Fiscal Year 2017 Fair Market Rents Released

August 31, 2016  

Fiscal Year 2017 Fair Market Rents Released

HUD has published the Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 Fair Market Rents (FMRs), which are now available only on huduser.gov and will no longer be published in the Federal Register notice, under a provision of the Housing Opportunities Through Modernization Act of 2016 (HOTMA), enacted July 29, 2016. The FY 2017 FMRs will be effective October 1, 2016, unless there is a request for reevaluation by September 26, 2016. The Federal Register notice contains the procedures for such reevaluation requests. These FMRs are used in the Housing Choice Voucher, the Moderate Rehabilitation, and the project-based voucher programs, as well as other programs that require location-specific economic data.

The FMRs are estimated at 40th and 50th percentile rent levels trended to April 1, 2017. Qualifying areas are granted higher FMRs based on the 50th percentile, rather than the 40th percentile, of the local rent distribution to achieve deconcentration of voucher-based units in high poverty areas. An area that qualifies for a 50th percentile rent level is set at that level for three years, after which deconcentration progress is evaluated. For the FY 2017 FMRs, 17 FMR areas are calculated at the 50th percentile.

The only area using Small Area FMRs is the Dallas, TX HUD Metro FMR Area; the Small Area FMR Demonstration project with five Public Housing Agency (PHA) participants concludes on September 30, 2016. These PHAs may request a waiver of HUD’s existing payment standard regulations to continue to use Small Area FMRs in FY 2017.

Section 8(c)(1) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 requires the Secretary of HUD to publish FMRs periodically, but not less than annually, to be effective on October 1 of each year. The tables, documentation system, a copy of the preamble, and additional information related to the FY 2017 FMRs are available from HUD User at www.huduser.gov/datasets/fmr.html.

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