Editorial Policy & Data Standards
How RentData turns public housing datasets into useful, reproducible analysis.
Primary Sources First
Rent figures come from HUD Fair Market Rent releases; income and renter statistics from the US Census Bureau; labor data from BLS; and home values from Zillow Research. We identify the source and source year on data pages. We do not present listing-site asking rents as HUD data.
Source Values vs. Estimates
Published source values are kept separate from calculations. Affordability uses the common 30% gross-income guideline. Rent-vs-buy results depend on disclosed assumptions for rates, taxes, insurance, maintenance, and down payment. These outputs are estimates, not financial, legal, or real-estate advice.
Review and Update Cadence
Automated ingestion checks required fields and preserves source release years. Editorial reports are reviewed for calculation consistency, source attribution, working links, and clear separation between facts and interpretation. HUD schedules update annually; Zillow typically publishes monthly; Census and BLS follow their own release calendars.
Corrections
If a city, source year, or calculation appears wrong, send the page URL and supporting source to contact@urentdata.com or use our contact page. We verify reports against the original dataset and correct confirmed errors in the next data run or sooner when the error materially changes the page.
Editorial Independence
Advertising does not determine rankings, calculations, city coverage, or editorial conclusions. RentData is independent and is not affiliated with HUD, Zillow, the Census Bureau, BLS, landlords, brokerages, or mortgage providers. Commercial relationships, if introduced, will be disclosed where they appear.