New Map: Oregon FY 2012 Zip Code FMR's vs. Actual FY 2012 FMR's.

HUD continues to advance the idea of small area (zip code) level rents to supplement/replace the county or Metro wide FMR's now in use.  For example, a recent HUD MF notice to multifamily project based Section 8 owners HERE said that in the future HUD plans that " all rent comparability studies will be required to justify proposed rents that exceed 110% of Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMR)."  

I am generally aware that FMR limits are sometimes used for CDBG and HOME programs, so broader HUD use of small area rents could conceivably also impact those programs in the future.

I recently discovered that HUD has posted an Excel file of nationwide FY 2012 Small Area/Zip Code rents HERE. (Important NOTE: Small Area/Zip Code FMR's at least for now are ONLY contemplated for use in Metro areas. In the voucher program Small Area FMR's have been limited as a demonstration to ONLY those areas where a housing authority has volunteered to use them).

I extracted Oregon FY 2012 Small Area rents and prepared an alpha PDF listing by county and zip code HERE showing the comparison of the actual 2 BR FMR for FY 2012 to the HUD published 2 BR FY 2012 small area/zip code rent. 

I count 121 Oregon zip codes where small area rents would be below actual FY 2012 FMR's and 130 zip codes where small area rents would be above actual FY 2012 FMR's.

I then uploaded and merged the FMR comparison data into Google Fusion and created the embedded map below that illustrates how the FY 2012 small area rent would compare to the HUD FY 2012 FMR.

The caption showing the colors used for different % is pasted below [Bright green signifies zip code rents are 120% or more of actual FMR's and dark red indicates zip codes rents are 90% or less of actual FMR's].

A link to the merged data and the map is HERE and the map is embedded below (You can drag the map up/down/sideways to see areas in Oregon outside of the Portland metro area; you can zoom in; and, if you click on a zip code, a box will open with the data for that zip code).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.