Renting vs buying on a 3‑year tour

Every transferring family runs this question and most run it on feeling. Here is the math, in general terms, so you can run it on numbers.

The round trip costs money. Buying and then selling a home carries transaction costs in both directions: closing costs when you buy, commissions and closing costs when you sell. Taken together those typically run a meaningful share of the price. On a short tour, that round trip is the whole question, because the house has to appreciate enough to cover it before you see a dollar.

Under about three years, renting often wins. Not always. If the local market is rising fast, or your allowance comfortably covers a payment on a home you would be glad to keep, buying can still work. But the default on a short tour is that the transaction costs eat the equity, and renting lets you leave clean.

Four years and up, buying usually pulls ahead. More time for the loan balance to fall and the value to rise. More time to recover the round trip. More time to actually live in the house instead of maintaining it for the next owner.

The third option: buy, then rent it out. At the next set of orders you keep the house and lease it. This is how a lot of military families build equity across moves. It also makes you a landlord from another state, with a property manager, a vacancy risk, and a repair call at the wrong hour. Say that part out loud before you choose it. Then ask two questions now, not in three years: what does this house rent for today, and does that rent cover the full payment?

The question that decides it. Not "should I buy" but "what is my exit plan for this house, and does the math hold under it." Sell in three years: run the round trip. Hold and rent: run the rent against the payment. Stay for good: run the payment against the allowance and your life after service. Pick the plan, then pick the house.

This is general information, not financial advice. Your numbers are yours; run them with your lender and, if you have one, your tax professional.