HUD's Fiscal Year 2025 Fair Market Rents took effect October 1, 2024 and ran through September 30, 2025, with a national average increase of about 4% over FY2024. Whether that number was generous or stingy depended entirely on where you lived. In 2025, the two-bedroom FMR sat roughly 19% below typical asking rent in the New York metro and 17% below in Chicago, while running 18% above asking rent in Austin and 20% above in Seattle-Bellevue. This guide puts the published FY2025 FMR next to what apartments actually rented for, city by city and state by state, and explains why the two numbers diverge.
FMR and Market Rent Are Measuring Different Things
Before comparing any two numbers, it helps to know that they are not built the same way.
| HUD Fair Market Rent (FY2025) | Market asking rent (2025) |
|---|
| What it measures | 40th percentile gross rent for standard-quality units | Typical rent on units listed for lease |
| Includes utilities? | Yes, gross rent includes tenant-paid utilities | No, usually contract rent only |
| Who is counted | Recent movers, all standard-quality rentals | New listings only |
| Data source | 2018 to 2022 ACS 5-year data, aged forward with CPI rent and trend factors | Live listing and lease data |
| How current | Base survey data 2 to 6 years old at publication | Current month |
| Geography | Metro FMR area or nonmetro county, ZIP code in SAFMR areas | Whole metro statistical area |
Two consequences follow. First, FMR is a gross rent. If a tenant pays their own electric, gas, and water, the utility allowance comes out of the FMR before any rent is approved, so a published $1,800 FMR might support only $1,600 in contract rent. That means an FMR sitting 10% above the local asking rent is closer to break-even than it looks.
Second, FMR lags. FY2025 FMRs were built on 2018 to 2022 ACS data, adjusted forward with inflation factors. In markets where rents surged after 2022, FMR trails reality. In markets where rents peaked in 2022 and then fell, FMR can overshoot.
Fair Market Rent by City 2025 vs Actual Rent
The table below pairs the FY2025 two-bedroom FMR for each HUD metro FMR area with the average 2025 Zillow Observed Rent Index for the corresponding metro, which tracks typical asking rent across all unit types. The gap column shows how far the FMR sat above or below that market figure.
| Metro | FY2025 2BR FMR | 2025 avg asking rent | FMR vs market |
|---|
| New York, NY | $2,780 | $3,423 | -19% |
| Chicago, IL | $1,761 | $2,113 | -17% |
| Cleveland, OH | $1,208 | $1,412 | -14% |
| Miami, FL | $2,329 | $2,641 | -12% |
| St. Louis, MO | $1,215 | $1,384 | -12% |
| Los Angeles, CA | $2,625 | $2,891 | -9% |
| Houston, TX | $1,529 | $1,649 | -7% |
| Detroit, MI | $1,378 | $1,473 | -6% |
| Washington, DC | $2,314 | $2,423 | -4% |
| Philadelphia, PA | $1,802 | $1,853 | -3% |
| Tampa, FL | $1,978 | $2,018 | -2% |
| Columbus, OH | $1,445 | $1,478 | -2% |
| Atlanta, GA | $1,830 | $1,810 | +1% |
| Las Vegas, NV | $1,750 | $1,733 | +1% |
| Minneapolis, MN | $1,685 | $1,653 | +2% |
| San Antonio, TX | $1,501 | $1,438 | +4% |
| Baltimore, MD | $1,965 | $1,891 | +4% |
| Charlotte, NC | $1,824 | $1,733 | +5% |
| San Francisco, CA | $3,318 | $3,051 | +9% |
| Denver, CO | $2,140 | $1,919 | +12% |
| Portland, OR | $1,997 | $1,784 | +12% |
| Phoenix, AZ | $1,950 | $1,719 | +13% |
| Dallas, TX | $1,884 | $1,655 | +14% |
| Austin, TX | $1,949 | $1,648 | +18% |
| Seattle, WA | $2,671 | $2,220 | +20% |
A geography note: HUD metro FMR areas and Census metro areas do not always cover the same counties. The New York HUD metro FMR area covers the five boroughs plus Putnam, Rockland, and Westchester, while the Zillow figure covers the wider New York-Newark-Jersey City region. The Los Angeles FMR area is Los Angeles County only. Treat the gap column as a direction and rough magnitude, not a precise dollar difference.
What the Pattern Shows
The metros where FMR fell short in 2025 were mostly dense, supply-constrained, older-housing markets: New York, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, Cleveland, St. Louis. Rents in these places kept climbing after the 2022 ACS window that anchored FY2025 FMRs.
The metros where FMR ran ahead of market were the ones that overbuilt during the pandemic boom and then saw asking rents flatten or fall. Austin asking rents dropped about 3.3% year over year in 2025, Denver fell about 1.6%, and Phoenix and San Antonio were both slightly negative. FMR, built on older data and aged forward with an inflation assumption, kept rising while the actual market went the other way.
