HUD fair market rent 2021: what the numbers meant and how they worked

Last updated 2026-07-10

What is HUD's fair market rent, and why does it exist?

Fair Market Rent (FMR) is the dollar figure HUD publishes each year to represent what a decent, modest rental unit costs in a given market. It covers rent plus tenant-paid utilities. The program exists because the Housing Choice Voucher program has to peg subsidy amounts to something real, and that something is the FMR.

HUD sets FMR at the 40th percentile of gross rents for standard quality units occupied by recent movers. That 40th-percentile rule is written into federal regulation at 24 CFR 888.113. ^[1] The idea is simple: a voucher holder should be able to afford roughly 40 percent of the rentals in their market, well above the very cheapest units.

FMRs come out by bedroom size, from efficiency (studio) through four bedrooms. They cover every metropolitan statistical area (MSA) and every non-metro county in the country. HUD calculates them mostly from American Community Survey (ACS) data, then adjusts with more recent Consumer Price Index (CPI) rent data to pull the estimates closer to the current year. ^[2]

The FMR is not the rent a landlord must charge. It is the ceiling a public housing authority (PHA) uses to set its own payment standard. PHAs can set payment standards anywhere from 90 percent to 110 percent of the FMR without asking HUD. Above 110 percent takes a HUD waiver. ^[3] The FMR is a policy input, not a price control.

When were HUD's FY2021 fair market rents published and what changed?

HUD published the FY2021 FMRs in September 2020, effective October 1, 2020. ^[4] They covered the federal fiscal year that ran October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021.

FY2021 landed at a strange moment. The COVID-19 pandemic had already scrambled rental markets before these figures were locked in. ACS data lags by about two years, and the CPI rent index runs closer to real time, so the FY2021 numbers reflected a market that was pulling apart fast between cities, suburbs, and rural areas. Rents in San Francisco and Manhattan were softening as residents left. Suburban and Sun Belt markets were tightening. FMRs are area-level averages, so they hid a lot of that churn happening inside metro lines.

One procedural point mattered that year. HUD kept the practice, started in FY2017, of publishing Small Area FMRs (SAFMRs) for certain high-cost metros. SAFMRs set the FMR at the ZIP code level instead of one figure for the whole metro, which gives voucher holders in expensive neighborhoods a higher ceiling. ^[5] HUD required SAFMRs for 24 large metros in FY2021, Dallas, Denver, and Washington, D.C. among them.

The national trend was a modest bump from FY2020. HUD's summary data showed a median two-bedroom FMR of about $1,192, up from roughly $1,140 the year before, though area-by-area changes were all over the map. ^[4]

What were the actual FY2021 FMR numbers for major metro areas?

HUD fair market rent by county and metro varied enormously in FY2021. Below are selected two-bedroom FMRs for major markets, pulled from the official HUD FY2021 FMR dataset. ^[4] These are gross rents (rent plus utilities).

Metro Area	FY2021 2-BR FMR
San Francisco-Oakland, CA HUD Metro FMR Area	$2,622
Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH HUD Metro FMR Area	$2,070
Washington, D.C.-Arlington-Alexandria	$2,011 (ZIP-level SAFMRs applied)
Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA	$1,892
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	$1,810
Austin-Round Rock, TX	$1,349
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA	$1,198
Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL	$1,174
Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ	$1,161
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX	$1,151 (ZIP-level SAFMRs applied)
Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX	$1,077
Rural Mississippi (multiple counties)	$640-$730

The spread was staggering. A two-bedroom in San Francisco's HUD metro area cost more than four times the same unit in rural Mississippi. That gap is exactly why the program has to be local.

For a zero-bedroom (efficiency) unit, the national median FMR in FY2021 was roughly $838. For a four-bedroom, it was closer to $1,730. Want the exact number for your county? The HUD FMR lookup tool at huduser.gov lets you search by state, county, or metro and pull the official table. ^[4]

How does HUD calculate fair market rents each year?

The method behind HUD fair market rent guidelines has a few moving parts. Knowing them helps you predict whether your local FMR is accurate or badly stale.

The base source is the American Community Survey (ACS), specifically the five-year estimates for gross rents paid by recent movers, meaning people who moved within the past 15 months. HUD targets the 40th percentile of that distribution. ^[1] ACS data is usually two to three years old by the time HUD publishes, so HUD applies an inflation adjustment using the BLS rent component of the CPI to move the estimate forward to the publication year. ^[2]

Where the ACS sample is too small for a reliable estimate, HUD uses alternative data or borrows the adjustment from a larger surrounding area. Rural counties with few renters land in this bucket often.

