Military Housing: Analyses of Overseas Housing Costs Are Misleading to Decision Makers.
Abstract
This report evaluates the U. S. armed services' economic analyses of foreign housing alternatives. Among the alternatives analyzed were leasing, leasing with purchase options, and military construction. During the initial stages of this review, we selected what were then recent economic analyses of the costs of housing U. S. military personnel and their families in Europe, one for each of three services. (1) The Navy's November 1983 study of housing in Sigonella, Italy; (2) The Army's January 1984 study of housing in Bad Kreuznach, Germany; and (3) The Air Force's December 1982 study of housing at Torrejon Air Force Base, Spain. At the start of this review, we expected that considerable resources would be necessary to evaluate each analysis, and thus we chose to limit our sample to one analysis for each of the three major services. In fiscal year 1983, the Department of Defense (DOD) was authorized to lease approximately 26,000 housing units in Europe and about 3,000 in all other overseas regions. Ninety percent of the average number of leased foreign family housing units were located in Europe at that time. Because Europe clearly had the largest number of housing units, we looked at the economic analyses of European housing. In addition, we wanted our sample to be as representative of current U.S. military economic analyses of foreign family housing as possible.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 13, 1986
- Accession Number
- ADA169590
Entities
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office