New York is the clearest case of the lag being corrected in real time. The originally published FY2025 FMR for the New York area was $2,580 for a two-bedroom, which would have been a cut from FY2024. After New York City ran its own local rent survey in December 2024, HUD published revised FY2025 FMRs effective April 28, 2025: $2,406 for a studio, $2,511 for one bedroom, $2,780 for two bedrooms, $3,465 for three bedrooms, and $3,738 for four bedrooms.
Fair Market Rent by State 2025
State-level FMR numbers are averages across every FMR area in that state, including rural counties, so they run well below what a renter would pay in the state's largest city. Use them for orientation, not for a specific apartment.
| State | Studio | 1BR | 2BR | 3BR |
|---|
| Alabama | $703 | $758 | $924 | $1,196 |
| Alaska | $1,058 | $1,170 | $1,461 | $1,936 |
| Arizona | $1,055 | $1,163 | $1,431 | $1,918 |
| Arkansas | $674 | $716 | $901 | $1,184 |
| California | $1,429 | $1,565 | $1,955 | $2,626 |
| Colorado | $1,062 | $1,137 | $1,408 | $1,835 |
| Connecticut | $1,208 | $1,392 | $1,732 | $2,147 |
| Delaware | $1,192 | $1,253 | $1,564 | $2,005 |
| District of Columbia | $2,012 | $2,056 | $2,314 | $2,893 |
| Florida | $1,134 | $1,216 | $1,446 | $1,879 |
| Georgia | $932 | $972 | $1,151 | $1,465 |
| Hawaii | $1,630 | $1,684 | $2,201 | $2,941 |
| Idaho | $836 | $908 | $1,127 | $1,565 |
| Illinois | $736 | $814 | $1,015 | $1,315 |
| Indiana | $764 | $836 | $1,042 | $1,327 |
| Iowa | $693 | $746 | $938 | $1,215 |
| Kansas | $674 | $735 | $928 | $1,200 |
| Kentucky | $705 | $776 | $969 | $1,259 |
| Louisiana | $799 | $867 | $1,054 | $1,357 |
| Maine | $893 | $958 | $1,206 | $1,571 |
| Maryland | $1,354 | $1,445 | $1,716 | $2,214 |
| Massachusetts | $1,566 | $1,679 | $2,086 | $2,564 |
| Michigan | $755 | $837 | $1,046 | $1,338 |
| Minnesota | $775 | $862 | $1,081 | $1,432 |
| Mississippi | $796 | $828 | $995 | $1,267 |
| Missouri | $691 | $730 | $918 | $1,200 |
| Montana | $814 | $889 | $1,116 | $1,488 |
| Nebraska | $653 | $741 | $938 | $1,191 |
| Nevada | $983 | $1,080 | $1,360 | $1,864 |
| New Hampshire | $1,131 | $1,212 | $1,575 | $2,041 |
| New Jersey | $1,466 | $1,627 | $1,973 | $2,476 |
| New Mexico | $755 | $853 | $1,039 | $1,389 |
| New York | $1,130 | $1,219 | $1,465 | $1,837 |
| North Carolina | $927 | $969 | $1,158 | $1,501 |
| North Dakota | $776 | $798 | $967 | $1,300 |
| Ohio | $747 | $807 | $1,014 | $1,290 |
| Oklahoma | $715 | $763 | $962 | $1,250 |
| Oregon | $994 | $1,090 | $1,356 | $1,879 |
| Pennsylvania | $854 | $942 | $1,158 | $1,482 |
| Rhode Island | $1,270 | $1,344 | $1,656 | $2,023 |
| South Carolina | $919 | $969 | $1,150 | $1,458 |
| South Dakota | $638 | $729 | $920 | $1,215 |
| Tennessee | $887 | $925 | $1,120 | $1,447 |
| Texas | $857 | $905 | $1,109 | $1,447 |
| Utah | $874 | $977 | $1,187 | $1,586 |
| Vermont | $1,045 | $1,094 | $1,350 | $1,744 |
| Virginia | $1,117 | $1,151 | $1,345 | $1,758 |
| Washington | $1,060 | $1,157 | $1,441 | $1,971 |
| West Virginia | $697 | $754 | $927 | $1,215 |
| Wisconsin | $754 | $832 | $1,052 | $1,349 |
| Wyoming | $764 | $790 | $1,010 | $1,352 |
The spread inside a single state is often larger than the spread between states. New York's statewide average two-bedroom FMR was $1,465, while the New York metro FMR area was $2,780. Ohio's statewide average was $1,014, while Columbus was $1,445 and Cleveland-Elyria was $1,208. Always look up the specific county or ZIP code.
