About the data

Every figure in Aeonis Rent Check comes from free, public U.S. government data. Here's what each one means and how we handle it.

HUD Small Area Fair Market Rents (FY2027)

HUD publishes Fair Market Rents (FMRs) each year for use in the Housing Choice Voucher program and other programs. An FMR estimates the cost of a modest rental unit, including utilities, generally set at the 40th percentile of gross rents for standard-quality rental units. Small Area FMRs (SAFMRs) break metro areas down by ZIP code. FY2027 figures took effect October 1, 2026; we show FY2026 alongside for comparison. Source: HUD USER, Small Area FMRs.

County and metro Fair Market Rents

Outside metro areas, and as a reference inside them, we show the area-wide FMR for the HUD area containing the ZIP code's main county. A few counties in New England are split into several HUD areas; we flag those. Source: HUD USER, Fair Market Rents.

Payment standards

Housing authorities set voucher payment standards, usually between 90% and 110% of the FMR (sometimes outside it, with HUD approval). We show that 90–110% band as the typical range. It is not your housing authority's actual standard; ask them for that.

Census rent estimates (ACS 2020–2024)

The U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey 5-year estimates give, for each ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA): median gross rent overall and by bedroom count (tables B25064 and B25031), the distribution of gross rents (B25063) and renter households (B25003). Gross rent is contract rent plus utilities and fuels paid by the renter. The Census reports medians of $3,500 or more as “$3,500+”, and leaves out figures when too few homes were sampled. Every estimate has a margin of error (90% confidence), which we show. Because the survey pools five years, these figures trail today's asking rents.

Percentiles

“Higher than about X% of renters” is our estimate, interpolated within the Census rent bands for the ZIP code. It covers all unit sizes and only homes that pay cash rent.

ZIP codes, ZCTAs and counties

Census data is published for ZCTAs, which closely approximate ZIP codes. We assign each ZIP code to the county with the largest land overlap using the Census 2020 ZCTA-to-county relationship file. Place names come from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) and may differ from the name the Postal Service uses. PO box and business-only ZIP codes may have no data.

Updates

We reload HUD figures when HUD publishes new or revised FMRs, and Census figures when a new 5-year release comes out. The year of every figure is shown on each result.

Not affiliated

Aeonis Rent Check is an independent product of AEONIS LLC. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by HUD, the Census Bureau or any housing authority. Questions or corrections: ronald@aeonis.pro.