PCSing to Goodfellow. Here's the lay of the land.

Goodfellow Air Force Base is the reason a lot of people first see San Angelo. It is a training base, so most of the people on it are passing through in a matter of months, and the permanent-party families who stay a few years are who this page is for. Here is what the base is, what BAH pays here in 2026, where military families tend to look, and how a VA loan works under Texas rules.

Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Texas Military Installations 2025, Goodfellow AFB profile.

What Goodfellow is

Goodfellow is home to the 17th Training Wing, part of Air Education and Training Command. The wing's stated mission is to train, transform, and empower joint and coalition warriors, and its four groups are the 17th Training Group, the 517th Training Group, the 17th Mission Support Group, and the 17th Medical Group. It trains Air Force intelligence career fields and firefighters from every branch, and it supports Army, Navy, and Marine Corps units on the base along with Angelo State University's Air Force ROTC.

The Comptroller's 2025 profile puts the base's total contribution to the Texas economy at $3.8 billion, with 5,516 active-duty members, 517 appropriated-fund civilians, and 300 contractors on the payroll, and 13,726 direct and indirect jobs across the region. The Army tenant trains more than 1,500 soldiers a year. The base counts 1,749 dependents, and about 4,000 military retirees in the area use its services. It was established in 1940 and trains members of every U.S. branch, including the Space Force and Coast Guard.

The part that matters for housing: with an average of 3,200 students on base on any given day, most of Goodfellow's population is transient. Students typically live in dorms and are here for a course, not a tour. The permanent party, the instructors, support staff, and leadership, are the ones shopping for houses, and they are a much smaller group than the headcount suggests. That keeps demand for family housing steadier and smaller than at an operational base of similar size.

On base or off

Family housing at Goodfellow is privatized. Hunt Military Communities operates it as Goodfellow Family Housing, with more than 240 homes in three neighborhoods. The leasing office is at 2025 Longhorn Drive, San Angelo, TX 76905, phone (325) 244-5885. Availability and wait times move with the training calendar, so call before you assume anything.

The choice is simpler than it looks. Living on base usually means your housing allowance goes to the privatized operator as rent and utilities are handled under their program; ask the housing office exactly how rent relates to your BAH before you sign. Living off base means the allowance is yours to spend on rent or a mortgage, and anything you do not spend you keep. Goodfellow's off-base population is small enough that there is no separate "military side" of town. Families live everywhere from the northeast near the base to the southwest by the lake.

BAH in San Angelo

If you're stationed at Goodfellow AFB, your Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) can play a big role in your housing budget. BAH is a monthly, non-taxable housing allowance for eligible service members who are not provided government housing.

Your rate is based on your pay grade, dependency status, and duty-station location, not the neighborhood or ZIP code where you choose to live. Goodfellow AFB uses ZIP code 76908 and falls within the Department of Defense military housing area Goodfellow AFB, TX (TX284).

Here are several representative 2026 monthly BAH rates for Goodfellow AFB:

Monthly 2026 rates for ZIP code 76908 / military housing area TX284, retrieved September 1, 2026. BAH rates are updated annually, so check the Department of Defense BAH Rate Lookup at travel.dod.mil for your exact pay grade and current rate.

What does that mean for buying a home in San Angelo?

For some perspective, the median sale price in the San Angelo area was about $263,745 in 2025, with roughly one-third of sales falling between $200,000 and $300,000.

That doesn't mean a particular BAH rate automatically supports a home at a certain price. Your actual monthly payment will depend on the purchase price, interest rate, down payment, property taxes, homeowners insurance, and other costs.

If you're PCSing to Goodfellow and considering buying instead of renting, a local lender can help determine what fits comfortably within your housing budget.

Where military families look

PaulAnn, on the northeast side of town in ZIP 76905, is the neighborhood usually described as closest to the base, and it is often marketed to Goodfellow families. It is mostly three- and four-bedroom single-family homes. Read the PaulAnn guide for the details.

The honest version is that San Angelo is small enough that "close to base" is most of the city. Road routing from a point in each area to the base gives these approximate drive times:

Approximate road distances and times computed with a public routing engine on September 1, 2026, from a point in each area to the base boundary, not a specific gate. Your gate, route, and the training-day traffic will vary.

Which one fits you comes down to the same things it would for anyone: price, house size, school district, commute, and whether you want a yard or a lake. All eight neighborhood guides cover those, one page each. If you are weighing the move itself, the relocation guide has the cost of living, schools, weather, and drive times to the bigger cities.

