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RentalAnalytics is built on public datasets first. Private/estimated sources are clearly labeled at every touchpoint.
Published annually by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Targets the 40th-percentile gross rent; used to administer Section 8 voucher programs. Shown on the Rent Estimator as the labeled 40th / voucher number. not the hero “market” figure. Current product vintage is FY2026 (effective 2025-10-01). The 15-metro sample uses the revised county-level metro FMR workbook. The Fort Wayne, IN HUD Metro FMR Area uses the revised Small Area FMR workbook (ZIP-level), including ZIP 46835.
Source: huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr.html
License: U.S. Public Domain
Update frequency: Annual (October)
Section 8 pages use the full FY2026 revised county workbook and the revised Small Area FMR workbook, plus the HUD-USPS ZIP Crosswalk for 2021 Q4 (the latest quarter HUD still serves without a login). Designated Small Area FMR metros come from HUD's August 2024 area list. The extract is /assets/data/hud-fmr-full.json. Voucher-premium pages subtract ACS median gross rent from the FY2026 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent in that file. The 100 metro dashboards weight those county rents by July 1, 2025 population. The 15-metro chart and market tools still read /assets/data/markets.json.
A separate HUD series of median (50th-percentile) gross rents by FMR area and county. HUD states these are not Fair Market Rents. This is the primary lift for the estimator hero: ZIP FMR/SAFMR × (area 50th ÷ area 40th). Area/county only. there is no ZIP 50th file. Fort Wayne’s 50th and metro-wide 40th come from the official FY2026 workbooks.
Source: huduser.gov/portal/datasets/50per.html · FY2026 Data by Area xlsx
License: U.S. Public Domain
Update frequency: Annual
Sample file: /assets/data/hud-50th-sample.json
Weekly average 30-year fixed mortgage rate. The DSCR and amortization calculators use the latest observation in /assets/data/rates.json as the editable default rate. Current file observation is 7.40% as of 2026-10-08, retrieved 2026-10-09.
Source: fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MORTGAGE30US · freddiemac.com/pmms
License: Freddie Mac PMMS, republished by FRED
Update frequency: Weekly
Sample file: /assets/data/rates.json
Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index, shelter component. We use this as the macro anchor for "aging" HUD FMR values from publication date to today.
Source: data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SAH1
License: U.S. Public Domain
Update frequency: Monthly
ACS 2024 5-year table B25031 is median gross rent by bedrooms at ZCTA, the estimator's second anchor, shown with the Census margin of error. It is an occupied-unit median, not asking rent. County voucher-premium pages use the same table for every county, and fall back to B25064 when the 2-bedroom median is missing. Metro dashboards use the metropolitan statistical area rows. The rent-growth and vacancy tools still use the labeled 15-metro sample.
Source: data.census.gov table B25031 · census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/ · census.gov/housing/hvs/
License: U.S. Public Domain
Update frequency: ACS 5-year annual; HVS quarterly
Files: /assets/data/acs-b25031-sample.json, /assets/data/acs-b25031-counties.json, /assets/data/voucher-premium.json
The 100 metro dashboards are the metropolitan statistical areas with the largest POPESTIMATE2025 in the Census Bureau Vintage 2025 estimates, as of July 1, 2025. Housing units authorized in 2025 come from the Building Permits Survey annual CBSA file, survey date 202599. Units are the sum of 1-unit, 2-unit, 3-and-4-unit, and 5-or-more-unit units. Valuation is the published value in thousands of dollars. The extract is /assets/data/metros.json.
Source: cbsa-est2025-alldata.csv · census.gov/construction/bps/ · cbsa2025a.txt
License: U.S. Public Domain
As of: population 2025-07-01, permits 2025, retrieved 2026-10-09
File: /assets/data/metros.json
ACS 2024 5-year median gross rent (B25064), median home value (B25077), and renter median household income (B25119) for the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and counties. Gross rent yield is median rent times 12 divided by median home value. Rent-to-income is median rent times 12 divided by the renter median household income. Margins of error on those medians are the published ACS margins. The ZIP lookup assigns a Census 2020 ZCTA to the county with the largest land area in the ZCTA-county relationship file.
Source: B25064 · B25077 · B25119 · 2020 ZCTA-county relationship
License: U.S. Public Domain
Files: /assets/data/gross-yield.json, /assets/data/rent-to-income.json, /assets/data/zip-county.json
Section 8 income limits effective May 1, 2026. County pages show the 4-person Very Low (50%) limit, the 4-person Low (80%) limit, and the HUD area median family income. When town rows inside a county publish different figures, each town row is listed.
Source: huduser.gov/portal/datasets/il.html · Section8-FY26.xlsx
License: U.S. Public Domain
Update frequency: Annual
The Zillow Observed Rent Index. A widely-cited monthly typical-rent series (about the 35th-65th percentile of listed rents, stock-weighted). ZIP files are all-homes dollars, not bedroom rents. We do not assign a ZORI ZIP all-homes dollar to a 0-4BR estimate. Metro asking-rent change was reviewed as a possible aging overlay and omitted from the hero where it is not clean across covered metros.
Source: zillow.com/research/data/ (CSV on files.zillowstatic.com/research/public_csvs/zori/)
Note: Research files only.
Monthly metro-level rent change index. Used in blended rent-growth and vacancy estimates.
Source: apartmentlist.com/research/national-rent-data
Semiannual institutional cap-rate ranges by property type and market tier. Used to derive the benchmark bands in our cap-rate calculator.
Source: cbre.com/insights/figures/us-cap-rate-survey
/assets/data/cap-rate-benchmarks.json). by metro tier and property type, derived from the CBRE survey and NCREIF tiers./assets/data/regulations.json). top 20 U.S. cities, reviewed annually. Plain-English summaries only./assets/data/markets.json). 15 prebuilt metros with HUD-anchored rent, estimated vacancy, YoY growth, and average cap rate./assets/data/metros.json): the 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas by July 1, 2025 population, with HUD Fair Market Rent, ACS rent, value, and income, and 2025 building permits./assets/data/voucher-premium.json): FY2026 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent minus ACS 2024 5-year median gross rent, with the ACS margin of error./assets/data/acs-b25031-counties.json): 2024 5-year median gross rent by bedroom for counties./assets/data/hud-50th-sample.json). FY2026 area 50th and official area 40th for metros already on the FMR sample./assets/data/acs-b25031-sample.json). 2024 5-year median gross rent by bedroom for sample ZCTAs, with MOE.All curated datasets are versioned and visible in this repository's sitemap. We accept corrections at data@rentalanalytics.com.