Sims scoured the military's computerized data base of rental homes and called landlord after landlord. But she still couldn't find anything for rent in Kane'ohe or Kailua, where the Begleys want to live.

"This is horrible," said Maj. Begley, who transferred from Fort Leavenworth, Kan., for her new job as a nurse at Tripler Army Medical Center. "I'm wishing I was back on the Mainland right now, that's where I want to be."

O'ahu's tight housing market has become particularly frustrating for military families — especially new arrivals trying to compete with civilians for rental homes, which are in particularly high demand.

Army families have been encouraged to stay in Hawai'i while their husbands and wives are deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. But new Army families continue to rotate into the Islands, keeping homes occupied on base.

Every day, the Community Homefinding, Relocation and Referral Services office at Fort Shafter tries to help find rental homes on O'ahu for 50 to 75 people from all branches of the military.

The office lets landlords list rental properties for free on its Web site, www.dodreferral.com, which also helps military members find roommates and homes to buy.

The Begleys said they appreciated the persistence and patience of housing referral counselor Sims in helping them look.

"It is a little stressful," Sims said.

But the pressure is only getting worse as the peak summer season gets under way, said Pam Hirota, the center's housing management specialist.

"It's even tighter now," Hirota said. "A lot of families are accustomed to seeing large square footage (at much lower prices), which we just don't have here. Instead, they've just got to find something right away, even if it's not what they want."

The Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Marines will get a total of 7,700 new and renovated homes on O'ahu in the next 10 years. The first phase — by the Navy — is scheduled for groundbreaking next week.

Both the Army and the Navy, which have the overwhelming majority of the homes to be renovated, as well as their civilian contractors, say that every family displaced by the construction will get a home on base, if they want.

The Navy, for instance, has been planning for years to ensure that all Navy families will continue to have base housing during the construction, said Brad Davis, who manages the so-called privatization project for the Navy.

"We were real concerned about this issue when we were putting the project together," Davis said.

As the Navy has geared up for the work, all of the families in the first 2,000 homes to be renovated have received base housing if they wanted it, Davis said.

Even Navy families outside of the project can still find base housing, but the homes are likely to be on the list for renovation or demolition.

"Anybody that wants a Navy house can be offered one," Davis said. "It's just a question of whether that meets their tastes."

But people such as Army 1st Lt. Jay Lynn prefer to live off base.

Lynn arrived on Tuesday from Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and spent the next few days in a "horrible" and unsuccessful search for a rental apartment or townhouse.

He sat in the referral services' office hoping for a miracle.

"It's been very, very difficult," said Lynn, who comes from Seattle. "I've never been anywhere like this in my life."

The Begleys were prepared to pay $1,000 more than Maj. Begley's $1,825 military monthly basic housing allowance to rent a three- or four-bedroom home in Kailua.

Military friends had told them to be prepared to spend more than twice what they've ever paid for housing on the Mainland.

But the Begleys couldn't find anything available on the Windward side.

Their only lead was a three-bedroom home in 'Aiea where the landlord may or may not allow their 6-year-old shi-tzu, Mikey.

"We're getting desperate," Maj. Begley said, as she wistfully remembered the spacious and inexpensive homes they've lived in on the Mainland. "This is more stressful than anywhere else we've ever been, that's for sure."