Inside the same metro, a 2-bedroom rent standard can vary by $470 a month

HUD publishes a separate Fair Market Rent for every metro ZIP code. Comparing them inside each of 247 metro areas shows how unevenly a voucher stretches without ever leaving the metro — and how much rides on whether a housing authority uses one area-wide number or ZIP-level ones.

What this measures — and what it does not

Three things are worth stating plainly before any number below is read.

• A higher payment standard is not more money. It raises the ceiling on the rent a voucher can cover. A household's own payment stays at roughly 30% of adjusted income either way (24 CFR 982.505). A higher standard buys access to a more expensive unit — not a bigger check.
• These are ceilings a PHA may adopt, not standards it has adopted. Housing authorities set payment standards within 90–110% of the applicable FMR and may group ZIP codes under a single standard, so real-world dispersion is generally narrower than the published file implies. HUD's own evaluation found average per-unit payment standards at SAFMR housing authorities fell about 2% in real terms between 2010 and 2017.
• These are shares of ZIP codes, not of households. Neither HUD file carries ZIP-level renter counts, so nothing here is renter-weighted. Expensive suburban ZIP codes tend to be numerous and small, so the share of actual rental housing above a metro-wide ceiling is probably lower than the share of ZIP codes. This is the biggest limitation on the page.

The headline, and how hard we pushed on it

Across the 247 HUD metro FMR areas carrying at least 20 ZIP codes, 4,271 of 17,348 ZIP codes (24.6%) have a 2-bedroom Small Area FMR above 110% of their own metro's median ZIP. Where a housing authority sets one standard for the whole metro, those ZIP codes sit above the highest ceiling that basic policy reaches. The share barely moves as the ZIP-count threshold is tightened:

• at least 20 ZIP codes — 24.6% (4,271 of 17,348, 247 areas) — the published figure
• at least 30 ZIP codes — 25.2% (3,979 of 15,789, 183 areas)
• at least 50 ZIP codes — 26.1% (3,387 of 12,962, 109 areas)

The obvious counterpoint, stated up front: a housing authority that adopts a 120% exception payment standard reaches most of that gap. At 120% the share above the ceiling falls from 24.6% to 13.4% on the same basis. And in the 65 areas here where HUD requires ZIP-level SAFMRs, there is no single metro-wide ceiling to sit above at all.

The spread, in dollars

In the typical metro area the 90th-percentile ZIP code's 2-bedroom standard runs 1.37× the 10th-percentile ZIP's — a difference of about $470 a month, or $5,640 a year, between two neighborhoods in the same metro. The gap is widest in the largest metros:

Widest and flattest metro areas

Ranked by the ratio of the 90th- to the 10th-percentile ZIP code, using linear-interpolated percentiles (the numpy and R default). The convention matters: a floor-index convention reorders the top of this list. The p75/p25 column is shown alongside because a p90/p10 ratio in a small area can be pinned by a single boundary ZIP code.

Two notes on reading that list. Several entries described as "metros" are single-county HUD Metro FMR Areas rather than metros in the everyday sense — HUD's area definitions are their own. And where a ratio is marked boundary-pinned, the 90th or 10th percentile lands exactly on the area's highest or lowest ZIP code, so one ZIP is carrying the number; the p75/p25 column in the full table is the steadier read.

All 247 metro areas

Click or press a column header to sort, or filter by name. Each area links to a full ZIP-code breakdown. Areas badged SAFMR required are the 65 here where HUD mandates ZIP-level payment standards.

Download CSV Download JSON Free to reuse — HUD data is public domain. A link back to Section8HQ is appreciated.

<a href="https://section8hq.com/voucher-spread/">Intra-Metro Voucher Spread (FY2026) — Section8HQ</a>

Methodology & limitations

Every figure is computed from HUD's FY2026 Small Area Fair Market Rent file (HUD Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs)), the revised edition, a U.S. Government work in the public domain. ZIP codes are grouped by HUD FMR area code; areas with a non-metro code, and metro areas with fewer than 20 ZIP codes, are excluded, leaving 247 areas and 17,348 ZIP codes. Percentiles use linear interpolation between order statistics. "Above 110%" compares a ZIP's own 2-bedroom SAFMR against 1.10× its area's median ZIP SAFMR; the area median sits at the published area-wide FMR almost exactly, so the two bases agree to within 0.1 percentage point on the headline.