Buying with a VA loan in Texas

A VA-backed purchase loan is a mortgage from a private lender that the Department of Veterans Affairs guarantees. The basics, from the VA itself: no down payment as long as the price does not exceed the appraised value, no private mortgage insurance, limits on what you can be charged in closing costs, and no penalty for paying it off early. You have to live in the home. Your lender will need your Certificate of Eligibility, which you can request online through VA.gov.

There is a one-time VA funding fee. For a first-use purchase with less than 5 percent down it is 2.15 percent of the loan; for a later use with less than 5 percent down it is 3.3 percent; putting 5 or 10 percent down lowers it. The fee is waived if you receive VA compensation for a service-connected disability, among other exemptions, and it is the only closing cost you can roll into a purchase loan. Sellers can pay some of a buyer's closing costs, but the VA caps seller concessions at 4 percent of the home's reasonable value. Confirm your exact fee with your lender; see the VA's funding fee page for the full table.

Two things trip people up. First, the VA appraisal. The VA assigns an independent appraiser, and its appraisal "is not a home inspection or a guaranty of value." The property also has to meet the VA's minimum property requirements, which are about safety, structural soundness, and sanitation, and a wood-destroying insect inspection is part of that in most cases. Get your own inspection anyway. Second, when you sell, a VA loan can be assumed by a qualified buyer with the servicer's approval, and you can request a release of liability; if the buyer is a veteran who substitutes their own entitlement, yours is restored. In a period of higher rates that can make your house easier to sell at the next PCS.

Texas adds a property tax break. A veteran the VA rates 100 percent disabled, or individually unemployable, is entitled to a total exemption from property taxes on the residence homestead under Tax Code Section 11.131. Lower ratings get a partial exemption on one property: $5,000 off the value for a 10 to 29 percent rating, $7,500 for 30 to 49, $10,000 for 50 to 69, and $12,000 for 70 to 100. You apply with the Tom Green Central Appraisal District (Form 50-135 for the partial exemption), and every homeowner should also file the regular homestead exemption on Form 50-114. Details are at the Texas Comptroller; the appraisal district makes the final call on eligibility.

Timeline that works with orders

Buying on a PCS clock is mostly about doing the paperwork before you arrive. A sequence that typically works:

1. Before you leave your current station. Request your Certificate of Eligibility, pick a lender, and get pre-approved. Ask your finance office about Dislocation Allowance, which partially reimburses moving costs and is paid once per fiscal year in most cases, and about Temporary Lodging Expense, which partially covers lodging and meals in the States and now runs up to 21 days for a CONUS move. If you are moving yourself, a personally procured move pays 100 percent of what the government would have spent.
2. House-hunting trip. Permissive TDY or leave for house hunting is up to your command; ask early. Send Chase your price range, bedroom count, and report date so the showings are lined up before you land. Tell him how many days you have and he will build the schedule around it.
3. Contract and option period. In Texas the promulgated contract gives you a negotiated option period, typically a handful of days, during which you can terminate for any reason and get your earnest money back; the option fee itself stays with the seller. Inspections happen inside that window.
4. Appraisal and underwriting. The VA appraisal and the lender's underwriting run in parallel. How long that takes varies by lender and season; ask yours for a realistic closing date before you sign.
5. Closing. A title company handles the closing in Texas. If your report date lands before closing, a short-term rental or TLE lodging bridges the gap. The first-time buyer guide walks through each Texas form in order.

Durations are typical, not promised. Your lender, the appraiser's schedule, and the seller's situation all move the date.

Renting first

Plenty of Goodfellow families rent for the first lease and buy later, and there is nothing wrong with that. It gives you a year to learn which side of town fits your commute and your kids' school, and it avoids buying in a hurry from a hotel room. The trade-off is that you start the clock on your tour without building equity, and a second move inside San Angelo is still a move. If your tour is short or your next assignment is uncertain, renting is the conservative choice. If you expect to stay three or more years, run the buy numbers with a lender and decide with the facts in front of you. Chase can point you to rentals as well as listings; just ask.

If you have orders in hand, send Chase your report date and your BAH and he will start from there. If you are still deciding between on base and off, the housing office and this page together should get you most of the way. And when the next set of orders comes, he sells the house too.

Questions people ask