Small Area FMRs use a different calculation. HUD takes the metro-level FMR, then applies a ZIP-to-metro ratio built from Zillow Research and ACS data together. Using commercial data drew objections when it started, but the alternative was no subgeographic variation at all.

HUD also lets a PHA request exception payment standards above 110 percent of FMR when local conditions justify it. Under 24 CFR 982.503, a PHA can ask for HUD approval up to 120 percent of FMR, and in extraordinary cases HUD has approved more. ^[3]

How do PHAs use FMRs to set payment standards?

The FMR is the input. The payment standard is the output. They are not the same number, and that difference decides what your voucher actually pays.

A PHA's payment standard is the maximum subsidy it will pay for a given unit size in its jurisdiction, before your income enters the math. Payment standards must sit between 90 percent and 110 percent of the current FMR. ^[3] A PHA at 100 percent of FMR is at the midpoint. One at 90 percent gives voucher holders less buying power. One at 110 percent stretches the rule as far as it goes without a waiver.

Here is the math for a tenant. Say the two-bedroom FMR in your county is $1,200 and your PHA set the payment standard at 100 percent, so $1,200. Your share is 30 percent of adjusted monthly income, say $300. The housing assistance payment (HAP) the PHA pays your landlord is $1,200 minus $300, or $900.

If the rent runs above the payment standard, you can pay the gap, but your total share cannot exceed 40 percent of adjusted monthly income at initial lease-up under 24 CFR 982.508. ^[3] That 40 percent cap is a hard ceiling. Even if you love a unit priced above the payment standard, there is a legal limit on what you can kick in to make it work.

Some PHAs run their own rent reasonableness test on top of the FMR check. The PHA has to confirm the landlord's rent is reasonable against unassisted units in the same market, even when the rent sits below the payment standard.

If you are searching for homes for rent with section 8 or browsing low income houses for rent, your PHA's actual payment standard for each bedroom size tells you more than the raw FMR does.

What were Small Area FMRs and which metros had them in FY2021?

Small Area FMRs (SAFMRs) were the biggest structural change to the FMR system in years when HUD first required them in FY2017, and they were still in place for FY2021. Instead of one FMR for a whole metro, SAFMRs set the FMR by ZIP code.

Why does that matter? Take Dallas or Washington, D.C. The metro-wide FMR might be $1,200, but high-opportunity ZIP codes might have median rents of $1,800 or more while low-income ZIPs sit near $850. Under a single metro FMR, voucher holders effectively can't afford units in the higher-rent, often higher-opportunity neighborhoods. SAFMRs fix that by giving those high-rent ZIPs a higher ceiling.

The 24 metros required to use SAFMRs in FY2021 were: Atlanta, Bergen-Passaic NJ, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Colorado Springs, Dallas, Denver, Hartford, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York City, Oklahoma City, Orlando, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Diego, San Jose, Seattle, Washington D.C., and Palm Bay-Melbourne FL. ^[5]

For tenants in these metros, the number that counts is the ZIP-specific SAFMR, not the metro figure. HUD publishes SAFMR tables separately from the main FMR dataset. Both live at huduser.gov. ^[4]

For a fair market rent calculator that handles ZIP-level lookups, HUD's own tool at huduser.gov is the most accurate source because it draws straight from the official dataset.

Did COVID-19 affect the FY2021 FMRs?

Yes, but indirectly, and with a lag that left the FY2021 figures imprecise in some markets.

The pandemic hit in March 2020. The FY2021 FMRs were built on ACS data from roughly 2017 to 2019, adjusted forward with CPI data through mid-2020. By October 2020, several large urban markets had already seen rents drop hard as remote work pushed tenants toward suburbs and secondary cities. But the FY2021 FMRs for San Francisco and Manhattan didn't fully capture that decline, because the data pipeline trails reality by a year or two.

The reverse happened elsewhere. Suburban and Sun Belt markets tightened fast in 2020, so the FY2021 FMRs for Phoenix, Austin, and Raleigh already trailed real market rents, which made it harder for voucher holders to compete.

HUD does have an emergency process to update FMRs outside the annual cycle when conditions shift sharply, but it wasn't used broadly for COVID in FY2021. Some individual PHAs requested exception payment standards to compensate. The Government Accountability Office, in a 2020 report, found that FMR accuracy is a long-standing problem and that the ACS-plus-CPI approach has known lags that can leave voucher holders behind fast-moving markets. ^[6]

If you are a landlord weighing whether to list a section 8 rent house, the FY2021 figures are history now. But they show exactly why you check the current-year FMR and your PHA's current payment standard before you set an asking rent.

How do FY2021 FMRs compare to what came before and after?

