HUD FMR Data · Updated April 2026
Compare Rent Prices Across U.S. Counties
Side-by-side Fair Market Rent comparisons across 693 U.S. counties. Each comparison page shows HUD FMR by bedroom size, rent burden against Census household income, and year-over-year change — all sourced from federal public-domain datasets, refreshed April 2026.
How RentIndex Comparisons Work
Every comparison on RentIndex pulls Fair Market Rent figures directly from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development\'s FMR dataset. FMR is the 40th-percentile gross rent for standard-quality, non-substandard rental units in a given Fair Market Rent Area, recalculated each fiscal year using American Community Survey base rents updated with BLS CPI rent of primary residence data. We pair those rent figures with median household income from the U.S. Census Bureau\'s American Community Survey 5-year estimates, then compute rent burden as annual 2BR FMR divided by income.
What You\'ll See on Each Comparison Page
A typical comparison shows: studio through 4-bedroom FMR for both counties, the dollar-and-percentage gap at each unit size, median household income for both areas, rent burden for a typical 2-bedroom rental, year-over-year FMR change for both counties, and links to both full county detail pages. Comparisons are designed to answer practical questions like "If I move from County A to County B, what will my rent and rent burden look like?" — without modeling, estimation, or paywalled data.
Why Compare Counties Instead of ZIP Codes?
HUD publishes Fair Market Rent at the FMR-area level, which is usually a county or a metro division. ZIP-code-level rent figures from listing platforms can vary widely within a single county and reflect only currently advertised units, not the broader rental stock. County-level FMR is the official federal benchmark used to set Section 8 voucher payment standards, public housing income limits, and Low-Income Housing Tax Credit allocations — so it is the most authoritative comparable rent figure available for U.S. geography.
Featured Comparisons
The 60 comparisons below are auto-selected to feature: most-expensive-vs-least-expensive county within each state, and head-to-head matchups among the highest-FMR counties nationally. To compare any other pair, navigate to a county detail page and use the related-counties links.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does RentIndex compare two counties?
Each comparison page lines up HUD Fair Market Rent for studio, 1-bedroom, 2-bedroom, 3-bedroom, and 4-bedroom units, paired with Census ACS median household income, rent burden, and year-over-year change. All figures are public-domain federal data — there is no estimation or modeling.
What is Fair Market Rent?
Fair Market Rent is the 40th percentile of gross rents for standard-quality, non-substandard rental units, published annually by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD uses FMR to set Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher payment standards, so the figures here directly drive federal subsidy levels in each county.
Should I compare counties by raw rent or rent burden?
Both. Raw FMR tells you the absolute monthly cost of a unit. Rent burden — annual 2BR FMR divided by Census median household income — tells you how affordable that cost is for a typical local household. Two counties with identical FMR can have very different rent burdens if their median incomes differ.
Why do some county pairs not match my exact search?
The featured pairs prioritize same-state matchups (most-vs-least expensive within a state) and head-to-head matchups among the highest-FMR counties nationally. To compare any two specific counties not shown here, browse to either county's detail page and use the related-counties links.
How current is the rent comparison data?
Comparisons refresh against HUD's annual fiscal-year Fair Market Rent release. The dataset on the site was last refreshed April 2026 and covers 693 U.S. counties. Income figures pair with the latest available Census ACS 5-year estimates, which lag rent by 12-18 months.
Data Sources and Methodology
Fair Market Rent: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Income and demographic figures: U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Reference series for rent inflation: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI rent of primary residence. For the full calculation steps, including how HUD ages ACS base rents and how rent burden is paired with Census income data, see the RentIndex methodology page.
Source: HUD Fair Market Rents (public domain) · huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr.html. Income data: U.S. Census Bureau ACS. Last refreshed April 2026.