Definitions

Renter income categories

Calculated for renter households based on the ratio of the household’s income to the regional¹ median family income (MFI):

• Extremely low-income (ELI): A renter household for which household income was ≤30 percent of the regional MFI. Households reporting zero or negative income that paid more than the Fair Market Rent² for their unit during the survey year were reclassified as “not lower-income.”
• Very low-income (VLI): A renter household for which household income was >30 percent and ≤50 percent of the regional MFI.
• Low-income (LI): A renter household for which household income was >50 percent and ≤80 percent of the regional MFI.
• Not Low-Income: A renter household for which household income was >80 percent of the regional MFI.

Gross rent

Contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities such as electricity, gas, water, sewer, and fuel for heating the home.³

Cost burden

Calculated as the share of renter households for which gross rent was >30 percent of the monthly household income.

Severe cost burden

Calculated as the share of renter households for which gross rent was >50 percent of the monthly household income.

Affordable and Available Units

A unit is considered affordable if gross rent does not exceed 30 percent of the monthly household income at the given income threshold, adjusted for number of rooms (see Methodology for details). A unit is available if it is either vacant or currently occupied by a household at or below the given income threshold.

Surplus/deficit of affordable and available rental units

The surplus/deficit is calculated as the total number of rental units that were affordable and available at a given income level minus the total number of renter households at or below that corresponding income level.

Affordable and available units per 100 renter households

Calculated as the number of rental units that were affordable and available to households at or below a given income threshold per 100 households at or below that income level.

Federal Subsidy Categories

Federally subsidized affordable housing units are assigned into the following categories at the property level using information provided in the National Housing Preservation Database (NHPD):

• HUD Multifamily: includes properties in the Section 8, Section 202, Section 236, FHA, HOME, and Moderate Rehab programs.
• HUD Public Housing: includes properties owned and operated by Public Housing Authorities.
• LIHTC: includes properties subsidized through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program
• USDA: includes properties subsidized through the Rural Housing Section 515, Section 514, and Section 538 programs.

Many properties have layered subsidies from two or more categories (e.g., properties with Section 8 contracts that have been recapitalized using LIHTC). HUD Public Housing properties are always classified as HUD Public Housing, regardless of other associated subsidies. For other subsidy types, the program with the latest expiration date provided in the NHPD data set is used to classify the property.

Properties receiving only state or local subsidies are not included in these figures.

Expiring Subsidies

For HUD Multifamily, LIHTC, and USDA-assisted properties, expiration dates are assigned based on the latest subsidy end date provided at the property-level in the NHPD data set or, if this is missing, the latest end date provided for specified program.

HUD Public Housing properties are not assigned expiration dates, regardless of the expiration date dates attached to other layered subsidies.