2026 Section 8 Investing Dataset

Metro-level dataset behind the 2026 State of Section 8 Investing report. Covers 2,622 HUD Fair Market Rent areas (metros, HUD metro subdivisions, and nonmetro counties) and 334,764,647 people. Zillow price coverage, used for the ranked FMR-to-price tables, exists for 370 of those areas.

JSON

Full structured dataset with metadata, national summary, and 2,000+ metros.

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CSV

Flattened one-row-per-metro CSV for spreadsheet use.

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License

This dataset carries a split license by field origin. HUD-derived fields (Fair Market Rents, voucher counts, voucher utilization) are US federal government work and are public domain. Zillow-derived fields (home value, market rent) are used under Zillow's terms and require the credit "Data Provided by Zillow Group" wherever they are displayed or redistributed. DoorVault's own analysis fields (FMR-to-price ratio, rent-to-price ratio, voucher yield proxy, regulatory climate tier) are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). There is no single blanket license covering every column; check the CSV column reference below for which rule applies to a given field.

Attribution

When using this dataset, please credit:

2026 State of Section 8 Investing dataset by DoorVault.
HUD-derived fields: public domain.
Home value and market rent fields: Data Provided by Zillow Group.
DoorVault's own analysis fields: CC BY 4.0.
https://doorvault.app/reports/2026-state-of-section-8/

Data sources

HUD FY2026 Final Fair Market Rents (published October 2025, effective October 1, 2025), including the revisions for seven areas effective May 21, 2026 (Federal Register 2026-07741), public domain (huduser.gov)
Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), all homes including condos, smoothed and seasonally adjusted, through March 31, 2026. ZHVI is an estimated typical home value, not a transaction median. Data Provided by Zillow Group (zillow.com/research/data)
Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI), all homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted, through March 31, 2026. Data Provided by Zillow Group (zillow.com/research/data)
HUD Picture of Subsidized Households HCV CBSA extract, public domain (huduser.gov)
Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates 2020 to 2024 for population

CSV column reference

metro_slug Stable join key derived from city + state
hud_area_name HUD's official metro name including suffix
geography_type Metro, HUD metro subdivision, or nonmetro county
primary_state 2-letter state abbreviation for the metro's primary state
states Pipe-separated list of every state the metro spans
population_2023 2023 ACS estimate, sum of county populations
fmr_br_0..fmr_br_4 Fair Market Rent by bedroom count, USD/month. Public domain
zhvi_home_value_all_homes Zillow Home Value Index, all homes including condos, USD.
An index value, not a transaction median. Data Provided by Zillow Group
zori_rent_index_all_homes Zillow Observed Rent Index, all homes, USD/month.
Data Provided by Zillow Group
fmr_to_price_ratio (fmr_br_2 * 12 / zhvi_home_value_all_homes) * 100. DoorVault analysis, CC BY 4.0
rent_to_price (zori_rent_index_all_homes * 12 / zhvi_home_value_all_homes) * 100. DoorVault analysis, CC BY 4.0
voucher_yield_proxy_pct (fmr_br_2 * 12 * 0.55 / zhvi_home_value_all_homes) * 100, an illustrative
yield proxy assuming 45 percent operating expenses. Not a cap rate.
DoorVault analysis, CC BY 4.0
voucher_count Total HCV units authorized in the area. Public domain
voucher_utilization_pct Percent of authorized HCV units occupied. Public domain
voucher_data_status Data coverage flag for the voucher fields (e.g. reported, not_available,
suppressed). Check this before trusting a blank or zero voucher figure;
a blank voucher_count does not necessarily mean zero vouchers, it can mean
HUD did not publish PIC data for that area in the current extract.