How to Read HUD Fair Market Rents for FY 2027 — 40th Percentile Rents, Floors and Reevaluation Areas

As of 14 November 2026, 00:07 KST (retrieved by this page at that time); latest listed on the agency page at retrieval: the FY 2027 Fair Market Rents, announced in the Federal Register notice of September 1, 2026 (91 FR 56156) and published as a county-level Excel file on HUD User's Fair Market Rents page. The notice gives an effective date of October 1, 2026, except where a valid reevaluation request keeps FY 2026 FMRs in place. Primary source: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-09-01/pdf/2026-17891.pdf^[1][2][6]

Comparison basis: FMRs are whole dollars of monthly gross rent (shelter rent plus utilities) as printed. Area-level figures are this page's calculations from the two county-level files: the key is hud_area_code, each area is counted once (all county rows of an area carry the same FMRs, checked by script), the 16 areas present only in the FY 2026 file are left out of change figures, and every FY 2027 area is present in the FY 2026 file. Medians are taken over the 2,606 areas without population weights, and percentages are computed from the whole-dollar values and rounded to one decimal. The FY 2026 values come from the revised county file that the page labels Effective May 21, 2026; the revision notice itself (91 FR 21301) was not read here.^[2][3]

In three lines

1. HUD's FY 2027 national non-metropolitan rent, the benchmark for minimum FMRs, is $1,014, up from $973 for FY 2026.
2. Across 2,606 FMR areas the median two-bedroom FMR is $1,017, and the median area change is +4.2% (this page's calculation, unweighted).
3. 466 areas have a lower two-bedroom FMR than in FY 2026; for 40 of them the FY 2027 value is within $1 of 90% of the FY 2026 value (this page's test on printed whole dollars).^[1][2][3][4]

A 40th percentile gross rent, not an average. The notice says: "HUD's FMR calculations represent HUD's best effort to estimate the 40th percentile gross rent paid by recent movers into standard quality units in each FMR area." The FMR page adds that FMRs, 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. They set payment standards in the Housing Choice Voucher program and limits in several other HUD programs.^[1][6]

How the FY 2027 numbers are built. "For FY 2027 FMRs, HUD uses the U.S. Census Bureau's 5-year ACS data collected between 2020 and 2024 as the ''base rents'' for the FMR calculations." HUD then applies a recent-mover factor from 2024 data, a gross rent inflation factor for 2024 to 2025, and a trend factor to FY 2027. Two-bedroom FMRs are computed first; other bedroom sizes follow from bedroom ratios, with 8.7 percent added to three-bedroom and 7.7 percent to four-bedroom estimates.^[1]

Floors in both directions. Each area's two-bedroom FMR must be at least the lower of its State minimum rent and the national non-metropolitan rent, so the floor is not $1,014 for every area: "For FY 2027, the national nonmetropolitan rent is $1,014." Decreases are limited: "Accordingly, if the current year's FMRs are less than 90 percent of the prior year's FMRs as calculated by the above methodology, HUD sets the current year's FMRs equal to 90 percent of the prior year's FMRs."^[1]

A methodology change between editions. For FY 2026 HUD combined private and CPI rent inflation with weights of approximately 64 and 36 percent; for FY 2027 the notice gives approximately 55 and 45 percent, and it replaces the local CPI utilities index, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics discontinued, with a composite of electricity, natural gas, fuel oil and water/sewer/trash prices. Year-to-year FMR changes therefore mix market change with method change, and this page does not separate the two.^[1][4]

Sixteen fewer areas. The FY 2026 revised file has 2,622 FMR areas and the FY 2027 file 2,606 (this page's count). The 16 missing names are all Exception Areas, 12 in Connecticut and 4 in Puerto Rico; the FY 2026 notice said such areas would keep the designation until their FMRs converge with the rest of their MSA. The FY 2027 notice does not discuss them, so why each was dropped is not established.^[2][3][4]

Published FY 2027 values are not in effect everywhere. The reevaluation list says: "Valid reevaluation requests may postpone the FY 2027 FMRs from going into effect." It lists 13 entries where FY 2026 FMRs remain in effect as of October 1, 2026, including a ZIP-code-specific entry (ZIP Codes 03766 and 03784 in Grafton County, NH), Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA, and 6 more entries with valid requests where FY 2027 FMRs are in effect. For the listed entries the FMR in effect may be the FY 2026 value rather than the FY 2027 column of the county file.^[2][3][5]

Largest moves. By this page's calculation the largest increase is Jackson County, CO, from $989 to $1,485 (+50.2%). For 40 areas the FY 2027 value is within $1 of 90% of the FY 2026 value; this is a ratio of printed whole-dollar values consistent with HUD's 10% decrease limit, but the files do not flag which areas HUD capped. These are single-area figures from rounded dollar values; the files do not give reasons for individual changes.^[2][3]

Dates kept apart. Notice published: September 1, 2026 (91 FR 56156); comments and reevaluation requests due October 1, 2026; FY 2027 FMRs effective October 1, 2026 except in reevaluation areas. Previous edition: FY 2026 notice of August 22, 2025 (90 FR 41096), effective October 1, 2025; revised FY 2026 file labelled Effective May 21, 2026. Base data: 5-year ACS 2020-2024.^[1][4][5][6]

Next steps. Reevaluation data are due by January 8, 2027, and the notice says HUD will post revised FMRs in April of 2027 with an accompanying Federal Register notice; data arriving later go into the FY 2028 FMRs. These are plans stated in the notice; the FY 2028 publication date is not established.^[1][5]