Original research · HUD FMR
Top 10 Most Expensive US Counties by 2-Bedroom Fair Market Rent 2026
PlainRent ranks all 3,000+ US counties by HUD 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent for fiscal year 2026. Updated automatically when HUD publishes a new FY2026 vintage.
- 4,214
- Highest 2BR FMR/mo
- 1,175
- National county avg 2BR
- 3,145
- Counties ranked
Research period:
Research question
Across 3,000+ US counties in the HUD Fair Market Rent dataset for fiscal year 2026, which counties have the highest 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent, and how does the top of the distribution compare to the national county-level mean?
Methodology
Every figure on this page is pulled directly from the source dataset listed below, nothing is hardcoded, and the table updates automatically whenever HUD Fair Market Rents FY2026 publishes a new vintage.
Coverage and exclusions: counties with a missing or zero value for the ranked metric are excluded from this ranking rather than shown as zero. The source agency occasionally withholds a value for reasons of confidentiality, small sample size, or quality control; those records are left out by design. If the agency later revises a value, the revised figure appears here automatically the next time the data refreshes.
Comparability across vintages: the source agency periodically revises its release schedule, definitions, or coverage. When that happens we note it on the methodology page and recommend comparing like-with-like rather than across a changed vintage. Where this page references a fiscal year, that year follows the agency's own reporting period (federal fiscal year runs October through September for HUD program data).
A summary of the full population accompanies the top-10 ranking so readers can see how concentrated the top of the distribution is relative to the overall average.
Editorial governance: PlainRent maintains an editorial standards document covering how rankings are built, how outliers are handled, and how corrections are processed when an entity disputes a value attributed to it. A named editor reviews every ranking page before publication (see the byline at the top of this page). Corrections, takedowns, and clarifications can be requested through the contact channels in the portal footer.
Every number on this page traces back to the source agency's own published release, see the methodology page for the full source registry and update history, or follow the entity link in the table to verify a specific figure.
Top 10 Most Expensive US Counties by 2-Bedroom Fair Market Rent 2026
Live data, updated automatically when the source refreshes
The ranked top 10
The table below shows the top 10 results. It updates automatically whenever the source data refreshes.
| # | County | State | Studio FMR | 1-BR FMR | 2-BR FMR | 3-BR FMR | 4-BR FMR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santa Cruz County | CA | 3179 | 3298 | 4214 | 5377 | 5659 |
| 2 | Marin County | CA | 2485 | 2977 | 3604 | 4604 | 4772 |
| 3 | San Francisco County | CA | 2485 | 2977 | 3604 | 4604 | 4772 |
| 4 | San Mateo County | CA | 2485 | 2977 | 3604 | 4604 | 4772 |
| 5 | Santa Clara County | CA | 2621 | 2982 | 3483 | 4602 | 5010 |
| 6 | Orange County | CA | 2682 | 2746 | 3236 | 4393 | 5246 |
| 7 | Nantucket County | MA | 2409 | 2425 | 3138 | 4143 | 5260 |
| 8 | Santa Barbara County | CA | 2459 | 2746 | 3124 | 4075 | 4647 |
| 9 | San Diego County | CA | 2288 | 2459 | 3001 | 3998 | 4845 |
| 10 | Essex County | MA | 2359 | 2476 | 2941 | 3526 | 3894 |
Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD Fair Market Rents FY2026. Updated automatically when the source publishes a new vintage. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD Fair Market Rents FY2026. Updated automatically when the source publishes a new vintage.
Findings
Top entity in the ranking
The top-ranked record in this dataset is Santa Cruz County, with a value of 4214 on the 2-BR FMR column. The full top-10 set is rendered in the table above. When U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development publishes a revision, the ranking updates automatically.
Distribution shape
The gap between the top-ranked record (4214) and the 10th-ranked record (2941) characterizes how concentrated the top of the distribution is. Where the top value is many multiples of the median value of the visible set, the population is highly concentrated, a small number of entities accumulate the bulk of the measured quantity. Where the top and bottom of the visible set are close together, the distribution is relatively flat across the top end. The full distribution beyond this top-10 cut is summarized in the aggregate context section below and explored in the linked entity profiles.
Aggregate context
Across the full county population, this summary situates the top-10 ranking against the underlying data: how many qualifying records exist, and what the sum and mean look like across all of them. Records with a missing or zero value on the ranked metric are excluded, matching the ranking above.
Source provenance
The records in this ranking originate from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, specifically the HUD Fair Market Rents FY2026. PlainRent ingests the vintage published by the agency and keeps this ranking current automatically, there is no static export carrying stale numbers. The methodology page documents the source URL, the vintage date, and how the data is processed.
Why this ranking matters
Rankings like this one let a reader scan a population quickly and identify outliers, concentrations, and patterns that warrant deeper investigation. The detail pages linked from each entity in the table above give the full per-entity context: time-series history where available, related metrics from adjacent tables, and links onward to the underlying source records. The methodology page explains how an entity earns inclusion in the dataset and how the ranking column is computed at the source.
What this analysis cannot tell us
HUD Fair Market Rent is a regulatory benchmark used to set Section 8 voucher payment standards, not a measured rent average. FMRs are typically set at the 40th percentile of recent-mover rents within a defined rental market area, sometimes adjusted for state minimums. FMR values do not necessarily equal actual market rents, luxury submarkets within an FMR area may charge far above the FMR and subsidized housing may pay less. The fiscal year 2026 FMRs use 2024 American Community Survey rent data with a CPI-based recent-mover adjustment, so the underlying signal lags real conditions by 12-24 months. County-level FMRs apply across the entire county geography, even when within-county rent variation is large, a single FMR cannot capture the difference between a downtown core and an outlying tract.
Secondary cut from the same source
Top 10 counties by HUD studio (0-BR) Fair Market Rent, contrast with 2-BR pattern
Sources
- HUD User, Fair Market Rents Documentation System - https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr.html
- HUD, Section 8 Income Limits and FMR Program - https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/public_indian_housing/programs/hcv/about
- US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Rent Estimates - https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs