What are Small Area Fair Market Rents?
Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs) are the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) calculation of fair market rents by zip code. Traditionally, HUD set one fair market rent (FMR) for a large geographic region, resulting in a subsidy level that often does not match local rents. HUD’s use of large geographic areas to set FMRs made it harder for families to rent outside low-rent neighborhoods.
SAFMRs are intended to capture more granular discrepancies in rent across neighborhoods and therefore more accurately reflect market rents. SAFMRs allow voucher families to move to higher rent, lower poverty neighborhoods, giving voucher holders access to communities that are more likely to have quality jobs, lower crime rates, and high performing schools – communities that voucher families would be unable to afford if the PHA applied regular FMRs.
What areas are required to use SAFMRs?
In 2018, PHA’s within 24 regions were required to implement SAFMRs. On October 25, 2023, HUD announced that 41 new regions would be subject to SAFMRs and all PHAs within the region must adopt them. With this expansion, 45% of families in the Housing Choice Voucher program will be covered by the SAFMR rule. HUD’s expansion notice included an implementation date of October 1, 2024, and PHAs operating in the new jurisdictions will have until January 1, 2025 to implement SAFMR-based payment standards. The regions that must use SAFMRs are below.
Mandatory Areas – 2024
- Akron, OH MSA
- Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC HUD Metro FMR Area
- Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX MSA
- Birmingham-Hoover, AL HUD Metro FMR Area
- Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, NY MSA
- Charleston-North Charleston, SC MSA
- Chattanooga, TN-GA MSA
- Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN HUD Metro FMR Area
- Cleveland-Elyria, OH MSA
- Columbus, OH HUD Metro FMR Area
- Dayton-Kettering, OH MSA
- Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA HUD Metro FMR Area
- Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI HUD Metro FMR Area
- Fort Wayne, IN MSA
- Greensboro-High Point, NC HUD Metro FMR Area
- Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA MSA
- Indianapolis-Carmel, IN HUD Metro FMR Area
- Jersey City, NJ HUD Metro FMR Area
- Kansas City, MO-KS HUD Metro FMR Area
- Knoxville, TN HUD Metro FMR Area
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA HUD Metro FMR Area
- Louisville, KY-IN HUD Metro FMR Area
- Memphis, TN-MS-AR HUD Metro FMR Area
- Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL HUD Metro FMR Area
- Mobile, AL HUD Metro FMR Area Montgomery, AL MSA
- Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN HUD Metro FMR Area
- Oklahoma City, OK HUD Metro FMR Area
- Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA HUD Metro FMR Area
- Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL MSA
- Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA MSA
- Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ MSA
- Raleigh, NC MSA
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA HUD Metro FMR Area
- Seattle-Bellevue, WA HUD Metro FMR Area
- St. Louis, MO-IL HUD Metro FMR Area
- Tucson, AZ MSA Tulsa, OK HUD Metro FMR Area
- Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC HUD Metro FMR Area
- Wichita, KS HUD Metro FMR Area
- Winston-Salem, NC HUD Metro FMR Area
