Small Area FMRs – What Will They Mean for Landlords?
The Small Area Fair Market Rent (SAFMR) program may have many effects on the subsidized housing landlords. One of the desired outcomes may be that lower income tenants will have the opportunity to move to housing in higher cost neighborhoods. However, another effect may be that landlords in lower cost neighborhoods will see a loss of income and become reluctant to rent to Housing Choice Voucher tenants.
Each year, HUD calculates and publishes Fair Market Rents (FMRs). The FMRs are the basis for determining payments made to landlords on behalf of lower income tenants for a variety of programs, primarily the Housing Choice Voucher. FMRs are set for an area, most often a county or metropolitan area, and represent the amount that would have to be paid for housing (including rent plus utilities) for privately owned, decent and safe rental housing with suitable amenities within the area. The FMR is set so that most housing within the area, excluding luxury units, would be affordable to a tenant holding a Housing Choice Voucher.
However, because counties can be very large and diverse, especially in densely developed metropolitan areas, there are some neighborhoods where the FMR is much too low to allow Voucher holding tenants to rent, and in other neighborhoods, the FMR is more than the surrounding submarket rents. In order to try to adjust the FMR system to these market areas, HUD has developed the Small Area FMR (SAFMR), publishing applicable rents for the Housing Choice Voucher (HCA) and Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy programs on October 5, 2012. Read more