FMRs have climbed nationally for a decade, but the post-2021 jump was dramatic. The FY2021 national median two-bedroom FMR of roughly $1,192 looks small next to FY2023, which HUD reported at a national median closer to $1,480, driven by the pandemic-era rent surge showing up in ACS and CPI data with a lag. ^[7]

Look backward and the trend is steadier. The FY2019 national median two-bedroom FMR was about $1,058. FY2020 came in around $1,140. FY2021's roughly $1,192 kept a pace of about 4 to 5 percent a year in the stretch just before COVID's full effect hit the data. ^[4]

That trajectory matters because the voucher program's costs ride directly on FMR levels. When FMRs rise, the federal appropriation needed to fund the same number of vouchers rises too, which shapes how many new vouchers Congress can afford in a given year.

For tenants, the point is purchasing power. How well your voucher keeps up depends on how closely the FMR tracks real-time rents. In FY2021, holders in fast-appreciating markets like Phoenix or suburban Atlanta were starting to feel the gap between their payment standard and what landlords were actually asking.

How can tenants look up the exact FY2021 FMR for their county?

The most direct route is the HUD User FMR dataset archive at huduser.gov. HUD keeps historical FMR datasets going back many years. ^[4] You can download the FY2021 table as a spreadsheet or run the online query tool.

When you look up your area, you'll see figures for efficiency (0-BR), 1-BR, 2-BR, 3-BR, and 4-BR units. If your county sits inside an MSA, the FMR covers the whole MSA, more than your county. If you're in one of the 24 SAFMR metros, the number that counts is the ZIP-level SAFMR, not the metro-wide figure.

A few tips for reading the table. The figures are monthly gross rents, so they include an estimated utility allowance. Your PHA sets its own utility allowance schedule, which may differ from what HUD baked into the FMR. For your actual subsidy math, ask your PHA for its utility allowance schedule separately.

For low income housing searches, the FMR also tells you roughly what rents to aim for. Units listed well above the FMR probably won't clear the payment standard test, even if they'd otherwise qualify. Units at or just below the FMR are the sweet spot.

If you're hunting for a hud house or scrolling hud housing for rent listings, remember those HUD-owned properties run under different rent rules than vouchers do. FMRs apply specifically to the Housing Choice Voucher program.

What do landlords need to know about FY2021 FMRs?

If you were a landlord weighing vouchers in FY2021, the FMR set the practical ceiling on what the subsidy could cover in your market. Your asking rent didn't have to be at or below the FMR, but the payment standard usually sat close to it. Ask much above the FMR and your tenant has to cover a bigger share from their own income, capped at 40 percent of adjusted income at initial lease-up.

Rent reasonableness is a separate test from the FMR. Even when your rent falls below the payment standard, the PHA's inspector compares your unit's rent to comparable unassisted units nearby. HUD requires this under 24 CFR 982.507. ^[3] A unit that clears the payment standard but fails rent reasonableness gets no Housing Assistance Payment.

For landlords in SAFMR metros, the practical upshot was that high-rent ZIP codes carried higher payment standard ceilings, which made renting to voucher holders in expensive neighborhoods more workable than it was under the old metro-wide system.

VoucherReady's landlord kit walks through the full paperwork sequence, from request for tenancy approval to HAP contract signing, including what to expect during the PHA's rent reasonableness review.

If you list on sites people use to find apts that take section 8 or go section 8 houses for rent platforms, state your asking rent clearly so applicants can tell fast whether their payment standard covers it. That one detail kills the biggest source of wasted time on both sides.

What are the regulations behind HUD fair market rent guidelines?

The statutory authority for FMRs traces to Section 8(c) of the United States Housing Act of 1937, as amended. ^[8] Congress gave HUD the mandate to set FMRs, and HUD carries it out through 24 CFR Part 888.

24 CFR 888.113 states that FMRs "are estimates of 40th percentile gross rents for standard quality units within a metropolitan area or nonmetropolitan county." ^[1] That is the core regulatory definition.

24 CFR 888.115 covers how PHAs request exception payment standards when the FMR misses local conditions. ^[1] Exceptions need HUD approval and must be backed by rent data.

The payment standard rules for PHAs and the 40 percent income cap on tenant contributions live in 24 CFR 982.503 and 24 CFR 982.508. ^[3] These two provisions most directly decide what a tenant pays out of pocket and what the PHA pays the landlord.

Small Area FMRs have their own regulatory history. The final rule requiring SAFMRs in designated metros published in the Federal Register in November 2016 and took effect for FY2017. ^[5] It has drawn litigation and had some starts and stops, but the 24-metro mandate was in force for FY2021.

