Does living on post/base help or hurt your opportunity to purchase a house in the future?

Living on post can hurt your future purchasing opportunities, but it's based on each individuals situation. Don't overextend your payments over time, keep your bills to a manageable amount so that you can qualify for a home purchase.

I've been very fortunate in our home purchases (we've bought four homes), we bought our first home as a 20 year old Specialist....I decided early on in my career that I'd buy a home at each stateside duty station we were stationed. The only stateside assignment we did not purchase a home was while stationed at Fort Polk, LA. We were very lucky on our first home - we rushed into the purchase but it turned out to be a great purchase - we were lucky. We did our research of the neighborhood, the realtor as well as community research before purchasing the other homes. Again, we've been very lucky but I always recommend purchasing a home as early as you can afford it, and in an area that you could rent the home if needed.

MAJ David Vermillion - You should still be able to utilized credit cards to provide debt based history. That should allow you to continue building a credit rating without significant impact.
v/r,
CPT Butler