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FY2026 Fair Market Rents took effect October 1, 2025. HUD later revised seven areas effective May 21, 2026. FMR remains a 40th-percentile voucher schedule, not market rent.
By RentalAnalytics Editorial Team · Published September 9, 2026
The original FY2026 schedule took effect October 1, 2025. Statute requires HUD to post FMRs at least 30 days before they become effective and to make them effective at the start of the federal fiscal year, generally October 1.[1] HUD met that clock with 90 FR 41096, published August 22, 2025.[2]
The vintage then moved again. HUD refreshed the files on August 29, 2025 to correct the Urban Honolulu, HI MSA. Areas that requested a reevaluation but did not submit survey data moved to FY2026 on January 12, 2026.[1] On April 21, 2026, HUD published 91 FR 21301: "This notice updates the FY 2026 FMRs for seven areas based on new survey data."[3] Those revisions became effective May 21, 2026. This site retrieved the revised county and Small Area workbooks on August 27, 2026.[5][6]
The high-level change is the ACS vintage, not a national headline percent. HUD's FY2026 documentation starts from 2023 ACS 1-year data and 2019-2023 5-year data, then trends those rents to FY2026.[1] FY2025 used 2022 ACS 1-year and 2018-2022 5-year data. That is a one-year roll of Census inputs, not a claim that every metro moved by the same amount. HUD did not publish a single national year-over-year FMR percent. If you need a metro comparison, open the FY2026 and FY2025 county files and compute it.
What HUD did publish is the mid-year revision. It received 21 comments on the FY2026 notice. Thirteen were reevaluation requests covering 15 FMR areas. Eleven requests were valid. Four did not meet requirements. Seven areas later submitted local rental surveys and received revised FMRs.[3]
The seven areas, as named in 91 FR 21301, are Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA; Napa, CA; San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA; Asheville, NC; Transylvania County, NC; Albany, OR; and Corvallis, OR. HUD says the revised figures "are based on surveys conducted by the area public housing agencies (PHAs) and reflect the estimated 40th percentile rent levels trended to FY 2026."[3] The bedroom-by-bedroom dollars are in that notice. They are revised 40th-percentile rents, not asking rent and not a percent change versus FY2025. This site's sample metros and Fort Wayne were not among the seven.
HUD also restated a regulatory floor: no area's FMR may decrease by more than 10 percent in a single year, a rule it said it continued to apply when Connecticut geography changed.[3] That 10 percent cap is a year-over-year floor on how far an FMR can fall, not a typical increase.
HUD Fair Market Rent is the 40th percentile of gross rent, rent plus utilities, for standard-quality units in a metro or nonmetropolitan county. The dataset page states: "Fair Market Rents, as defined in 24 CFR 888.113 are estimates of 40th percentile gross rents for standard quality units within a metropolitan area or nonmetropolitan county."[1][7] Forty percent of recent-mover units in that stock rent for less. That is a voucher payment-standard anchor, not the rent a typical vacant unit should ask.
HUD uses FMRs for Housing Choice Voucher payment standards, some project-based Section 8 renewals, HOME and Emergency Solutions Grants ceilings, Continuum of Care limits, and public housing flat rents.[1] Its FY2026 comment response warns against treating commercial "market rent" products as FMR: proprietary data "cannot be used as the sole basis for the FMR calculations," and "commercial sources of rent data do not provide an estimate of the 40th percentile rent paid by recent movers, as required by HUD's current regulations."[3]
PHAs may set payment standards from 90 to 110 percent of the applicable FMR, with exception standards above 110 percent.[3] That is voucher administration. It does not make FMR market rent on a private lease.
Small Area FMRs are still 40th-percentile / voucher rents. The difference is geography. Metro FMRs assign one 0- through 4-bedroom schedule to an entire FMR area. Small Area FMRs publish a ZIP-level schedule inside designated metros so payment standards can follow neighborhood rent.[6][8] HUD updated FY2026 Small Area FMRs with the seven-area revision.[3] In a SAFMR metro, the ZIP file is the voucher schedule. Elsewhere use the revised county workbook or the FY2026 schedule PDF.[9] Fort Wayne is a designated SAFMR metro in this site's sample and was not one of the seven revised areas.
Use FY2026 FMR for voucher payment standards, Section 8 ceilings, or a conservative 40th-percentile gross-rent floor. Do not paste FMR into a pro forma as "market rent." HUD publishes a separate 50th-percentile series for the median concept and labels those files as not Fair Market Rents.[4]
This site's estimated market rent is a HUD FY2026 50th-percentile plus Census ACS blend. That distinction appears once on purpose: the 50th-percentile file is the median lift, ACS is a second occupied-unit anchor, and FMR/SAFMR stays the labeled 40th / voucher number. The RentalAnalytics rent estimator runs that ZIP path and keeps both numbers on the same result.
Move a market estimate or in-place rent into a live underwriting tool. The cap rate calculator and the cash flow analyzer are the other two live calculators. They take rent as an input. They do not turn FMR into a median. For the file how-to, see Reading HUD Fair Market Rents. Confirm both numbers with local comps. HUD said there is "no other data on gross rents paid that is consistently collected on a nationwide basis, available to HUD, that is more current than the data we receive through the ACS."[3] FMR is a dated voucher anchor. A 2026 asking-rent conversation still needs listings.
The original FY2026 Fair Market Rents took effect October 1, 2025, the start of the federal fiscal year. HUD published the notice on August 22, 2025 (90 FR 41096). A later notice, 91 FR 21301, revised seven areas effective May 21, 2026. This site retrieved the revised county and Small Area files on August 27, 2026.
No. HUD Fair Market Rent is an estimate of 40th-percentile gross rent for standard-quality units. HUD uses it for Housing Choice Voucher payment standards and related program ceilings. It is not a market-rent median. On this site, estimated market rent is a separate HUD FY2026 50th-percentile plus Census ACS blend. FMR stays labeled as 40th / voucher.
HUD revised seven areas effective May 21, 2026: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA; Napa, CA; San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA; Asheville, NC; Transylvania County, NC; Albany, OR; and Corvallis, OR. The revisions used public housing agency survey data and remain 40th-percentile rents. This site's sample metros and Fort Wayne were not among those seven.
A Small Area FMR is still a 40th-percentile / voucher rent, published at ZIP Code scale inside designated metropolitan areas instead of one metro-wide number. HUD updated FY2026 Small Area FMRs when it revised the seven areas. Use the ZIP file in a mandatory or voluntary SAFMR metro. Elsewhere the county or metro FMR is the voucher schedule.
Use FY2026 FMR when you are talking about voucher payment standards, not as the rent a typical vacant unit should ask. The rent estimator shows FMR beside a HUD FY2026 50th-percentile plus Census ACS market blend. Plug the market estimate, or in-place rent, into the cap rate calculator or cash flow analyzer. Confirm both with local comps.
HUD posts FY2026 files on huduser.gov. The current revised county workbook is FY26_FMRs_revised.xlsx. The revised Small Area file is fy2026_safmrs_revised.xlsx. The metropolitan and non-metropolitan schedule is FY2026_FMR_Schedule.pdf. All three sit on the Fair Market Rents dataset page. Check the effective date on the file you open.
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