Why the Gap Matters for Voucher Holders
FMR is not what HUD pays. It is the benchmark a Public Housing Authority uses to set its payment standard, the maximum monthly subsidy for a household of a given size in a given area.
- PHAs may set payment standards anywhere from 90% to 110% of the published FMR without HUD approval, under 24 CFR 982.503.
- A PHA meeting certain criteria, such as a voucher success rate below 75% or more than 40% of assisted families paying over 30% of adjusted income toward rent, may go above 110% and up to 120% after notifying HUD.
- A PHA may set an exception payment standard up to 120% of FMR as a reasonable accommodation for a household including a person with a disability, without HUD approval. Anything higher requires HUD Headquarters approval.
So in a metro where the FMR sits 17% under market, a PHA at 110% of FMR roughly closes the gap on paper, and a PHA sitting at 100% leaves voucher holders searching a shrinking slice of the market. That is the practical difference between a voucher that gets used and one that expires unused.
Starting with FY2025, HUD required 41 additional metropolitan areas to use Small Area Fair Market Rents, which set the benchmark by ZIP code rather than for the whole metro. In SAFMR areas the metro-wide number in the table above is nearly meaningless. A high-rent ZIP gets a higher standard and a low-rent ZIP gets a lower one, which is the whole point: it lets voucher holders reach neighborhoods that a single metro-wide number priced them out of.
How to Look Up the FMR for Your Own City
- Go to the HUD User FMR lookup at huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr.html.
- Select the fiscal year. FY2025 covers October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025. FY2026 took effect October 1, 2025 and is the current standard.
- Enter your county or metro area, or use the ZIP code search if your area uses Small Area FMRs.
- Read across to your bedroom size. The number shown is a gross rent, including tenant-paid utilities.
- Call your local PHA and ask for its payment standard and its utility allowance schedule. Those two numbers, not the published FMR, determine what you can actually rent.
Where Things Stand Now
FY2025 FMRs expired September 30, 2025. FY2026 FMRs, effective October 1, 2025, rose by a national weighted average of about 2.8%, with a much larger simple average increase of roughly 6.9% across all FMR areas because smaller and nonmetro areas rose faster than the big expensive metros. HUD issued a revision covering seven areas in April 2026. FY2027 FMRs are expected around August 2026, effective October 1, 2026, and our Section 8 Fair Market Rent 2027 projections walks through what the data points to.
Market rent, meanwhile, has been close to flat. National typical asking rent was about $1,962 in July 2026, up roughly 2.3% from $1,918 a year earlier. When market rent growth and FMR growth are both running near 2% to 3%, the existing gaps in each metro tend to persist rather than close.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the FY2025 Fair Market Rent increase nationally?
HUD published FY2025 FMRs on August 14, 2024, effective October 1, 2024, with an average increase of about 4% over FY2024. Metro areas averaged about a 5.2% increase and nonmetro areas about 3.2%. This followed several years of double-digit increases.
Is Fair Market Rent the same as average rent?
No. Fair Market Rent is the 40th percentile of gross rents for standard-quality units among recent movers, meaning 40% of comparable units rent for less. Average or median asking rent is a different measure on a different population, and it excludes utilities. FMR is generally designed to land below the market average.
Does Fair Market Rent include utilities?
Yes. FMR is a gross rent covering shelter plus tenant-paid utilities other than telephone, cable, and internet. If the tenant pays for heat, electricity, or water, the PHA subtracts a utility allowance, so the maximum approvable contract rent is lower than the published FMR.
Why is my city's Fair Market Rent lower than any apartment I can find?
FMR is built on American Community Survey data that is several years old at publication, then projected forward with inflation factors. In markets where rents rose faster than that projection, the published FMR trails current listings. It also reflects the 40th percentile, not the middle or top of the market, and covers older standard-quality units, not new construction.
Can a housing authority approve rent above the Fair Market Rent?
Yes. PHAs routinely set payment standards between 90% and 110% of FMR, and can go up to 120% under specific circumstances, including as a reasonable accommodation for a household member with a disability. Separately, the unit must pass a rent reasonableness test comparing it to similar unassisted units nearby.
Which cities had FMR above actual market rent in 2025?
Seattle-Bellevue, Austin, Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, and Portland all had FY2025 two-bedroom FMRs running roughly 12% to 20% above typical asking rent, largely because asking rents in those markets flattened or fell after 2022 while FMR kept rising on lagged data. Note that FMR includes utilities, so part of that apparent surplus is absorbed by the utility allowance.
What is a Small Area Fair Market Rent?
A Small Area FMR sets the rent benchmark by ZIP code rather than for an entire metro area. HUD required 41 additional metros to adopt SAFMRs starting in FY2025. The goal is to let voucher holders afford units in higher-opportunity neighborhoods that a single metro-wide FMR would price out.
