2026 Section 8 Investing Dataset

Metro-level dataset behind the 2026 State of Section 8 Investing report. Covers 2,622 HUD-defined metros and 334,764,647 people. Free to use under CC-BY 4.0 with attribution to DoorVault.

JSON

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

Download JSON

CSV

Flattened one-row-per-metro CSV with 16 columns for spreadsheet use.

Download CSV

API access

The same dataset is available without authentication at:

GET https://app.doorvault.app/api/reports/section-8-2026/data
GET https://app.doorvault.app/api/reports/section-8-2026/data?format=csv

License

This dataset is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY 4.0). You may copy, redistribute, transform, and build on this material commercially or otherwise, provided you give appropriate credit.

Attribution

When using this dataset, please credit:

2026 State of Section 8 Investing dataset by DoorVault, licensed CC-BY 4.0.
https://doorvault.app/reports/2026-state-of-section-8/

Data sources

HUD FY2026 Fair Market Rents, public domain (huduser.gov)
Zillow Home Value Index, metro-level latest month, attribution required (zillow.com/research/data)
Zillow Observed Rent Index, metro-level latest month, attribution required (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
state                   2-letter state abbreviation
population_2023         2023 ACS estimate, sum of county populations
fmr_br_0..fmr_br_4      Fair Market Rent by bedroom count, USD/month
median_sfh_price        Zillow ZHVI single-family home price, USD
median_rent             Zillow ZORI market rent, USD/month
fmr_to_price_ratio      (fmr_br_2 * 12 / median_sfh_price) * 100
rent_to_price           (median_rent * 12 / median_sfh_price) * 100
cap_rate_proxy          rent_to_price * 0.5 (50% expense rule)
voucher_count           Total HCV units authorized in CBSA
voucher_utilization_pct Percent of HCV units occupied