For serious policy or legal work on FMRs, the most reliable single source is HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R), which publishes the annual FMR documentation and methodology at huduser.gov. ^[4]

Where to find current FMRs and what to do if your local FMR seems wrong

FY2021 is history now. If you're making a housing decision today, you need the current fiscal year's FMR, not FY2021. HUD updates FMRs every October. The current figures always sit at huduser.gov. ^[4]

Say your local FMR looks wrong for your market. You have options. First, check whether your county is part of a larger MSA, because the FMR covers the whole MSA and can feel out of sync with one corner of it. Second, check whether your PHA has requested and received an exception payment standard. Your PHA has to tell you its payment standard schedule on request, and it's usually posted on the PHA website too.

Third, you can comment on proposed FMRs. HUD publishes proposed FMRs in the Federal Register before finalizing them each year and takes public comment. PHAs, tenant advocates, and landlord groups have used this process to submit local rent data and win FMR corrections. The comment period usually runs 30 days. ^[4]

If you think a proposed FMR for your area sits well below market, the strongest evidence is a comparison of the proposed FMR to recent lease-up data from your PHA's own rental assistance files, or to a credible third-party rent index for the area. HUD has updated FMRs outside the normal cycle before when the data was compelling, though that's uncommon.

VoucherReady's free tenant tools include a payment standard lookup, so you can compare your PHA's current ceiling to what units in your area actually rent for. That's usually the first question tenants and landlords both want answered before any paperwork starts.

Frequently asked questions

What was the national median two-bedroom FMR in FY2021?

HUD's FY2021 data put the national median two-bedroom Fair Market Rent at roughly $1,192 a month, covering rent plus tenant-paid utilities. That was up from about $1,140 in FY2020. Individual metros ranged from around $640 in the lowest-cost rural counties to over $2,600 in the San Francisco area. Your PHA's payment standard was based on this number but could sit anywhere from 90 to 110 percent of it.

When did HUD publish the FY2021 fair market rents?

HUD published the FY2021 FMRs in September 2020, effective October 1, 2020. Fiscal year 2021 ran from October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021. HUD keeps to this cycle: proposed FMRs appear in the Federal Register over the summer, a public comment period follows, and final figures take effect at the start of the new fiscal year.

How do I look up the HUD fair market rent for a specific county?

Go to huduser.gov and use the FMR query tool. You can search by state and county or by metropolitan statistical area. For current numbers, use the most recent fiscal year dataset. For FY2021, HUD archives prior-year data in the same section. The table shows efficiency through four-bedroom FMRs. If your county is in one of the 24 SAFMR metros, look up the ZIP-code-level figures instead.

Is the FMR the same as the payment standard my PHA uses?

No. The FMR is HUD's estimate of what a 40th-percentile rental costs in your market. The payment standard is your PHA's chosen maximum subsidy, which must fall between 90 and 110 percent of the FMR under normal rules. A PHA could set its payment standard at 95 percent of FMR, for example, giving you slightly less buying power than the FMR alone would suggest. Always confirm your PHA's actual payment standard.

What is the 40th percentile rule in HUD fair market rent guidelines?

HUD regulation at 24 CFR 888.113 requires FMRs to represent the 40th percentile of gross rents paid by recent movers for standard-quality units. Recent movers are renters who moved within the past 15 months. The 40th percentile means 40 percent of market-rate units rent at or below the FMR, which gives voucher holders access to a real slice of the market, well above the bottom-end units.

Which metros used Small Area FMRs in FY2021?

HUD required Small Area FMRs (ZIP-code-level FMRs) for 24 large metros in FY2021, among them Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York City, Phoenix, Seattle, and Washington D.C. In these metros, the payment standard ceiling shifts by ZIP code instead of applying one figure across the whole metro. Tenants in high-cost ZIP codes there get higher subsidy ceilings.

Can a landlord charge more than the FMR under Section 8?

Yes. The FMR is not rent control. A landlord can ask any rent. But the PHA's housing assistance payment is capped at the payment standard (90 to 110 percent of FMR). If the rent tops the payment standard, the tenant can cover the difference, but only up to 40 percent of adjusted monthly income at initial lease-up. The PHA also requires rent reasonableness, comparing your rent to similar unassisted units nearby.

How often does HUD update fair market rents?

Every year. HUD publishes new FMRs annually, effective October 1 at the start of each federal fiscal year. Proposed figures appear in the Federal Register over the summer, usually July or August, with a 30-day public comment period. Historical FMRs, including FY2021, are archived at huduser.gov and download as spreadsheets for any research or comparison work.

