Original research · HUD FMR + Census ACS
US State Fair Market Rent Distribution and Homeownership 2026
PlainRent ranks all 50 US states by population-weighted county FMRs and contextualizes the ranking against state-level homeownership and median income. Updated automatically when the source is refreshed.
- 2,433
- Highest-FMR state - Hawaii
- 1,175
- National county avg 2BR
- 51
- States ranked
Research period:
Research question
How do US states rank by average county-level 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent in HUD's fiscal year 2026 dataset, and how does that ranking compare against the state's homeownership rate and median household income?
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 + Census ACS Homeownership publishes a new vintage.
Coverage and exclusions: states 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.
US State Fair Market Rent Distribution and Homeownership 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.
| # | State | Abbr | Avg 2-BR FMR | Median income | Homeownership rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | HI | 2433.2 | 98317 | 62.6% |
| 2 | Massachusetts | MA | 2261 | 101341 | 62.6% |
| 3 | New Jersey | NJ | 2131.5238095238096 | 101050 | 63.7% |
| 4 | California | CA | 2053.189655172414 | 96334 | 55.8% |
| 5 | Connecticut | CT | 1954.6666666666667 | 93760 | 66.2% |
| 6 | New Hampshire | NH | 1894.3 | 95628 | 72.5% |
| 7 | Rhode Island | RI | 1729 | 86372 | 63.3% |
| 8 | Maryland | MD | 1657 | 101652 | 67.5% |
| 9 | New York | NY | 1579.0806451612902 | 84578 | 54.3% |
| 10 | Delaware | DE | 1559.6666666666667 | 82855 | 72.3% |
Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD Fair Market Rents FY2026 + Census ACS Homeownership. Updated automatically when the source publishes a new vintage. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD Fair Market Rents FY2026 + Census ACS Homeownership. Updated automatically when the source publishes a new vintage.
Findings
Top entity in the ranking
The top-ranked record in this dataset is Hawaii, with a value of 2433.2 on the Avg 2-BR FMR column. The full top-10 set is rendered in the table above. Every value comes directly from the current dataset; no number is hardcoded into this page. When the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development publishes a revision, the ranking and the prose around it update automatically.
Distribution shape
The gap between the top-ranked record (2433.2) and the 10th-ranked record (1559.6666666666667) 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 all 50 states, 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 + Census ACS Homeownership. 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
Averaging county-level FMRs to a state mean weights every county equally rather than weighting by renter population, a state with a few high-FMR coastal counties and many low-FMR rural counties shows a moderate average that does not reflect where most renters actually live. The homeownership rate reported on the state row uses Census Bureau definitions of owner-occupancy and includes second homes, manufactured homes, and other tenure variations. Median household income covers all households regardless of tenure, so the income figure includes both owner and renter households together. FMR is a regulatory benchmark for voucher payment standards, not a measured rent average, its 40th-percentile recent-mover construction means actual market rents typically exceed FMR by a margin that varies between metros. Year-over-year FMR shifts can reflect statistical methodology changes as well as underlying rent movement.
Secondary cut from the same source
Top 10 states by homeownership rate, context for rent-affordability discussion
Sources
- HUD User, Fair Market Rents Documentation System - https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr.html
- US Census Bureau, Housing Vacancies and Homeownership (CPS/HVS) - https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/
- US Census Bureau, American Community Survey Income Tables - https://www.census.gov/acs