yes. The closest VA facility is Causeway VA Clinic (Primary Care Outpatient Clinic), about 0.3 miles from the installation at 251 Causeway Street, Boston, MA 02114. Facility data comes from the VA's own VAST database. Check va.gov for current phone and hours.
Communities near U.S. Coast Guard - Sector Boston include Chelsea, Everett, Somerville, Boston, Cambridge. The station guide lists typical home prices and drive times for each. We give you the figures rather than telling you which area suits you.
Get real answers from a Military Relocation Specialist who lives and works here. Housing, BAH strategy, timing your search around your report date.
Data sources: BAH figures are official 2026 DoD (DTMO) rates for the housing area covering this station. Stations outside the 50 states draw OHA and overseas COLA rather than BAH. Population, income, age, and veteran share are U.S. Census ACS 2023 county-level figures. Home values and rents are the Zillow Home Value and Observed Rent indexes at the county level, updated monthly (ACS 2023 where Zillow does not cover the county). Cost of living is the U.S. BEA Regional Price Parities 2023 index (US = 100), metro-area level where available, statewide otherwise. District enrollment, school counts, and grade spans are NCES Common Core of Data 2023-24. Where a figure is not published for a site, the guide says so instead of showing a rate that does not apply. Community home prices are the Zillow Home Value Index at the city level, updated monthly; communities Zillow does not cover show no price rather than an older figure. Community descriptions and drive times are editorial. Stations without a community guide yet say so rather than showing samples.
2026 BAH at E-5 is $4,791 a month with dependents and $3,615 without, for the Boston, MA military housing area. In Suffolk County, Massachusetts the typical home value is $750,961 and typical rent is $3,280. Cost of living runs 110 against a national average of 100 (Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH).
