Report: Rents used for limits in federal housing program swing across region

The benchmark for tents used in housing programs are headed in opposite directions across the region, according to a report release last week from Housing Stability IQ.

The firm took a look at fair market rents in the metropolitan statistical areas from Tampa south to Naples and saw an uneven landscape. Not just locally.

The data is based on HUD Fair Market Rents, which “are gross-rent benchmarks for defined areas," Housing Stability writes.

“They are not current advertised rents, individual household payments or local housing-authority payment standards,” the report adds. 

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development says fair market rent is an estimate of gross rent, when both rent and the cost of necessary utilities are taken into account.

HUD, in a summary of the program on its website, says fair market rents play different roles in housing certificate and voucher programs while setting limits in both.

In the certificate program, the fair market rent figure sets limits on what a household can rent, prohibiting the rental of units with a gross rent higher than the FMR.

In the voucher program, households receive a subsidy equal to the difference between the fair market rent and 30% of their monthly incomes. Participants in the voucher program can live in units with gross rents that are higher than the FMR but have to pay the cost between the rent and fair market rent plus 30% of their income.

That said, the findings show that the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota benchmark saw an 11.7% monthly increase, to $2,188, and Naples-Marco Island saw the benchmark go up 2.5%, to $2,036.

Meanwhile the Cape Coral-Fort Myers benchmark fell 6.4% to $1,835 and the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater benchmark fell 3% to $1,917.