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RentalAnalytics is built on public datasets first. Private/estimated sources are clearly labeled at every touchpoint.
Published annually by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Targets the 40th-percentile gross rent; used to administer Section 8 voucher programs. Shown on the Rent Estimator as the labeled 40th / voucher number — not the hero “market” figure. Current product vintage is FY2026 (effective 2025-10-01). The 15 prebuilt city markets use the revised county-level metro FMR workbook. The Fort Wayne, IN HUD Metro FMR Area uses the revised Small Area FMR workbook (ZIP-level), including ZIP 46835.
Source: huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr.html
License: U.S. Public Domain
Update frequency: Annual (October)
A separate HUD series of median (50th-percentile) gross rents by FMR area and county. HUD states these are not Fair Market Rents. This is the primary lift for the estimator hero: ZIP FMR/SAFMR × (area 50th ÷ area 40th). Area/county only — there is no ZIP 50th file. Fort Wayne’s 50th and metro-wide 40th come from the official FY2026 workbooks.
Source: huduser.gov/portal/datasets/50per.html · FY2026 Data by Area xlsx
License: U.S. Public Domain
Update frequency: Annual
Sample file: /assets/data/hud-50th-sample.json
Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index, shelter component. We use this as the macro anchor for "aging" HUD FMR values from publication date to today.
Source: data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SAH1
License: U.S. Public Domain
Update frequency: Monthly
ACS 2024 5-year table B25031 is median gross rent by bedrooms at ZCTA — the estimator’s second anchor, shown with the Census margin of error. It is an occupied-unit median, not asking rent. Vacancy context on city pages still uses ACS / HVS blends labeled estimated.
Source: data.census.gov table B25031 · census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/ · census.gov/housing/hvs/
License: U.S. Public Domain
Update frequency: ACS 5-year annual; HVS quarterly
Sample file: /assets/data/acs-b25031-sample.json
The Zillow Observed Rent Index. A widely-cited monthly typical-rent series (about the 35th–65th percentile of listed rents, stock-weighted). ZIP files are all-homes dollars, not bedroom rents. We do not assign a ZORI ZIP all-homes dollar to a 0–4BR estimate. Metro asking-rent change was reviewed as a possible aging overlay and omitted from the hero where it is not clean across covered metros.
Source: zillow.com/research/data/ (CSV on files.zillowstatic.com/research/public_csvs/zori/)
Note: Research files only. We do not scrape listing HTML.
Monthly metro-level rent change index. Used in blended rent-growth and vacancy estimates.
Source: apartmentlist.com/research/national-rent-data
Semiannual institutional cap-rate ranges by property type and market tier. Used to derive the benchmark bands in our cap-rate calculator.
Source: cbre.com/insights/figures/us-cap-rate-survey
/assets/data/cap-rate-benchmarks.json) — by metro tier and property type, derived from the CBRE survey and NCREIF tiers./assets/data/regulations.json) — top 20 U.S. cities, reviewed annually. Plain-English summaries only./assets/data/markets.json) — 15 prebuilt metros with HUD-anchored rent, estimated vacancy, YoY growth, and average cap rate./assets/data/hud-50th-sample.json) — FY2026 area 50th and official area 40th for metros already on the FMR sample./assets/data/acs-b25031-sample.json) — 2024 5-year median gross rent by bedroom for sample ZCTAs, with MOE.All curated datasets are versioned and visible in this repository's sitemap. We accept corrections at data@rentalanalytics.com.