There was a post "crackhead pricing" about how advertised rent was all over the board and the amount that the landlords here are getting.

I would like to propose that everyone here look up "Fair Market Rent" for their area. We pay our government to do research--and one of the things they do is to look at what true rental rates are in each area of the country. Google "HUD FMR" click on your state- then click on your county --presto you have numbers that represent FMR by size....only takes about 2-3 minutes of your time. Larger metro areas are done by zip code.

Please report back with how close it represents YOUR rent--are you above, below, or near it?

I try and keep mine close to it-- some are above, some are below.

One thing it has done is to make me aware that I do need to raise rent and not leave "money on the table"

FMR doesn't exist. Maybe for apartments where you can get pretty close in design and size. But not for all the other types of housing out there...

A 3-bed 2-bath can range from luxury to run-down in the same neighborhood here, from a trailer to a modular to a new-built home.

Google says one of my 1-room 256 sf studios should rent for $$$$$ because it's in a neighborhood of large homes.

Here is what I got:

Studio: $1340.00

1 Bedroom: $1350.0

2 Bedrooms: $1540.0

3 Bedrooms: $2140.0

4 Bedrooms: $2550.0

That took into account my county and the Virginia Beach area, too. Wildly different. My county is 99% rural, no large apartments. Virginia Beach is military...

The beach area is even more wrong.

Studio: $1160.00

1 Bedroom: $1350.00

2 Bedrooms: $1500.00

3 Bedrooms: $1990.00

4 Bedrooms: $2040.00

I looked at mine as well. I sort of use it as a guide but at the same time you have to look at the varying properties (location, size (actual size not necessarily how many bedrooms it has), and is it a single family house or an apartment (or condo, townhouse, etc). They don't take any of that into consideration it seems. I just rented a 4 bed 2 bath house in a "not so great area" for $1,400 and the county didn't bat an eye at it (but if it was a 3 bed they would have said no way). Yet, next year that price is jumping up by $250 "per the FMR" they are issuing.

It's also interesting to see the increase from 2024 to 2025. I think the "efficiency" price they are stating and the one bedroom price is way off as well.

No such thing as fair market rent in a city. The best you can do for a city is find a range, and even then it's going to likely be too broad for pricing a unit.

Example: in my town a 2 bedroom unit ranges from $695 up to $1,600 depending on where it is / what school district, what sorts of amenities are offered, if any utilities are included, how recently updated and trendy it is, etc.

The easiest and most useful process I've found is to set up a search criteria on Zillow for 2 bed room units in the zip codes where my units are located. That gets me a range of prices from $650 - $900. Much tighter, though still too much of a range to just randomly price anywhere in there. I must exercise discernment when choosing which units are truly most comparable.

HUD FMR does include apartments as well as SFH. You have to remember that it may be an apple to peach comparison....

Your SFH may have lots more space in sq ft, have a garage, etc which should demand a higher price.

I have 2 large homes (4 & 5 bedroom) that I get well above what they say. It is just a starting point that is overall well researched from what I can see. They get a lot of the numbers from renting Section 8 and looking at advertised rentals.

And everything for HUD is based on #bedrooms. No mention of finishes (slum, basic, luxury) or amenities like a garage, or area/neighborhood, or square footage, or anything else at all.

It says right on the opening page that those are the figures they use for HUD housing and other government housing programs

They are way low for my area. They adjust upward pretty substantially for next year and those rents are still a couple hundred dollars too low for this year.

Like Scott said the HUD FMR includes landlord paying all utilities. In my area you have to subtract about $200 for a 2 bedroom house from the FMR if you are not including utilities. 3 bedroom houses subtract about $235.

If it does include utilities I am more in line than I thought.

At least on my 2/1 apartments where I pay water and they pay electric.

But the places that the tenant pays it all are still way off and not to my good.

I use the FMR data sheet to show that my rental rates are where they belong.

The last unit I marketed, the 50% data has rental rates at $948 for a 3 BR and $1,199 at the 65% level.

I have a variety of upgrades on my units like Upgraded side by side frig with French doors in stainless steel. I include sewer, water and trash all for $1,099. I expect this to be on the market less than two weeks even if this is in a seasonal resort area.