HUD Cut Section 8 Rent Limits in 33 of the 91 Largest Metros for 2026. Here Is Every One.

Every October HUD publishes new Fair Market Rents, the figures that housing authorities use to set what a Section 8 voucher can pay. The FY2026 numbers took effect October 1, 2025, and for a third of large metros they went the wrong direction for tenants. We pulled the 2-bedroom FMR for FY2025 and FY2026 from HUD's API for the 100 largest metro areas; 91 came back with both years. The 2-bedroom figure fell in 33 of them and rose in 58. The median change across all 91 was +2.2%.

The cuts cluster in the Sun Belt and the Southeast, the same places where market rents cooled through 2024 and 2025 after the pandemic run-up. The largest increases are in smaller Midwestern and Northeastern metros where rents kept climbing.

The 33 Metros Where the 2-Bedroom FMR Fell

HUD limits how far an FMR can drop in one year, which is why the top of this list lands at exactly 10%. The "ZIPs down" column applies to metros where HUD publishes ZIP-level Small Area FMRs; for the rest, one metro-wide figure applies everywhere.

Tennessee is the standout: all four of its large metros (Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga) fell. Every Colorado and Louisiana metro on the list fell too. Texas split three and three, Florida three down and five up, and California had one cut (Riverside) against seven increases.

In the metros that use ZIP-level standards, the cuts were close to universal. In Charlotte, 122 of 128 ZIP codes lost ground; in Memphis, 103 of 105; in Phoenix, 220 of 225. That matters because ZIP-level standards were sold as the tool that lets a voucher reach better neighborhoods. When nearly every ZIP drops at once, the whole ladder shifts down.

Where Limits Rose the Most

None of the 15 biggest gainers is a coastal supermetro. They are mid-sized metros where a 2-bedroom FMR still sits between $1,100 and $2,100, and where rents rose after the big markets had already peaked. For a landlord in Dayton or Indianapolis, the approvable rent on the same unit is $190 to $200 a month higher than it was a year ago.

Why an FMR Falls

HUD's FMR is a formula, not a policy choice. It starts from Census survey rents, applies a recent-mover adjustment, then trends the number forward using private rent indexes and a forecast. When market rents in a metro flatten or dip for a year, the formula follows, with a lag. The 2024 and 2025 softening in Austin, Phoenix, Nashville, Charlotte and New Orleans is what you are seeing in the FY2026 figures. The same lag means metros where rents kept rising, mostly smaller ones, are still catching up.

Two guardrails soften the swings. HUD does not let an FMR fall more than 10% in a single year, and housing authorities set their payment standard anywhere from 90% to 110% of the FMR, so an authority that was at 100% can absorb a 5% cut by moving to 105% without changing anyone's rent.

What a Cut Means If You Hold a Voucher

• Nothing changes mid-lease. Your housing assistance payment is fixed for the term of the lease. A lower FMR does not reduce it.
• The lower standard reaches you at recertification, with a delay. Under HUD's rules, when a housing authority lowers its payment standard, the new number does not apply to a family already in place until that family's second annual reexamination after the change. That is usually a year or more of runway.
• New leases feel it immediately. If you are shopping now in Charlotte or Phoenix, the ceiling is lower than the number a landlord may remember from last year's inspection. Ask your authority for its current payment standard by ZIP before you tour.
• Your share does not move with the FMR. You still pay roughly 30% of adjusted income. The cut changes what the voucher can cover, not what you owe.

What a Cut Means If You Own Rentals

• Rent increase requests get harder in the 33 metros above. The authority tests any increase against the payment standard and against comparable unassisted rents. A unit that fit at $1,950 in Phoenix last year has $111 less headroom now.
• The metros that rose are where voucher tenants got more competitive. In Indianapolis, Dayton, Greensboro, Buffalo and Hartford, the approvable rent jumped double digits while market rents moved far less. If you have declined voucher applicants there on price, the math changed this year.
• ZIP-level metros reward looking at the map. Even in Washington, DC, where the metro figure fell 2.9%, 69 of 481 ZIP codes went up. The ZIP-by-ZIP numbers are on our metro pages, for example Charlotte, Phoenix, Nashville, Memphis, Indianapolis and Dayton.

How We Built This

Both years' figures come from HUD's public FMR API, pulled September 2026, for the 100 largest metros by population. Nine metros (including New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Miami and San Francisco) are split into sub-areas HUD reports separately and are excluded from the counts here; their sub-area figures appear on their individual pages. Changes are for the 2-bedroom figure, which is the size most voucher households hold. The ZIP counts compare only ZIP codes HUD published in both years. The source dataset is HUD's Fair Market Rents page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did Section 8 payment standards go down in 2026? The HUD Fair Market Rents that payment standards are based on fell in 33 of the 91 largest metros we checked, by as much as 10% (Boise) and as little as 0.1% (Tampa, Salt Lake City, Birmingham, El Paso). Whether your own payment standard fell depends on your housing authority, which can set it anywhere from 90% to 110% of the FMR.

If the FMR dropped, will my voucher pay less right away? No. The subsidy on your current lease is fixed for its term, and a lower payment standard does not apply to a family already housed until its second annual reexamination after the change.

Which metros had the biggest increases for 2026? Fayetteville, AR (+21.2%), Dayton, OH (+18.2%), Greensboro, NC (+15.7%), Madison, WI (+15.1%) and Indianapolis, IN (+14.8%).

Why do several metros show exactly -10.0%? HUD caps annual decreases at 10%. Boise's formula result would have been lower; the cap held it there. The same cap shows up at the ZIP level in Memphis, Phoenix, Knoxville, Louisville, Jacksonville and Washington, where the steepest single-ZIP cuts are all exactly 10%.

Where can I see the numbers for my metro? Every large metro has a page in our Section 8 by city guide, with ZIP-level tables where HUD publishes them, plus a state overview such as Tennessee or Arkansas.

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Holding a voucher and shopping now? Browse voucher-friendly listings from landlords who already take them.

Landlord in a metro where limits rose? List your property free. The approvable rent is higher than it was a year ago.