Limitations worth weighing, in rough order of how much they matter:

• ZIP-weighted, not renter-weighted — as above, the single biggest caveat.
• The 20-ZIP threshold does real work. The median dollar gap is about $320 with no threshold and about $640 at a 50-ZIP threshold. Areas with a handful of ZIP codes cannot show meaningful dispersion, which is why they are excluded — but the choice is a choice, and the full distribution is in the download.
• "Metro" means HUD FMR area, not CBSA. HUD splits some metros into sub-areas, so Dallas and Fort Worth are separate rows, as are New York and Bergen–Passaic. Grouping to true CBSAs instead moves the median ratio by less than a hundredth.
• Vintage. FY2026 rents rest on 2019–2023 American Community Survey data trended forward, not current asking rents.
• HUD's own floors and caps compress the measure. SAFMRs are subject to a cap relative to the metro FMR and a floor relative to the prior year, so measured dispersion is a conservative, downward-biased estimate of true rent dispersion in the most expensive metros. Some ZIP codes also inherit their parent area's figure and therefore show no dispersion at all.
• Published SAFMRs are an upper bound on adopted policy — see the note at the top about the 90–110% band and ZIP grouping.

Prior work

The definitive evaluation of what ZIP-level payment standards actually do is Dastrup, Finkel, Burnett and de Sousa, Small Area Fair Market Rent Demonstration Evaluation: Final Report (HUD Office of Policy Development and Research / Abt Associates, August 2018). Its central finding is worth carrying into any reading of this page: SAFMRs are redistributive rather than simply expansionary. They raise standards in higher-rent ZIP codes and lower them in cheaper ones; tenant contributions rose more in low-rent ZIP codes than in high-rent ones; and whether the number of affordable units rose or fell differed by metro. Wide internal dispersion is therefore not automatically a good thing or a bad thing — it is a description of a metro's rent geography, and what a housing authority does with it is a policy choice.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Small Area Fair Market Rent?

A Small Area Fair Market Rent (SAFMR) is HUD's rent estimate for a single ZIP code, rather than for a whole metro area. HUD publishes SAFMRs for every metro ZIP code, and they are the basis for voucher payment standards in the 65 metro areas where HUD requires their use. Elsewhere a housing authority may still adopt them, and may set ZIP-level exception payment standards of up to 110% of a ZIP's published SAFMR.

Does a higher payment standard mean I get more money?

No. A higher payment standard does not increase the assistance a household receives; it raises the ceiling on the rent a voucher can cover. Your total tenant payment is roughly 30% of adjusted monthly income and does not change when the standard rises (24 CFR 982.505). In practice a higher standard buys access to a more expensive unit at about the same cost to the tenant — it is not a larger payment to you.

Which metro areas are required to use ZIP-level payment standards?

65 HUD metro FMR areas. One (Dallas) was designated in 2011 under HUD's original demonstration, 23 were designated in 2016 and took effect 2018-04-01, and 41 more were designated in 2023 and took effect 2025-01-01. Designation is permanent. Of the 247 areas on this page, 65 are designated — each is badged "SAFMR required" in the table. In those areas no ZIP code is capped by a single metro-wide standard.

Can my housing authority pay more than the published SAFMR?

Often, yes. Under 24 CFR 982.503 a PHA may set a payment standard anywhere from 90% to 110% of the applicable FMR without HUD approval, and may go to 120% on notice to HUD if it meets certain criteria; above that requires HUD approval. A separate reasonable-accommodation provision allows up to 120% for a household with a disability. PHAs in areas where SAFMRs are not mandatory may also adopt ZIP-level exception payment standards up to 110% of that ZIP's published SAFMR.

Are these current market rents?

No. FY2026 Fair Market Rents are built from American Community Survey data for 2019–2023, trended forward — they are an administrative estimate with a deliberate lag, not a snapshot of today's asking rents. Comparing them against a current listings index will show a gap for that reason alone.

Why does this measure ZIP codes rather than households?

Because the published HUD files do not contain ZIP-level renter counts, every share on this page is a share of ZIP codes, not of rental housing or of households. This is a real limitation: expensive suburban ZIP codes tend to be numerous and small, so the share of actual rental units above a metro-wide ceiling is probably lower than the share of ZIP codes. Read these figures as a description of a metro's rent geography, not as a count of affected families.

Look up a specific ZIP code → See all 2,622 areas ranked by 2 BR rent level →