Methodology

RentIndex uses Fair Market Rent (FMR) data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). FMR represents the 40th percentile of gross rents for typical, non-substandard rental units in a given area.

Data Source

HUD publishes FMR data annually for every county and metro area. We fetch this data via the HUD FMR API.

Affordability

Rent burden is calculated as annual 2-bedroom FMR divided by area median income. HUD considers households spending more than 30% of income on rent to be "cost burdened."