Would you recommend living on or off post? We are E6 with 4 dependants going to Yongsan. THANKS

Personally on post. As far as I have been told here you only get OHA for the rent amount, not like BAH with the flat rate for your area and then you only get so much for utilities and anything you go over is out of pocket and it gets really hot and humid in the summer so you will more than likely run the bill up or suffer with no A/C to try to save on the bill. At least on post you don't pay for it.

I agree, for Yongsan.

I live at Osan and I prefer living off post. The cost of housing is not as expensive as it is in Seoul, and - just my personal opinion / observation - I'm noticing that those who live on post really don't go OFF post that often. It's like you get sucked into the commune LOL!!

This actually requires a bit more explaining to fully put it in perspective.

The money you receive for utilities is usually described as a monthly rate, i.e., you get 500,000 won a month. However, it's actually calculated at an annual rate. Thus, if you're getting 500,000 a month, you get 6,000,000 won for the year, and that is the amount you have to work with.

So if your utilities cost 700,000 in July and August because of using a lot of electricity for airconditioning, you don't automatically owe an additionally 200,000 each of those months ~ as long as the total amount you use for the year is under 6,000,000. And because you normally have a much lower utility bill during the winter months (natural gas for heating is a lot cheaper than the electricity used for airconditioning), it's almost never a problem.

Oh okay. One guy down in Chinhae wasn't running his A/C because he said it was too expensive and that he was allotted only so much to pay it, I just took it as a monthly thing. He's a Navy guy down in Chinhae and he lived off post. We had gone to his house to watch fire works for the 4th of July from his balcony (NEVER again, we got blasted with debris during the show... freaked me and my boys out!). And that reminds me, his kitchen was made for little people, I swear you had to be like 4 ft tall to comfortably stand at the sink to wash dishes, I would have had to sit in a chair to do that because I am 5'8". And a side note, not all houses are like that, Seoul is very modern and westernized but there are still traditional Korean homes out there!

That's all about personal preference. I loved living on post in the states, and prefer it here due to the need to have americans around me. LOL

I've already compared the two in few other threads.. but I'll leave it short and sweet... for me.. on post 100%.

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