My uncle now has over 15 years in the Navy as an NFO, and they have a house in Jacksonville, Pensacola, San Diego, and Norfolk area (where they're at now). They rented while out in Lemoore for transition from the Viking to the Rhino, as you get paid more to live there as the health conditions are terrible - so you wouldn't want to buy a house.
So they rent out the three houses they don't live in, and besides the times losers (usually military guys) trash them and move out, leaving them to go in and refurnish and remodel on some of their time off, they make great money off of them. And real estate is always a great investment as it's always going to run out...the San Diego house is second highest on the hill there with an ocean view, and they bought it back then for $160k or something like it. Before the recession it was appraised around $400k. They max out their Roth and Traditional IRA's, and have the ability to buy a Cessna 421C and an L-39 trainer...I'd say it was all good investments and that the Navy had truly afforded them the opportunities.
I know that when I do get in the areas I'll definitely be looking into purchasing a house or two, especially in the Jax/PCola areas and possibly San Diego.
