Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH), paid to 950,000 service members living off base in stateside areas, will rise in January by an average of 5.9 percent, or $53 a month, Defense Department pay officials said.

For 2006, as in years past, changes to individual BAH rates will vary by rank, marital status and assignment area, with allowances rising sharply for people assigned to certain high-cost areas such as Ho-nolulu and Washington, D.C.

In Honolulu, the housing allowance for 2006 will range from $1,355 a month for a service member of E-1 pay grade with no dependents, to $3,388 for an O-7 with dependents.

BAH rates are adjusted each year based on changes in rental cost data for different types of housing across 370 military housing areas. The data are gathered by base housing offices from local Realtors, renters and classified advertising. A defense contractor, Runzheimer International, conducts surveys to verify the accuracy of the rental data collected.

Since 2000, when the Defense Department and Congress adopted a five-year plan to close a 19 percent gap between BAH rates and local rental costs nationwide, service members living off base have enjoyed two types of BAH rate protection: individual and geographic.

Individual rate protection, which remains in effect, guarantees that BAH will not fall for service members while they are assigned to an area, even if local rental cost drop. This protects members facing monthly mortgage payments or long-term leases from an allowance squeeze.

Geographic rate protection, on the other hand, was intended to be temporary. It ensured members newly arrived in an area that they would receive no less in BAH than members of the same rank and family status already there. It was a tool to stabilize BAH rates until the gap between allowances and average local rental costs was closed, which has occurred.

With this protection ending Jan. 1, BAH for new arrivals will fall in areas where rental costs have slipped over the past year or more. In many of the affected areas, only rents for certain types of housing have fallen so only certain pay grades will be affected.

For example, officers, with dependents, at pay grade O-3 or above who move to Fort Bragg or Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina in 2006 will draw less BAH than counterparts already assigned there. An O-4 with dependents at Bragg or Pope now draws BAH of $1,248 a month. That amount won't change Sunday but any O-4 "with dependents" who is assigned there in 2006 will draw $25 a month less in BAH.

Enlisted members in grades E-6 or E-7 moving to San Diego likewise will draw less in BAH than peers already there. An E-6 with dependents now receives BAH of $2,001 a month. The rate for new arrivals in the same pay grade will be $1,900.