Data Methodology & Sources

Where the Data Comes From

RentData does not survey landlords or scrape listing sites. Every figure traces back to a published government or industry dataset, so the numbers are reproducible and auditable:

• HUD Fair Market Rents (FMR) — Rent figures come from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's annual FMR dataset, which covers roughly 2,600 metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas. FMRs represent the 40th percentile of gross rents (rent plus tenant-paid utilities) for standard-quality units that have been on the market within the last two years. Because they are the 40th percentile — not the average — FMRs tend to sit slightly below the asking rents you see on listing sites, and reflect what a typical, non-luxury unit costs in each market.
• Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI) — Home prices come from Zillow's ZHVI, a smoothed, seasonally adjusted measure of the typical home value (35th–65th percentile range) for a given region. We use ZHVI rather than median sale price because it is less distorted by the mix of homes that happen to sell in a given month.
• US Census Bureau — American Community Survey (ACS) — Median household income and renter-occupancy share come from the ACS 5-year estimates, the Census Bureau's most statistically reliable small-area dataset.
• Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) — Where available, local unemployment rates come from the BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program.
• FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) — Violent and property crime rates, where shown, are normalized to incidents per 100,000 residents from agency-reported UCR data.

How Often the Data Updates

Our ingestion pipeline runs on a monthly schedule. Each source is refreshed on its own publication cadence: HUD FMRs are updated once per federal fiscal year (effective October 1), Zillow ZHVI refreshes monthly, ACS income estimates release annually, and BLS unemployment updates monthly with a short reporting lag. When a source has not yet published a newer figure, we retain the most recent available value and label it with its vintage year rather than showing a gap.

How We Match Cities Across Sources

Each dataset names places differently — HUD uses metro and county FMR areas, Zillow uses its own region definitions, and the Census uses places and metropolitan statistical areas. We join records by normalized city name and state abbreviation to produce a single unified profile per market. When sources disagree on geography (for example, a small city absorbed into a larger metro FMR area), the rent figure reflects the broader HUD area it belongs to. We note this so you understand why a small town may share the same FMR as its neighboring metro.

The Formulas We Use

Every derived metric on the site is calculated transparently from the stored source values. None of these are proprietary — you can reproduce them yourself:

• Rent burden = (monthly rent × 12) ÷ median household income. A result above 30% indicates a cost-burdened market under the long-standing federal affordability guideline.
• Income needed (30% rule) = (monthly rent × 12) ÷ 0.30. The annual income at which rent consumes exactly 30% of gross pay.
• Housing wage = income needed ÷ 2,080 working hours per year. The hourly wage a full-time worker needs to afford the unit without exceeding 30% of income.
• Price-to-rent ratio = median home value ÷ (annual 2-bedroom rent). A lower ratio favors buying; a higher ratio favors renting.
• Rent-vs-buy break-even compares monthly rent against the all-in monthly cost of ownership (mortgage principal & interest, property tax, insurance, and maintenance, assuming a conventional down payment at the prevailing 30-year fixed rate). These figures are estimates and clearly labeled as such.

Limitations & What This Data Is Not

Being honest about the limits matters more than implying false precision:

• FMRs are area-wide benchmarks, not live listing prices. Your actual rent for a specific apartment may be higher or lower depending on neighborhood, condition, and timing.
• ZHVI reflects typical home values, not what any individual property will sell for.
• Census income and crime figures carry sampling and reporting lags, so the most recent real-world conditions may differ from the latest published estimate.
• Derived metrics use standard simplifying assumptions and are intended for comparison and orientation — not as personalized financial, legal, or real-estate advice.

Glossary

• Gross rent — contract rent plus the cost of tenant-paid utilities.
• 40th percentile — the value below which 40% of observations fall; HUD's chosen benchmark for a "modest" market-rate unit.
• Cost-burdened — spending more than 30% of gross income on housing; "severely cost-burdened" means more than 50%.
• Seasonally adjusted — statistically corrected to remove predictable within-year swings so trends are comparable month to month.

Found an Error?

We are an independent project with no affiliation with HUD, Zillow, the US Census Bureau, the BLS, or the FBI. If a figure looks wrong or out of date, tell us via the contact page and we will trace it back to the source. You can read more about the project on our About page.