How does the rent finder work?

Pick a bedroom count (studio through 4-bedroom) and a maximum monthly budget. The finder lists every US county whose HUD Fair Market Rent for that bedroom size falls at or below your budget, sorted from cheapest to most expensive, using FY 2026 HUD data.

What data source is used?

All figures come from HUD Fair Market Rents (FMR), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s official 40th-percentile gross-rent estimates used to set Section 8 voucher payment standards.

HUD FY2026 · Budget tool

Rent Finder: counties within your budget

Set a bedroom count and a maximum monthly rent. We'll list every US county where HUD's Fair Market Rent fits, cheapest first.

Compiled byPlainRent Editorial, Fair Market Rent Editorial Team

51
States + DC: 5
Bedroom sizes: FY2026
HUD data

Real HUD rent data

FY2026 HUD Fair Market Rents for every US county, by bedroom size, the 40th-percentile gross rent HUD uses to set Section 8 payment standards.

Budget-first matching

Enter what you can afford and see every county that fits, ranked from the cheapest match upward, not a generic "top cities" list.

Drill into any county

Every match links to the county's full FMR profile, all five bedroom sizes, year-over-year change, and affordability context.

How the rent finder works

Choose a bedroom size and a monthly budget, and the finder queries HUD's FY2026 Fair Market Rents for every US county, returning those at or below your limit, sorted from the most affordable upward. Fair Market Rent is the 40th-percentile gross rent (rent plus tenant-paid utilities) for standard units in a market, the figure HUD uses to calibrate Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) payment standards. Use it to scope where your budget actually reaches before you start a housing search, then open any county for the full bedroom-by-bedroom breakdown. See our methodology for sourcing.