Program Overview
According to (Fair Market Rents | HUD USER), Fair Market Rents (FMRs) are used to calculate payment standard amounts for the Housing Choice Voucher program, initial renewal rents for some expiring project-based Section 8 contracts, initial rents for housing assistance payment (HAP) contracts in the Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy program (Mod Rehab), rent ceilings for rental units in both the HOME Investment Partnerships program and the Emergency Solution Grants program, and rent ceilings for rental units in both the HOME Investment Partnerships program and the Emergency Solution Grant.
Furthermore, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) calculates FMRs for metropolitan areas defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), some HUD-designated subdivisions of OMB metropolitan areas, and each non-metropolitan county on an annual basis.
FMRs must be posted at least 30 days before they go into effect, and they must go into force at the beginning of the federal fiscal year (usually October 1). Fair Market Rentals are estimates of the 40th percentile gross rents for standard quality units within a metropolitan region or non-metropolitan county, as described in 24 CFR 888.113.
Examples
These are basic examples to show you how to query the Fair Market Rents API. Before looking at the examples I RECOMMEND first looking at the parameters as well as return data located at the bottom of the page.
Disclaimer: The output tables are too large to be displayed here so we choose to leave them out.
Querying a county or cbsa code that are considered small areas will return data at a zip code level. If they are not small areas, then it will give a singular measurement for that entire county or cbsa.
Lets say we are working with county level data – when mixing them together (counties that are small areas and not small areas) those counties that are not small areas will have an NA in the zip_code, meaning this measurement is defined at a county level. Those counties that are small areas will return zip code data in the zip_code field.
State Level Fair Market Rents
This is an example which shows you how to query the Fair Market Rents API for a state. You can use the state abbreviation, state name, or state fips code. It will return all counties in the state and their Fair Market Rents as well as all metroareas in the state and their Fair Market Rents.
# These functions gets FMR data for the state of Virginia in 2021.
hud_fmr(query = 'VA', year = '2021')
hud_fmr(query= "Virginia", year = '2021')
hud_fmr(query= "51", year = '2021')If you only need the county level data, then this might work better…
# These functions gets FMR data for the state of Virginia in 2021 for counties.
hud_fmr_state_counties(state = 'VA', year = '2021')
hud_fmr_state_counties(state = "Virginia", year = '2021')
hud_fmr_state_counties(state = "51", year = '2021')If you need just metro data…
# These functions gets FMR data for the state of Virginia in 2021 for metroareas.
hud_fmr_state_metroareas(state = 'VA', year = '2021')
hud_fmr_state_metroareas(state = "Virginia", year = '2021')
hud_fmr_state_metroareas(state = "51", year = '2021')County Level Fair Market Rents
This is an example which shows you how to query the Fair Market Rents on a county level basis. These are defined with a 2 digit state code + 3 digit county code. You also need a 99999 code added onto the end. I recommend taking a look at US Counties to determine what counties are available.
# Getting a county requires a 2 digit state fipscode + 3 digit county fipscode + 99999
hud_fmr(query = '0100199999', year = '2017')You can also choose to use:
# Getting a county requires a 2 digit state fipscode + 3 digit county fipscode + 99999
hud_fmr_county_zip(county = '0100199999', year = '2017')Small Areas Fair Market Rents
You can also choose to use:
# Getting a county requires a 2 digit state fipscode + 3 digit county fipscode + 99999
hud_fmr_metroarea_zip(metroarea = 'METRO47900M47900', year = '2017')Querying for Geographic Identifers
US Counties
This is an example to show you how to query for all counties in MD, Virginia, and California, respectively.
hud_state_counties("MD")
hud_state_counties("Virginia")
hud_state_counties("6")US Metropolitan Areas
This is an example to show you how to query for metropolitan areas in Wyoming and New York.
hud_state_metropolitan(c("WY", "NY"))Parameters
| Parameters | Description |
|---|---|
| query |
Can provide either a 10 digit FIPS code which is almost always state
fips + county fips + 99999, or state abbreviation. Can also provide a
CBSA code. You are only allowed to query for metropolitan areas.
Run hud_states() to get a list of counties. Run hud_metropolitan(“MD”) to get a list of metropolitan areas in MD. Run hud_counties(“MD”) to get list of counties in MD. * query = ‘METRO12700M12700’ * query = ‘MD’ * query = ‘5100199999’ |
| year |
Year range of the data to retrieve: defaults to the current year.
* year = c(2019, 2018, 2021) * year = c(2016) * year = 2021 |
| key |
The API key provided by HUD USER. * key = “wqokqo2138jdi13wfwwfwcytjyr” |
Returns
| Data Field | Description |
|---|---|
| query | Identifier for county, state, or cbsadiv depending on function |
| year | Year when measurement was taken. |
| county_name | Name of the county if it is a county. |
| counties_msa | Names of all counties belonging to the Metro Area if it is a Metro Area (MSA). |
| town_name | Town name - applicable for North East regions |
| metro_status | value will be “1” if it is a metropolitan county. Otherwise value will be “0”. |
| metro_name | Metro area name if metro_status is “1” |
| smallarea_status | value will be “1” if it is a small area. Otherwise value will be “0”. |
| Efficiency(A studio apartment) | Efficiency FMR in US Dollars |
| One-Bedroom | 1-bedroom FMR in US Dollars |
| Two-Bedroom | 2-bedroom FMR in US Dollars |
| Three-Bedroom | 3-bedroom FMR in US Dollars |
| Four-Bedroom | 4-bedroom FMR in US Dollars |