By Eric Curl
Oct. 18, 2022 – Anyone feel like they are paying too much in rent? Now you can flash HUD’s new Fair Market Rents in your landlord’s face. (Admittedly, it probably won’t help.)
HUD, otherwise known as the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, recently used private sector data to determine new Fair Market Rents (FMR), which are used used in several federal housing programs, including housing vouchers and how much they will cover.
Nationally, HUD found that the FMR went up 10 percent, compared to the 2022 fiscal-year rate. In the Savannah Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Bryan, Chatham, and Effingham counties, the FMR increased more than 17 percent for apartments ranging from efficiencies to 4-bedroom units. (The rents also apply to rental rates for single-family homes, duplexes and multi-family dwelling units that that are not just traditional apartments.)
While reflective of the growing unaffordability of rent throughout Savannah and the nation, HUD’s new rates are actually meant to enable more people with housing vouchers to access affordable and stable housing by keeping up with the rent increases in the private market.
The federal FMRs do have a local impact. In Savannah, Director Alison Goldey recently presented the new FMRs to the Chatham County-Savannah Land Bank Authority, which uses the FMRs when considering the sale of property for affordable housing. The Housing Authority of Savannah also uses HUDs fair market rent guidelines when calculating housing subsidies.
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