What happens if the FMR in my area is too low to find housing?

Your PHA can request an exception payment standard from HUD under 24 CFR 888.115, allowing the payment standard to exceed 110 percent of FMR, up to 120 percent without special approval. PHAs can also apply for emergency exception payment standards in extraordinary cases. If your voucher is expiring and you can't find a unit, ask your PHA about an extension or an exception payment standard before it lapses.

Does the FMR include utilities?

Yes. The FMR is a gross rent figure, so it represents rent plus tenant-paid utilities combined. When your PHA calculates your subsidy, it uses a utility allowance schedule. If you pay utilities directly, the PHA subtracts an estimated utility cost from the payment standard to set the maximum contract rent it will approve. If utilities are included in your rent, the full contract rent gets compared to the payment standard.

How did FY2021 FMRs compare to actual market rents during COVID?

In many fast-appreciating suburban and Sun Belt markets, FY2021 FMRs already lagged actual rents because the underlying ACS data was two to three years old. In some high-cost urban markets like San Francisco, FMRs sat slightly above actual 2020 rents as those markets softened. The GAO noted in 2020 that FMR data lags are a persistent structural problem for the voucher program, especially in rapidly changing markets.

Are FMRs the same for rural counties and metro areas?

No. Every metropolitan statistical area gets its own FMR, and every non-metropolitan county gets its own FMR. Rural FMRs are almost always lower than metro FMRs, sometimes by a lot. In FY2021, rural Mississippi counties had two-bedroom FMRs in the $640 to $730 range, while the San Francisco metro came in at $2,622 for the same bedroom count. The program is local by design because rental markets are so segmented.

What regulation governs HUD fair market rents?

The statutory authority is Section 8(c) of the United States Housing Act of 1937. The implementing regulations sit in 24 CFR Part 888, which covers FMR definitions and the exception process. Payment standard rules are in 24 CFR 982.503 and 982.508. The 40 percent income cap on tenant rent contributions and the rent reasonableness requirement are also in 24 CFR Part 982. HUD's PD&R office publishes annual methodology documentation with each year's FMR release.

If I'm a landlord, does my rent need to be at or below the FMR?

Not exactly. Your rent has to pass two tests. It must be at or below the PHA's payment standard (90 to 110 percent of FMR), or the tenant must be able to cover the gap without topping 40 percent of income. And it must be reasonable against unassisted comparable units in the area under 24 CFR 982.507. A rent slightly above the FMR can still work if the tenant has enough income to cover the difference inside that 40 percent cap.

Sources

1. HUD, Code of Federal Regulations 24 CFR Part 888, Fair Market Rents: FMRs are defined as 40th percentile gross rents for standard quality units occupied by recent movers; exception payment standards governed by 24 CFR 888.115
2. HUD User, Office of Policy Development and Research, FMR Methodology Documentation: FMRs are calculated from ACS five-year data adjusted forward using BLS CPI rent component data
3. HUD, 24 CFR Part 982, Section 8 Tenant-Based Assistance: Housing Choice Voucher Program: Payment standards must be 90-110% of FMR (982.503); tenant contribution capped at 40% of adjusted income at initial lease-up (982.508); rent reasonableness required (982.507)
4. HUD User, FY2021 Fair Market Rents Dataset and Documentation: FY2021 FMRs published September 2020, effective October 1, 2020; national median two-bedroom FMR approximately $1,192; full county and metro dataset available for download
5. HUD, Small Area Fair Market Rents Final Rule, Federal Register Vol. 81 No. 221 (November 2016): SAFMR mandate for 24 large metros including Dallas, Denver, Washington D.C. was in effect for FY2021; FMRs set at ZIP code level in those metros
6. U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-20-435, Housing Choice Vouchers: Options to Improve Voucher Utilization and Help Recipients Access a Range of Neighborhoods: GAO noted in 2020 that FMR data lags are a persistent structural challenge and can leave voucher holders behind fast-moving rental markets
7. HUD User, FY2023 Fair Market Rents, Summary and Documentation: National median two-bedroom FMR for FY2023 rose to approximately $1,480, reflecting the post-pandemic rent surge appearing in ACS and CPI data with a lag
8. United States Housing Act of 1937, as amended, Section 8(c), 42 U.S.C. 1437f: Statutory authority for Fair Market Rents and the Housing Choice Voucher program
9. HUD, Office of Public and Indian Housing, Housing Choice Voucher Program Overview: Housing Choice Voucher program overview including how FMRs connect to payment standards and subsidy calculations
10. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index, Rent of Primary Residence component: HUD uses the BLS CPI rent component to adjust ACS-based FMR estimates forward to the publication year